If you look around the library or dorms during study hall, you’ll notice lots of students with headphones in. Some students and scientists think music is a distraction, but according to a Williston learning specialist, the right kind of study music may actually help you.

Listening to music is an integral part of teenage culture, and anywhere you see kids on campus, you’ll likely see them listening to music, whether they’re in the gym or on the way to class. So it’s no surprise that music is helpful to many students during studying.

“If the music is practice music, music that they already know, that it can help. There are theories for kids with ADHD which target the under stimulation in their brains,” said Rachel Currie-Rubin, Williston’s Learning Specialist. Rubin, who got her Ed.D at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, explained, “They need something to do with their bodies and minds while trying to focus, so that little bit of noise while studying helps them.”

On the Williston campus, many students claim that it helps them focus on their schoolwork when they listen to music.

Jordan Strum said she only listens to music if she is doing math because she does not have to focus on reading comprehension.

“I listen to upbeat songs that I have known for a while whenever I do my math and it is usually the same genre every time,” Strum said. Similarly, senior Grace Quisenberry said she also only listens to music when she does her math homework.

On the other hand, studies that show that students should not listen to their preferred genre of music, or listen to it at all while hitting the books.

A study by Smith and Morris in 1997 showed that subjects who listened to their preferred music did worse on a cognitive exam than did subjects who listened to new music or no music at all.

The explanation is that the subjects who listened to their preferred music were drawn to the lyrics and wanted to sing along while doing the exam.

Gabby Monaco’s preferences echoed the study’s findings.

“I do not like listening to music because it distracts me from doing my work because I want to sing along to it,” Monaco said.