Right up until about eighth grade, school was never something I struggled with. It wasn’t necessarily easy, but it was never really something that took a lot of effort and time for me. When the change happened in eighth grade, when school was suddenly much more stressful and challenging for me, it came as a shock.
The only thing that I can assume caused this sudden switch was the fact that in eighth grade, I actually needed to begin studying the subjects I was taking. Whether it was for a Spanish test or a math quiz, I suddenly had a good deal of studying to do, and the problem was that I didn’t know how to do it.
The main issue with my study habits came from, and still exists to this day in the form of, my inability to focus for any extended amount of time. In the years since eighth grade, as I’ve attempted solution after solution proposed by my teachers, friends, and parents, I’ve realized that one of the main determinants of whether or not I stay focused is what I’m listening to.
I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get work done with no music playing, the noises of the outside world are simply too distracting for me. But I can’t listen to all types of music while I’m studying or doing homework, either. In fact, there are only three very specific scenarios in which what I can hear while I’m working actually ends up contributing positively to my ability to work and focus.
As I’ve learned, I can focus on my work best when I listen to either classical music, the same song on repeat the whole time I’m studying, or, oddly enough, music in other languages.
Not everyone’s ability to listen to music and study is as narrow as mine, everyone’s preferences are different, and some people don’t like listening to music while they study at all. However, science has proven time and time again that music has many benefits when it comes to people’s attention span.
Instead of distracting students, as many people believe music does, a Stanford study shows that music actually improves attention spans and affects your brain in a way that keeps you focused and locked in on the task at hand.
Using music from the 1800s, Stanford researchers found that music engages parts of the brain that are very important when it comes to attention spans, memory, and making predictions. They believe that music is crucial in how your brain processes information. Their most interesting discovery is that listening to music, especially classical, improves students’ ability to categorize information, which is obviously an inherent part of studying and retaining information across all subjects in school.
Whether someone is like me and can only focus when listening to specific types of music, or if listening to anything helps them focus, it is evident that music is a tool that all students should be utilizing to the fullest extent when learning what to do to make their study sessions as productive as possible.
