What is your study habit grade?

It is time for the final Study Tipping Tuesday of the semester! 

And it won’t be long before you find yourself logging onto your college’s web site, entering in your password, and opening up that link that posts those ominous words:

Final grades.

But while grades are obviously important, the bigger picture is that grades and courses are meant to help you develop positive habits of study and thinking that you can take with you the rest of your life. 

So while you can’t open that web page with your final grades just yet, you can see how you did this semester when it comes to developing those positive study habits.

And since Study Tipping Tuesday will be on hiatus until the fall semester (lots of other exciting things to come in the summer, though), let’s see how you did with your study habits. 

Review the questions below and honestly evaluate yourself. Your answers to these questions will correlate pretty well with your final grades. 

• Did you work on your core? 
• Did you get organized and build a filing system?
• Did you overcome the all-nighter and make the most of your early mornings?
• Did you prepare your presentations?
• Did you build a task list?
• Did you make test review work for you?
• Was time on your side?
• Did you work on developing the little habits?

And as you look back on this semester and look forward to the next, I hope you'll commit to improving your study habits every day. 

Because success requires continuous effort. 

And you deserve that success – so get pumped up and go get it!

And if you haven’t yet, get revved up for your final exams :) 

Start a Study Group - Here's How

I am a huge fan of study groups.  Accountability is important – and working cooperatively to prepare for tests, quizzes, and final exams is a great way to get ready for the material. In my book I also talk about how they are a great way to start making friends and building a learning community. 

But, if the show Community on NBC has taught us anything, it is that study groups need parameters. 

So here are my must-dos for study groups.


1. Study ahead of time – don’t be that guy (or girl). Study groups should never be your only means of studying. One of the biggest hindrances to study groups is that guy who shows up with a bunch of excuses about why he hasn't studied yet and that he's finally ready to get serious. He's relying on you to give him all the answers. Don't be that guy! Because it doesn't work. You should study by yourself for a few hours before you engage in a study group. The study group is an opportunity to recall what you've studied - not to start from scratch. The study group should take your preparation from a B+ to an A+. 

2. Make it an open group – at least initially. Since you are going to prepare ahead of time, the study group serves as an opportunity to recall the information and interact with others - anyone interested will be a great asset. When you are a commuter student especially, it should be an opportunity to expand connections with your classmates. But don't be afraid to politely ask someone to leave if they are not being helpful towards the study group's goals. 


3. Create a game-plan for the session.  How will you study? Will it be a free-for-all or will you have some sort of coordinated strategy? The best study groups are the ones with a leader or two - people who think about the study group ahead of time and help create a structure that allows everyone to get involved. 


I often led study groups and would create games we could play with the content using notecards; we'd go around the room quizzing each other, and would pause on any topics we felt we needed to discuss further. Don't assume someone else will create this for you. Be that leader and not only will you help others, you will benefit tremendously (e.g. anytime I led a study group like this I usually got a 98-100 on the exam). 


4. Generate questions. Anticipate what questions will be on the test and try to create a practice test the group can go over together. Before you meet you can assign each person in the group a role in terms of what part of the practice "test" to create and then you can quiz each other when you meet for the study group, moving through the material with focus and direction. 


5. Make it a habit. Fine-tune your group (if one session seems flawed, fix it or move on) and then make a habit out of meeting.  Study groups can be fun, can keep you accountable, and can help you build a fun and thriving learning community.   

Give these tips a try and let me know if you have any more questions about your group at advice@communitycollegesuccess.com! If you are already in a study group, see if these things can help improve the quality of your session.  Study groups should be fun – but more importantly, productive.  Find that balance and enjoy :)