I will be one of the first people to admit that my study habits are most definitely not the most effective. I tend to get distracted fairly easily when I am trying to study for tests, so this makes it somewhat difficult to retain the information that I am trying to study. However, the times that I decide that I truly need to sit down and give my material my undivided attention, I make sure that I turn off most of my electronics to reduce any unnecessary distractions. Other times, I make sure that I put headphones in and either play music very softly or I may not even play music at all just so I can block out any loud noises that may be occurring outside. This would have to be one of the strongest parts of my studying, until something inevitably breaks my concentration
I would say one of the things that I do best whilst studying, is know the different terms that are important on the test because I make sure that I go through and re-read the notes that I have taken, and the material within the book. One of the things I struggle with is making sure that I do some of the practice problems or tests that are provided to help us study.
For the first test, I almost exclusively went back over the notes that I had taken. I had only briefly looked over the material outlined within the book, and I only took one of each practice test. For the next test, I would like to not only go back over the notes that I had taken previously, but I would also like to do more of the practice tests and also make sure that I read over the material within the book several times as well.
Noah'sPSY105blog 
My study habits are very similar to yours, where I get distracted easily when studying and get tired of studying after a long period of time. I have recently began to start studying for shorter bursts of time, rather than sitting down and studying all at once. I have found this to be more effective because then it gives me a break between studying, rather than studying for one long period of time.
I think that one of my strongest assets, when it comes to studying, would be learning main points of the topic before learning the other small parts that add to it because I find it much easier to get just a general idea of the topic before I completely dive into it and learn all of the small parts of the topic. I relate to your studying habits and I agree with what to do on the next test to do better because I need to do the same thing in order to do better on my next test. I had read mainly over the notes I had taken before the last test and next time I think I need to dive in more and learn more of the material before the exam. This was a great post!
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Thanks for sharing your techniques. I utilize similar ones as well. This unit explained how eliminating distractions increases the effectiveness of the writing, so it is great that you do that. In my situation, once I eliminate all distractions, I keep working without breaks. I am guilty of sitting at my desk for six hours straight while completing assignments. Perhaps we should practice interleaving. The brain needs time to rejuvenate and for the material to be processed. In this unit, we also found out that re-reading notes are not an effective way of studying. This method is extremely passive and gives a false sense of mastery. You should replace it with creating a concept map. I am also guilty of not utilizing practice problems. These practice problems allow us to apply what we learned in class, before it affects our grades. For definitions and processes, reversal is the best way to keep information in working memory, and practice problems allow us to do so. During the lecture, I liked the idea of making practice tests for members of a study group. This extra practice will help as we further our college career.
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