Any tips for starting a study group? I usually like to work alone but thought it wouldn't hurt to try w/ others. What types of study activities should we do? How do you keep it interesting? Things to avoid? Thanks!
Make sure everyone in your group goes into the study session knowing that you want to get work done. Make sure no one is slacking off and distracting others. It’s nice to study with friends, but it can easily go downhill when someone gets you all off track. It might be a good idea to study with people that you aren’t incredibly close with, because you’ll be less likely to goof off with them.
Know exactly what you’re going to study ahead of time.
Before the session, break up the content you want to study into sections, and assign each member of the group a certain section. It’s much easier to become an expert on one topic than to attempt to memorize everything.
During the study session, teach the rest of your groupmates about your topic. One of the best and most effective ways of studying is to teach the material to someone else. Once you’re able to teach something to someone, you must know it pretty well. In addition, having your classmates teach you is often much more effective than your professor teaching you because they’re able to put it into terms that you’re more likely to understand. A professor has been teaching for so long that they don’t remember what it’s like to not understand, but your classmate knows what it’s like to not understand and they’ll probably be able to explain a little better than your professor.
If someone isn’t a good student, don’t let them into your study group. If you know someone rarely takes notes, doesn’t show up to class, and is probably just trying to get into your group so they can take advantage of the fact that your group has put in a lot of work studying, just don’t let them in. It will only make your group work and waste your time.
Don’t just mindlessly go through study guides. Study guides are helpful and can be great if you actually discuss them. If you’re just having a study group to exchange answers, you’re not really learning anything and you’re less likely to retain anything.
Don’t study in a distracting environment. Some university libraries have study rooms that you can reserve. This is ideal, but if you can find any relatively quiet place that isn’t distracting for your group, that would be fine too.
Don’t study when your group is hungry/tired. Trust me, you’ll all just get cranky and end up complaining for an hour without getting anything done.
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