Sunday, February 17, 2008

Music: Is it good for studying, or not?

Music. Many students swear by it, while others think it is very distracting. Personally, I believe it to be useless, but it can be useful for many types of learners, especially those people who are easily distracted from the task at hand, or working in a very loud and distractive environment. So, let's discuss the pros and cons of studying with music:

Pros

- It can drown other distractions
- It can help you focus
- It can sooth and calm your mind
- It can help you remember stuff
- It can add a little fun to the otherwise rather boring studying

Cons

- How many times do you stop and find yourself singing/humming along, and not concentrating?
- It can be distracting in itself
- It can be a device of procrastination (You can spend hours finding the perfect song to study to, and this is a popular excuse among a few of my friends - "I can't study till I have this music on...")
- It will not help you create the same environment as your classroom, since you OBVIOUSLY will not have music there.

So if you want to use music:

- DON'T be obsessive about it, to the extent that you can't study if you don't have some music

- Don't expect it to have the same environment as your classroom

- Keep the volume low

- Preferably select a soft, slow, calm and soothing song (but obviously one that doesn't make you fall asleep) without words or a song you don't know the lyrics to


That's my opinion on it. If you have an opinion, leave a comment! And reply to the poll at the end of the blog!

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