By using past studies and scholarly articles, I became more informed of the affects that participating in music has on standardized test scores.

Does the sentence above sound correct or is there a better way it can be written?

I'd rephrase a little bit:

By using past studies and scholarly articles, I am convinced there is a positive connection between participating in music programs and doing well on standardized tests.

Thank you so much that sounds much better! :)

The sentence you provided is generally correct grammatically. However, there is a slight improvement that can be made to make it sound more polished:

"By referring to previous studies and scholarly articles, I have gained a deeper understanding of the impact that music participation has on standardized test scores."

In this revised version, I changed "past studies" to "previous studies" for smoother phrasing. Additionally, I rephrased "became more informed of the affects" to "gained a deeper understanding of the impact" for clearer and more concise wording.