Every week before an exam I spend almost every day studying so I can get a decent grade on the test. I always study in generally the same way; I memorize lecture slides and do tons of practice problems in order to cram as much information into my head as possible for the test.  It doesn’t matter what class I’m studying for, I always use this method whether it be for organic chemistry or one of my engineering classes.  After a few semesters of doing this, I have started to notice the classes where I succeed the most are the classes where I do multiple practice problems, as opposed to the classes where I just need to memorize information.  I think this has a lot to do with how I encode the information when I study.  We talked about how memorizing information was one of the worst ways to study because the information wouldn’t be encoded very well into my long-term memory.  The classes where I do practice problems are the classes I tended to do better in and I think that has a lot to do with deeper processing.  Deeper processing is a concept we talked about which has to deal with the most effective ways to study.  Deep processing recommends we study by encoding our information by elaborating on the topic, making the each concept distinct, how the problem relates to us, and appropriate retrieval cues for the topic.  When I’m studying for math I tend to delve into a deeper way of studying because I have to solve each problem.  This allows me to decide how different topics are related to one another.  It also helps me better understand the course concepts, because when I’m solving each problem I really have to figure it out on my own.  With my problem solving classes I have noticed that even a couple semesters after taking the class I still remember a good deal of the course concepts, as opposed to the memorizing classes.  I suppose what I can take away from this is that if I use deep processing for certain classes I will probably retain the information much better.