Psychological Research Relevant to Test Taking
Over the years I've come across some interesting research relevant to how people study and learn. Here are some brief summaries of some of what I've found, with links to the original research where available online.
Changing Answers on Tests
There is a ton of research which shows that people who change answers on tests tend to gain more points by doing so than they lose (that is, they are more likely to change wrong answers to right answers than vice versa). This runs contrary to the perceptions of most students that I know of; most students seem to believe that changing answers is usually bad. This misperception is unsurprising, as people are more likely to notice when they change good answers to bad and more likely to recall it later on. This doesn’t mean that you should change answers all the time, or randomly, but when you think your first answer is wrong, change it (don’t follow the advice “Stick with your first answer” unless you really think your first answer is right).
Self-control is like a muscle:
The authors argue (based on experimental research) that self-control is a limited resource. When it is used, to resist temptation, for example, or to cope with stress, less is available (temporarily) for other uses. In addition, "continuous self-control efforts" get worse over time -- that is, when one does something that continually requires self-control, they get worse at exerting that self-control the longer they do it.
Muraven, M. & Baumeister, R.F. "Self-Regulation and Depletion of Limited Resources: Does Self-Control Resemble a Muscle?" Psychological Bulletin, 2000, v.126, n.2, 247-259.
This research is very relevant to how one studies. First of all, it suggests that one should not try to study immediately or soon after doing something else that requires self-control or discipline (e.g. right after work or school). It also indicates that one ought not to study for tests in general when one is dieting, giving up smoking, for example. It also indicates that studying for long stretches is not as likely to be effective as studying for less time but more consistently. This is because when one studies for long stretches, one's self control diminishes over time, so the one will be less able to focus and maintain discipline after a while, whereas if one studies in smaller chunks but more consistently one will rest between studying sessions and will be more likely to have more discipline each time they sit down to study.
It also suggests that one ought to think of studying much they way they think of exercising (which I believe to be true for a variety of reasons). It's better to do it often but not to try to overwork one's self.
Reviewing Successes
One thing I've noticed in tutoring students is that they focus on the problems they got wrong way more than the problems they got right. This is natural but not ideal. Research shows that people who think about successful efforts (primarily why they succeeded) improve more than those who focus primarily on failures (i.e. missed problems).
Shmuel Ellis, Inbar Davidi, "After-Event Reviews: Drawing Lessons From Successful and Failed Experience," Journal of Applied Psychology, September 2005, Vol. 90, No. 5, p 857-871
Studying consists of three parts (see the Study Guide of my Logic Games book for more on this). The middle part is doing practice questions and the third part is reviewing those questions. When you review the questions you did, you want to spend some time on the questions you got right, reviewing why you got them right. This is especially important when you are first learning test taking skills; later on, when you are pretty solid on the test you can focus more on the mistakes you make, since you will be getting so many questions right you won't have time to review all of them (when you first start studying it's best to do fewer questions and spend more time reviewing all of them).