You hear the ringing of the bell; the test has started… You look down at the paper feeling confidence, as you spent many hours revising and studying this subject. All that confidence, however, disappears as soon as you open your eyes and glance at the first question. “Shoot, I didn’t study that,” you think. Then, you think: “Is it possible to study less and still get good grades? Is it proven that it works?” I answered all of these pressure-filled questions and turned to my favorite source of answers: science. There, I found many answers which indicated a better study pattern and a better understanding of studying and how to study.

According to an article in StanfordReport by deputy director of Social Science Communications Milenko Martinovich at Stanford University, the university conducted two such studies monitoring the success and the grades of students with and without the smart studying tools. The first study that was conducted in the university had two groups of students. One group had done a strategic resource use exercise which helped break down their upcoming test material and strategies ways to study. The second cohort was the control group and did not get the aid of the strategic resources. Martinovich stated: “In the first study, students scored an average of 3.45 percentage points higher in the class, and in the second study, the average difference was 4.65 percentage points.” This proves the theory that there is a possibility of studying smarter and not harder. According to these results by Stanford University and some results found by the National Library of Medicine: “When students reported better planning, monitoring and concentration as well as lower procrastination, less time was needed to achieve a high goal level compared to days on which they studied less strategically.” The National Library of Medicine also shares that the idea that long study hours will produce good grades is actually far from the truth. The National Library of Medicine actually mentions that unorganized study periods can lead to something called the Negative Effect.  According to the article: “[The] negative effect was particularly high when students studied for many hours with low concentration, and it was particularly low when students studied for only a few hours and procrastinated less.”

According to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, there are some ways that you can be this lazy genius. For starters, you have to have intense study sessions which mean that they may be short bursts of studying but when they are held they are with full concentration and zero distractions. Another fun way, according to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is “playing teacher:” you take your siblings, parents or friend and try to teach them the topics that you are studying. By teaching these people, you’ll review the basic concepts and in answering their questions may find some details that you failed to study. Now that it is a fact that being a lazy genius is possible, go out now, make your plan and go out and harness your inner lazy genius.

By Tvesha Patel ‘27, Science Editor

27tpatel@montroseschool.org