Forming Study Groups

Study Groups for Academic Success

• Table of Contents:

• How to Form a Study Group

• Planning for your Study Session

• Study Session in Action

• Advantages of Study Groups

• Study Group Distractions

• Suggested Study Group Activities

Study Groups for Academic Success

• How to Form a Study Group

• Get to know your classmates

• Invite three to five students to meet with you to study

• Pass out a sign-up sheet

• Teacher to make an announcement

• Determine who is serious about their studies

• Choose people who will be committed to the group

• Avoid slackers

Study Groups for Academic Success

• How to Form a Study Group

• Make sure that at least some members of the group

are knowledgeable about the field

• Avoid “the blind leading the blind”.

• Become aware of your study group expectations

• People join for different reasons

• Better understanding and retention of information

• Opportunity to learn and teach peers

• Receive support from peers

• Increase confidence in academic abilities

• Get your study group member’s contact information

Study Groups for Academic Success

• Planning your Study Session

• Have a “first meeting”• Select a location for the meetings

• Establish a schedule for the meetings

• Dates and Times

• Appoint one person as the “Chair”

Study Groups for Academic Success

• Planning your Study Session• Discuss expectations

• Ask for a commitment to attend future sessions

• Discuss how long you will meet each time

• Types of activities you might do

Study Groups for Academic Success

• Study Session in Action

• Before the study session begins:

• 5-7 minutes to talk about the value of the session

• Set an agenda-things to consider

• What will you work on during a session?

• Example: Cover study questions for Chapters 5 and 6

• Will you take turns doing problems, asking questions,

reviewing material?

• How much will you try to cover during a session?

• How will you go about studying the material?

• Reward yourself-take a break and enjoy it

Study Groups for Academic Success

• Advantages of Study Groups

• Beating Procrastination

• More likely to keep an appointment to study with a

group than to study by yourself

• Group Support

• Can be a source of encouragement, strength, and

new ideas

• Provides Feedback

• Before an exam-how well you are learning the material

Study Groups for Academic Success

• Study Session in Action

• Write down groups areas of confusion

• Summarize and take a quick quiz

• Plan an agenda for the next meeting

• Don’t forget-Evaluate your group• It may take two to three sessions to get the method going

Study Groups for Academic Success

• Advantages of Study Groups

• Helps you become motivated to study• You know your group is depending on your preparation

• Getting questions answered• Get questions answered about confusing or difficult

course material

• Learning Teamwork Skills• Prepares you for the working world

Study Groups for Academic Success

• Advantages of Study Groups

• Reinforces Learning

• Clarifies and deepens learning by providing opportunity to teach

• Overcome shyness

• More open about discussing issues in class

• Sharing Talent

• Each student brings different strengths to a study group

• Covering more ground

• Breakdown assignments among study group

Study Groups for Academic Success

• Study Group Distractions

• Social gathering-unrelated topics

• Stay on track with the agenda

• Members unprepared

• Remind them that students are depending on their

responsibility

• If it continues……remove them from the study group

• Lengthy complaints about courses or professors

• This can wait until afterwards

Study Groups for Academic Success

• Study Group Distractions

• Cell phones

• Encourage students to silence phones-pick up only important calls

• Showing up late

• Remember that your team is depending on you.

• Noisy Study locations

• Stay away from areas where there is a lot of traffic, distractions

• Time wasters

• Efficiency vs. Effectiveness

Study Groups for Academic Success

• Suggested Study Group Activities

• Review, expand and discuss class notes and assigned

readings

• Raise questions and address areas of confusion

• Quiz each other by asking and answering questions

• Brainstorm topics, questions or essays that might be on an

exam

• Review for quizzes and exams

• Generate or discuss paper topics

Study Groups for Academic Success

• Suggested Study Group Activities

• Seek feedback on papers in progress

• Share alternative way to organize or map information

• Report back to the group on topics covered

• Teach a concept to each other

• Practice class presentations

• Share study methods and strategies

• Share comments from professors on previous exams, papers, etc.

Study Groups for Academic Success

• Questions

• Comments

• Feedback

Thank you

Sources:http://www.elmhurst.edu/library/learningcenter/Study%20Groups/ground_rules.htm

http://www.vcsa.uic.edu

http://www.lehigh.edu/~inacsup/cas/StudyGroups.pdf

www.utsa.edu