Make It Stick strategies to succeed in a college course

Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5
Week 6
Total Time Spent Studying (min)	156 min	205 min	103 min	115 min	186 min	135 min
Score on weekly quiz	93.5	97.5	88	86	89	85.5

Discussion
Firstly I used the generation strategy when I was working on my quizlet learn and quizlet flashcards. I found using this strategy was very effective during this time of studying because it really allowed me rratian the new information I was learning and stopped me from cheating myself out of learning. The quizlet application, Quizlet Learn, is super simple and nice since it does not allow you to look at the answer to the question until you've answered. The generation strategy was a little more difficult with the flashcard option on Quizlet since it allowed you to look at the answer before you answer. I mostly avoided this option, and in the long run it really helped me perform better. The other strategy that I used when I was using the Quizlet applications was the retrieval practice. Using this practice strategy allowed me to better perform on the flashcards for the newly learned information from the textbook. With the repetition of the Quizlet flashcard option, this strategy enhanced my performance on how fast I would get through the second and third time studying the set. I was originally going to use these two strategies through Quizlet every Monday, Thursday, and Sunday, but my scheduling soon began to shift. I found myself not needing to use that Sunday to study the set, since I felt that 100 minutes on the set was good enough for each week. Also, throughout the semester, I did not stick to the Monday and Thursday idea. I usually would pick days at random to study the quizlet, usually giving myself at least a day in between studying. This process gave me ideas on how I might do this differently in the future. For a future class, I would rather spend one weekday studying the Quizlet and one day on the weekend studying it. I feel this gives me more time to focus on other classes during the week, while also giving me plenty of time in between study sessions. With these additions to the study plan, I’m positively going to apply these techniques to a course next semester. The other two strategies, spaced and reflection, I mostly used in my course textbook, course assignments and quizzes. I used the spaced strategy when I was taking notes in my textbook and reading it. I found this effective because I would always find a day in the week to look over the reading and it was a very seamless process. I would usually look over the textbook following the weekly quiz on Wednesday, and after that I would give myself at least three days until I finished the textbook chapter readings. My original plan was to study the textbook every two days, but after a week of trying this, I found it ineffective. The course chapters were long enough to warrant three weekdays to read. But when I didn't understand a question on the quiz, I would look back at the part in the chapter that the question may be in. This is something I will incorporate in a class next semester since I think it has real value in the way that I learn. Using the reflection strategy was also very important in the way that I looked back on assignments and quizzes. I didn’t think I might be using this strategy as much as I did at the start of the semester, but it soon became the most valuable strategy for the course. When I would have questions on a possible problem on an assignment or quiz in the class, it really helped to think about the material learning and question why and how the problem is not evident. Finding the solution to a problem that I may have is important if the question may come up again, like a midterm or final exam.