提高學習效率？澳洲學霸的4條鐵律
Talking amongst friends about how much you studied for your upcoming assessment can often spur a panic attack. If the number of hours which they studied for far exceeds yours, feelings of inadequacy can stir within, as you question how sufficient your preparation really was. If so and so studied for x number of hours more than me, that must obviously mean they studied better than me, right? Wrong. Study sessions that go beyond 7 hours more often than not point to a breach of the first cardinal rule of revising: take frequent breaks. Without breaks, the point where none of the content is actually sinking in will always arise. Sure, you may have been reading for 10 hours straight, but can you actually remember what you read 6 hours ago? In fact, psychologists now believe that the time that you spend between sessions is key to remembering that all-important information: the longer, the better!
跟小夥伴們交流複習進度常常會讓自己心慌。如果他們複習的時間遠比你多，你就會質疑自己的準備是否真的充分，從而產生焦慮感。如果誰誰比我多學了幾個小時，顯然一定意味着他們的知識掌握得比我到位，對嗎？非也。持續學習7小時以上通常違背了複習的首要原則：常休息。如果中途不休息，總會出現飽和期，期間你已無法再消化任何知識點。當然，你可能已經看書看了連續10小時，但你真的記得住你6小時前看的內容嗎？實際上，如今心理學家認爲，你花費在幾個學習時段間隙的時間對記憶所有重點知識很關鍵：時間越長越好！
Whether it be our iPhones, our tablets or PCs – we are all guilty of being glued to a digital device of some sort. In fact, there is a palpable emptiness that we feel with the absence of the ‘ting tings’ of our phones and the sounds of the TV making its way around the house. However, though this may prove to be the hardest thing to do, getting rid of all the technological distractions is definitely the most effective way of studying. Social media is a particular problem: a recent study has shown that belonging to a social network may increase stress by around 15%!
不管是我們的智能手機，平板還是電腦——我們都對自己沉迷於某種電子產品而心懷愧疚。實際上，如果我們的手機不響，屋裏的電視不開，我們總會產生明顯的空虛感。然而，儘管可能最難實現，但排除所有電子設備的干擾一定是學習效率最高的方式。社交媒體的干擾性最大：最近研究表明，如果使用社交網絡，人的壓力可能會增加15%左右。
The days leading up to an assessment are often extremely stressful. You might think that constant revision right up until your exam is the task that needs your utmost attention; however, there’s something far more important. Multiple sources quote 8 – 8.5 hours of sleep per night as the ideal number of sleep hours for adults. These hours are even more crucial when high levels of concentration are required of you. This is because sleep deprivation can seriously impair your sense of judgement and decrease your reaction times. Therefore, even though you may think that revising your notes from the break of dawn until the night sky is brightly lit is what needs to be prioritised, you should remember that you cannot function at your best without a good, balanced night’s sleep. This is a real problem beyond the sphere of exams: according to a study at Harvard University, sleep deprivation costs the American economy $63.2bn a year.
測評前的日子通常都是壓力山大的。你可能覺得考試前夕馬不停蹄地複習纔是王道；但其實有件事比這更重要。很多研究表明，成年人每晚理想的睡眠時間爲8至8.5小時。在你需要注意力高度集中的時候，這些充足的睡眠尤爲重要。因爲缺少睡眠會影響你的判斷力，減少你的反應時間。因此，即使你可能認爲從清晨到深夜全天候複習筆記是你的首要任務，你還是應該記住，如果沒有平衡好充足的睡眠，你就不可能找到最佳狀態。這是超出考試範疇的實際問題：根據哈佛大學的一項研究，缺少睡眠導致美國經濟每年損失632億美元。
The human brain is, by far, the most fascinating body part: the amount of information it can hold is truly amazing. However, this does not mean that it is an unlimited storage centre without any constraints. Though cramming information is very effective for some, feeding your brain too much information at the last minute can cause your brain – like a computer – to overheat, resulting in only parts of the content consolidating in your head. Some interesting stats for you: the human short-term memory can only hold between 7-9 facts, and even those typically tend to decay after 30 seconds. Even if you do manage to turn some of your last-minute cramming into more durable memories, your chances here don’t look great! Once you’ve got your exam/test date, you should be aiming to give yourself at least a month’s worth of revision in the run up. Remember to take breaks, give yourself plenty of sleep, and keep those phones tucked away!
人類的大腦是目前爲止最引人注目的身體部位：大腦可以容納的信息量着實驚人。然而，這並不意味着大腦就是個沒有制約條件、有無限容量的儲存中心。儘管填鴨式地吸收信息對有些人來說很有效，但是臨考前在你大腦中一下子塞太多信息可能會使你的大腦——跟電腦一樣——過熱，導致你只對某一部分知識點有印象。給你看一組有趣的數據：人類的短期記憶僅能支持7到9個事實，而就這幾個事實可能在30秒以後也會從記憶中消失。即使你成功地將最後關頭記憶的知識點轉化爲更長期的記憶，情況也不容樂觀！一旦你獲知了你的測試日期，你就應該給自己計劃一個月以上的複習時間。切記，複習期間常休息，有充足的睡眠，還有，收好你的手機！
