Most people know that studying is one of the hardest aspects of school for students. Although studying is difficult, there are many ways to increase a student’s ability to study materials. For instance, students can chew a specific gum flavor while studying and then chew the same flavor right as they are taking the test to increase memory retention, or they can study within certain time intervals which allot periods of rest between studying. One thing which students should not try, however, is to listen to music while they are studying.

Many people believe that listening to music allows for a person’s brain to perform better cognitively. While this can be useful for certain aspects of a student’s daily life, such as working out,  it can also cause a distraction while studying, which makes it more difficult for the student to remember the material that they are studying. Students believe that they are remembering the notes they are studying, even when their mind is at the same time focusing on the song that is playing.  This disrupts focus. Music impairs cognitive abilities for people who are trying to memorize items in order due to the increasing possibility that they may become thrown off by the changing words and notes in a given song.

Junior Alia Rodriguez expressed her own opinion, saying that, “It is distracting; studying with music has brought down a lot of my own grades personally and I know a few other students who had the same experience.” Obviously, there is a multitude of students who are negatively affected by the use of listening to music while studying, and this can be shown by the students at NFHS who are having their grades brought down by this studying method. There is no helpful effect made from listening to music while studying, and it should be avoided as much as possible.