#ttechnestudy

The “basic art history course” is pretty similar across the board in my experience. It’s mostly comprised of lecture, memorization, testing, and essays. I usually explain art history tests as regurgitating facts because of how much memorization is involved in these tests.

When I start to study, I read through all of my notes and highlight what’s important within them. “What’s important” can vary depending on the professor and yourself, but it’s usually

Title

Artist 

Date

Material

Current Location (this is subjective; you’ll see why) 

Numbers 1 - 3 sometimes are not needed depending on what you’re studying: some early art doesn’t have a title, artist, or exact date. This all depends on the professor, honestly. I’ve had some professors make us exclude the artist altogether or guess the date to where we think it lands. 

Number 4 also isn’t all too important. If the material is unusual, then it’s helpful to know it because it could impact how you understand the work.

Number 5, once again, depends on the professor. For example, I had to study the Ishtar Gate for one of my early art history classes. It is reconstructed in the Berlin State Museum, including some original bricks found at the original site. We were told that we needed to know that by my professor. 

Now, back to the actual studying. I have found that flash cards and slide lists are the best ways to study for art history.

In my early days, I would use flash cards. I would put the title of the piece on the front and list the title, date, and material on the back, along with one to two significant things about it. The significant facts were needed so that we could recall why it is important in art history in general or at the time. The format of the flash cards would make me either recall facts based on the title or recall the title based on facts. This method is great if you want to study with someone else, but it is a ton of work to make the cards depending on how many pieces you need to recall (I’ve had to recall 100+ pieces for a few midterms: I made all of those flashcards once).

What I recently started to use, especially last semester, were slides and slide lists. My art history professors usually post the slides that they use in class so that we can look at them for future reference. I would start by going through my notes with the slides on hand to memorize title, artist, and date in order to associate the image with the facts. I would then go through the slides without my notes to see how much I could recall. I repeated this process until I got everything nearly right. Finally, I would shuffle the slides and see if I could still recall everything out of order. This method is good if you’re low on time and don’t feel like making 100+ flash cards. The downside is that it’s a lot of writing still. 

I don’t recommend making review sheets, especially if they’re typed. I did this with a group of four other people for an art history class that they had some difficulty in (I was there as the “one who understood what was going on”) and we all added information and pictures at various points. This was good in theory, but I’m a strong believer in writing stuff down makes things much easier to remember. Nothing from this sheet stuck with me and I found myself studying with my own set of cards that I made. I think this tactic could be better if you end up writing the entire thing down on paper. I did this for a class last semester and it ended up working a lot better. 

1. Pomodoro Technique

If you’re an avid watcher/follower of study accounts, you’ve probably heard of this. Your study time is counted in pomodoros (literally tomatoes), which are 25 minute study sessions. You then break for five minutes and then start another pomodoro session. You then basically rinse and repeat. I’ve personally been using this technique in order to stay on track with work and actually get some stuff done, but I use a version of this that’s basically on steroids. My pomodoro sessions are usually an hour long and I then break for thirty minutes instead of five. I don’t recommend doing my steroid version if you’re new to this technique, but I’ve discovered that this really does help. The app Focus To-Do has a built in timer that has a customization feature to fit to the length of time you want to work. It’s also very aesthetically pleasing to look at, which is a bonus. 

2. Setting

I think this is pretty crucial nowadays, especially if more than one person is also working from home. My brothers, my dad, and I all have our respective places where we go do our work and we don’t go into these other places. I know that a lot of people say that a change in setting is good when you’re working from home, but I’ve found that this doesn’t really help me. If anything, I get more distracted shifting around constantly. On the other hand, it helps one of my brothers, who goes between his room and our basement depending on the class. Do whatever you feel will help, honestly.

Since I stay in my room to work, I realized that leaving my desk space (and the rest of my room) pretty clean helps me want to work. I’m motivated to sit at my desk for however long I need to doing whatever I need to. Creating a calm sort of setting helps, as well. For me, that means lighting a candle, letting my diffuser run, and study tunes playing in the background or through my earbuds (I love lofi for this). I have this set up during my Zoom classes too, minus the lofi, of course. 

3. Nutrition

This is where I go against everything I say, but please eat and drink water. It’s much harder to focus if your stomach is growling during lecture. I’ve been trying to do this, but sometimes I work so much, I forget to eat. Being home, eating more often is a little easier for sure because I don’t need to walk too far to get food. Eat when you feel hungry, though, not because you’re bored and there’s nothing else to do.

4. Breaks

Taking breaks really do help! It’s scientifically proven that people can only focus for up of 20 minutes, hence why the Pomodoro technique usually has 25 minute increments or why your three hour lecture usually has a break an hour in (which still isn’t right, but at least there is a break).

When I take breaks, I do stuff that isn’t related to my work, but if it is, it’s usually small tasks that don’t take much focus to do. Outside of work, I usually check my phone or doodle something. Anything to keep my mind off of work for a little. Small things like this help reset the mind in a sense, too. After a break, you can usually go back to work rather energetically.