Tips for forming a study group in collegeNo matter what your age or background, you will benefit from the social interactions with other

students as well as the sharing of ideas and information if you are part of a study group. It is especially

recommended that you form or join a study group for a course that challenges you early on.

You will find that some courses are harder than others, and it doesn’t take long to feel left behind. A

solution is to try to find 2 or 3 likeminded people in your course or other course section (your

professor can tell you if there are students in another offering of the same course who might like to

join a study group) and meet once every week or two (in the campus library, coffee shop, under a tree

on the quad, or wherever you can get things done). For optimal results, follow the guidelines below:

o Exchange email addresses immediately.

o Make a plan for studying. Decide when and where you will meet and for how long. Stick to

the plan.

o Be sure to do your work (readings, practice exercises, research) before the study group

meets. If everyone is prepared, then you will know what questions to ask and how you can

contribute to the group when you are all together.

o When you meet with your group, don’t spend more than 10 minutes “catching up” or

you’ll use up all the time socializing. If group members have trouble staying on task, it’s

OK to offer a gentle reminder, such as, “Well, I suppose we should get back to the task at

hand...”

o If your group is working on a lengthy or complex project, it’s a good idea for one person to

volunteer to write up a summary of each meeting, but if this is too much work for you,

forget I mentioned it

o Depending on the type of coursework, you may want to start a Google Doc and share it

with the others in the group so that you can more easily keep up with idea sharing.

Emailing can get so complicated, especially if two people are emailing and the third or

forth person is left out of the loop. What I love about Google Docs is that you can each just

pick a different colored font and write notes for everyone in the group to see. This

document can be the go-to place for sharing ideas, planning, and communicating about

what to study, when to meet, and so forth. Many of my own students have used Google

Docs as a place to plan group projects and presentations. Note: This document should

NOT be used as a place to give each other answers to homework. That is cheating (unless

your professor says you can do homework in groups). You’ll want to name your document

something that will be easily recognizable, such as “Statistics study group idea sharing,”

etc.

o Don’t forget that study groups don’t have to meet in person. You could meet via Skype, in

Second Life (secondlife.com), by phone, through Face Time (if you have iphones), and

through other technological means.

o If someone is not a good study group member (they are late or miss meetings or they

distract others from working or just don’t contribute), don’t take it personally. But you

should take action. Gently and kindly inquire if the person is seriously interested in

studying (always give people a chance to save face). Depending on the answer, you should

probably tell the person that it just isn’t working out and why. It’s not a confrontation.

It’s a decision.

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