By Reinesse Wong
It’s midnight, and I am in the midst of grinding out a school assignment that I probably should have started a week earlier. I sit down and get to work and then open my most trusted companion: Spotify.
Throughout high school, music and studying have gone hand-in-hand for me. I could never start an assignment without music to keep me upbeat and concentrated. Blasting pop and r&b music as I cranked out my math homework helped take my mind off the painful process of writing out calculus derivatives in my notebook.
The type of music students should listen to while studying has been widely debated. For example, there is the “Mozart Effect”, in which scientists found that people who listened to classical music had increased spatial and reasoning skills. Or take the TikTok trend of blasting Mario Kart theme music to help procrastinators rush and finish assignments. Other studies also said that listening to music without lyrics was the best for focusing.
If this is so, does classical music really help you focus? I tried it out. I searched “Classical music for studying” on YouTube and pressed the first two hour video that came up. Thirty minutes didn’t even pass until I pressed pause because I couldn’t focus on my work. The baroque styled music had made me feel like a 21st century girl sitting in the middle of a ballroom in medieval times; it felt out of place.
Funny enough, after trying that Mario Kart music TikTok trend, I found that the speedy beat instilled a sense of urgency in my work, but it helped me by speeding up my work rate. I now reserve that music for last minute assignments I may have procrastinated a little too long on.
After my “experiment”, I realized that studying with music that uplifts you and keeps you focused is only what matters. Following the classical music trend won’t work if it doesn’t help you become more focused. Rather, I’d recommend listening to lo-fi beats, which have an upbeat tempo and mellow beat to keep you focused. At the end of the day, it is up to a person’s preferences and what they want to get out of listening to whatever genre of music they choose.
