Music while studying: Good or bad?

By Stephania Apolinar (The World in English elective)

Nowadays people are very into music, especially since we have better technology and opportunities to access to all genres and singers. But when it comes to studying, there is a discussion of doing it with or without music. Some people say that is better to listen to music that you don’t like in order to be concentrated; others say that if you’re studying, you need to be 100% focused and music could interrupt concentration or make the learning tedious. While few insure that music is indifferent, and it doesn’t interrupt the learning process. So, in who should we believe?

An expert from Stanford University says that music with lyrics affects our memory when we are reading or writing.  However, the effects could be positive if we are doing mathematics because the brain needs to be more active to solve problems, and that could be a good point if you’re not that good in math or similar subjects. Besides, other studies say that background music is good for children between the ages of 10 to 12, as long as it is relaxing and calm because if the music is exciting or aggressive, it could cause bad behavior and bad academic performance.

As students, is very common not to find a quiet place to study or to read, so we see ourselves forced to put on headphones and listen to music, so we can aisle a little the noise, this is a good alternative, it is better to have music than a noisy environment. The answer to our question is not that hard, it depends on your skills, your personality, your capacity for concentration and the kind of subject or reading you’re doing.

Finally, I’ll give you some tips, in case that you like to study listening to music, first, change the kind of the music depending on the subject, if you need to be more active it will be better to listen to music that makes you want to move. Second, create a playlist with mute music, that will help you to concentrate and you won't sing or distract with the lyrics. And last but not least, is good to control the volume, in order to hear your own thoughts.