What's the sound-track to your study life ?

Did you know that if you study a topic to your favourite music genre then your ability to recall that topic is doubled if you listen to the same music. The same is true if we study and try to recall information in the same room with the same view and the same smells wafting in from the kitchen. Psychologists call this reinstatement theory. We can all recall information more accurately if we reconstruct the environment with the same sights, sounds and smells that we learned the material in originally. Steven M Smith (Texas A&M Univeristy 1985) built on the work of D.R. Godden and A.D. Bradley and and proved with multiple controlled tests that we all perform better in exams or tests if we can immerse ourselves in the same senses when we were studying. Later tests went on to prove that if we learn the content in multiple environments to multiple sound tracks spread out over several days, then our recall rate will double, triple and often, quadruple. We recommend: 1.  Learn topics in short 10 minute bursts in multiple environments        - inside, outside, bus, train, river, canteen, etc 2.  Repeat topics in short 10 minute bursts in multiple environments        - inside, outside, bus, train, river, canteen, etc 3.  Repeat topics to multiple sound track genres       - eg. rock, pop, jazz, classical, house, road and even silence. 4.  Repeat topics every second or third day and mix it up       with lots of good sleep and good physical exercise. If you follow these counter-intuitive recommendations then your recall rate will double, triple and even quadruple for any given topic. Take advantage of these free streaming services or build your own playlists ... but don't forget to mix it up for each topic. N.B.  If your exam room insists on silence, then you must include silence as one of your repeat study sessions.