The Power of Study Groups

http://www.collegeboard.com/students/plan/high-school/50432.html

Part 2

The Benefits of Study Groups

Group study offers other advantages in addition to gaining a deeper understanding of class material. These include the opportunity to;

Reinforce note taking. If your AP Biology notes are unclear, you can ask a member of your study group to help you fill in the gaps.

Share talents. Each person brings different strengths, such as organizational skills, the ability to stick to a task or a capacity for memorization.

Cover more ground. Group members may be able to solve a calculus problem together that none would have solved alone.

Benefit from a support system. Members often have common goals, such as good grades. Each person’s work affects the other members, which results in making members supportive of one another.

Socialize. It’s more fun to study with others; the give-and-take makes it more interesting. And because it’s more fun, you spend more time studying!

CHOOSE THE RIGHT!!!

Student Success Statement

“You make your habits and your habits make you.”

ANON

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f you have good habits, then you will be a good person. If you have bad habits, then you will be a bad person. For example, if you decide to start making studying a habit then you will do better at working than if you don’t. If you choose to be lazy, then your grade will drop and you won’t be able to even graduate…

Successful Students

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9.    . . . don’t cram for exams. Successful students know that divided periods are more effective than cram sessions, and they practice it.

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f there is one thing that study skills specialists agree on, is that distributed study is better than massed, late-night, last-ditch efforts known as cramming. You’ll learn more, and remember more, and earn a higher grade, by studying in four, one hour-a-night sessions for Friday’s exam than studying for four hours straight on Thursday night. Short, concentrated preparatory efforts are more efficient and rewarding than wasteful inattentive, last moment marathons. Yet, so many students fail to learn this lesson and end up repeating it over and over again until it becomes a wasteful habit. Not too clever, huh?

 

When you cram, you are taking the shortcut, and shortcuts never produce any real worthwhile results. Also, when you take shortcuts, you feel rather rotten knowing that you could have done better but didn’t. Shortcuts cut you short. You can’t plant watermelon seeds and harvest fresh watermelons the next day. Plus cramming for a test or project doesn’t help you academically, so why even do it. Plan ahead, prepare ahead. Give yourself plenty of days and weeks to prepare for upcoming accountability opportunities.

CHOOSE THE RIGHT!!!

Successful Students

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7.      . . . understand that actions affect learning. Successful students know their personal behavior affect their feelings and emotions which can affect learning.

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f you act in a certain way that normally produces particular feelings, you will begin to experience those feelings. Act like you’re bored and you’ll become bored. Act like your disinterested and you’ll become disinterested. So the next time you have trouble concentrating in the classroom, “act” like an interested person: lean forward, place your feet flat on the floor, maintain eye contact with the professor, nod occasionally, take notes and ask questions. Not only will you benefit directly from your actions, your classmates and professor may get excited and enthusiastic.

8.     . . . talk about what they’re learning. Successful students get to know things well enough that they can put it into words. Talking about something with friends or classmates is good not only for checking whether or not you know something, it’s a proven learning tool. Transferring ideas into words provides the most direct path from moving knowledge from short-term to long-term memory. You really don’t “know” material until you can put it into words. So next time you study, don’t do it silently. Talk about notes, problems, readings, etc. with friends, recite to a chair, organize an oral study group, pretend your teaching your peers. “Talk-learning” produces a whole host of memory traces that result in more learning.

CHOOSE THE RIGHT!!!