Studying: research on what works

Studying in groups

I asked students who performed in the top quarter of my CORE classes on my exams what they had done to prepare. One of the most common responses was "I studied with someone else".

Studies by Uri Treisman and colleagues at UC Berkeley of minority students found that those who joined and participated in study groups performed significantly better in Calculus classes than their peers who primarily studied alone.

I encourage you to form study groups as a way of studying, and supporting each other's academic goals at college.

Below, I've created a list of some activities for your group, and some useful guidelines/agreements to get the most of a study group. (Most of this has been adapted and borrowed from "What Happens When Students Study Together?" (Teaching Professor Blog, 2016, by Mary Ellen Weimer).

Activity suggestions for study groups

  • Determine what’s likely to be on the test. The group constructs a list of content areas, concepts, or details that everyone in the group agrees they’ll need to know for the exam.
  • Work the "conceptual exercises" at the end of chapters we covered in Hobson's textbook. The answers to at least some of those exercises are in the back of the book. Talk with each other about the approaches you took.
  • Generate other potential exam/quiz questions or problems. Each group member works with a chunk of content, preparing possible test questions or problems the group uses to test their knowledge and understanding.

    Both this and the last item are supported by research that shows that answering and formulating questions is much more effective than re-reading notes and textbooks.

  • Prepare study guides. Each group member takes one section of the textbook, or webpage of class notes and prepares review materials for the rest of the group.

Helpful guidelines

  • Members arrive on time; the session starts and ends on time.
  • Students get together regularly for shorter sessions rather than for one marathon study session before a big exam.
  • Make an agenda; members decide beforehand what the group will be doing.
  • Group members come prepared. Everyone is expected to contribute. Those who don’t contribute are constructively confronted.
  • The group doesn’t waste time. Socializing, checking phones, and other disruptive actions are kept to a minimum. It’s about the content.
  • Members treat each other with respect; no one is demeaned when they are confused or have trouble understanding a concept even after it’s been explained.
  • There’s a spirit of sharing. People help each other.
  • Members do what the group needs. If the discussion is off track, someone gets the group back on task. If someone is not contributing, their participation is invited.