提高学习效率？切记4条铁律！

　　Not taking breaks

　　忌持续作战不休息

　　Talking amongst friends about how much you studied for your upcoming assessment can often spur a panic attack. If the number of hours which they studied for far exceeds yours, feelings of inadequacy can stir within, as you question how sufficient your preparation really was. If so and so studied for x number of hours more than me, that must obviously mean they studied better than me, right? Wrong. Study sessions that go beyond 7 hours more often than not point to a breach of the first cardinal rule of revising: take frequent breaks. Without breaks, the point where none of the content is actually sinking in will always arise. Sure, you may have been reading for 10 hours straight, but can you actually remember what you read 6 hours ago? In fact, psychologists now believe that the time that you spend between sessions is key to remembering that all-important information: the longer, the better!

　　跟小伙伴们交流复习进度常常会让自己心慌。如果他们复习的时间远比你多，你就会质疑自己的准备是否真的充分，从而产生焦虑感。如果谁谁比我多学了几个小时，显然一定意味着他们的知识掌握得比我到位，对吗？非也。持续学习7小时以上通常违背了复习的首要原则：常休息。如果中途不休息，总会出现饱和期，期间你已无法再消化任何知识点。当然，你可能已经看书看了连续10小时，但你真的记得住你6小时前看的内容吗？实际上，如今心理学家认为，你花费在几个学习时段间隙的时间对记忆所有重点知识很关键：时间越长越好！

　　Getting distracted too easily

　　忌轻易开小差

　　Whether it be our iPhones, our tablets or PCs – we are all guilty of being glued to a digital device of some sort. In fact, there is a palpable emptiness that we feel with the absence of the 'ting tings’ of our phones and the sounds of the TV making its way around the house. However, though this may prove to be the hardest thing to do, getting rid of all the technological distractions is definitely the most effective way of studying. Social media is a particular problem: a recent study has shown that belonging to a social network may increase stress by around 15%!

　　不管是我们的智能手机，平板还是电脑——我们都对自己沉迷于某种电子产品而心怀愧疚。实际上，如果我们的手机不响，屋里的电视不开，我们总会产生明显的空虚感。然而，尽管可能最难实现，但排除所有电子设备的干扰一定是学习效率最高的方式。社交媒体的干扰性最大：最近研究表明，如果使用社交网络，人的压力可能会增加15%左右。

　　Cutting back on sleep

　　忌占用睡眠时间

　　The days leading up to an assessment are often extremely stressful. You might think that constant revision right up until your exam is the task that needs your utmost attention; however, there’s something far more important. Multiple sources quote 8 – 8.5 hours of sleep per night as the ideal number of sleep hours for adults. These hours are even more crucial when high levels of concentration are required of you. This is because sleep deprivation can seriously impair your sense of judgement and decrease your reaction times. Therefore, even though you may think that revising your notes from the break of dawn until the night sky is brightly lit is what needs to be prioritised, you should remember that you cannot function at your best without a good, balanced night’s sleep. This is a real problem beyond the sphere of exams: according to a study at Harvard University, sleep deprivation costs the American economy $63.2bn a year.

　　测评前的日子通常都是压力山大的。你可能觉得考试前夕马不停蹄地复习才是王道；但其实有件事比这更重要。很多研究表明，成年人每晚理想的睡眠时间为8至8.5小时。在你需要注意力高度集中的时候，这些充足的睡眠尤为重要。因为缺少睡眠会影响你的判断力，减少你的反应时间。因此，即使你可能认为从清晨到深夜全天候复习笔记是你的首要任务，你还是应该记住，如果没有平衡好充足的睡眠，你就不可能找到最佳状态。这是超出考试范畴的实际问题：根据哈佛大学的一项研究，缺少睡眠导致美国经济每年损失632亿美元。

　　Leaving it all to the last minute

　　忌纯靠考前抱佛脚

　　The human brain is, by far, the most fascinating body part: the amount of information it can hold is truly amazing. However, this does not mean that it is an unlimited storage centre without any constraints. Though cramming information is very effective for some, feeding your brain too much information at the last minute can cause your brain – like a computer – to overheat, resulting in only parts of the content consolidating in your head. Some interesting stats for you: the human short-term memory can only hold between 7-9 facts, and even those typically tend to decay after 30 seconds. Even if you do manage to turn some of your last-minute cramming into more durable memories, your chances here don’t look great! Once you’ve got your exam/test date, you should be aiming to give yourself at least a month’s worth of revision in the run up. Remember to take breaks, give yourself plenty of sleep, and keep those phones tucked away!

　　人类的大脑是目前为止最引人注目的身体部位：大脑可以容纳的信息量着实惊人。然而，这并不意味着大脑就是个没有制约条件、有无限容量的储存中心。尽管填鸭式地吸收信息对有些人来说很有效，但是临考前在你大脑中一下子塞太多信息可能会使你的大脑——跟电脑一样——过热，导致你只对某一部分知识点有印象。给你看一组有趣的数据：人类的短期记忆仅能支持7到9个事实，而就这几个事实可能在30秒以后也会从记忆中消失。即使你成功地将最后关头记忆的知识点转化为更长期的记忆，情况也不容乐观！一旦你获知了你的测试日期，你就应该给自己计划一个月以上的复习时间。切记，复习期间常休息，有充足的睡眠，还有，收好你的手机！