How many people do you see around your college campus with headphones on any given day? Probably quite a few. College students and their headphones have become inseparable; more than once I've seen people sitting in lecture halls with one ear listening to the professor and one ear jamming to whatever is coming out of their iPhones.

Whatever is coming out of the iPhones of college students is actually pretty important. Some students prefer to study to the latest Top 20 countdown. Others prefer jamming out to folksy americana or motivating hip hop. While obviously every student is going to decide what type of music is best for them, there is evidence that one particular type of music is more conducive for studying.

In a few studies conducted around the world, classical music has emerged as the best kind of music to listen to when you study. Now, most college students are not exactly classical music fans. Personally speaking, I can't tell the difference between Mozart, Bach or Beethoven, but research indicates that paying attention to the intricacies of classical music is less important than the overall effect classical music has on the person studying. Researchers speculate that classical music puts students in a heightened emotional state which makes them more receptive to new information. Now what exactly "heightened emotional state" means is up for debate but I think its fair to say that having some sort of music in the background when you're studying helps eliminate exterior noise and sharpen your ability to focus.

Whether or not you are a classical music junkie or just a student trying to find a way to stay awake when reading your Bio textbook, the research that puts classical music ahead of other genres in terms of studying productivity is definitely worth listening to.