Pay attention to your classmates’ level of effort in the classroom to determine if they’d be a good member of the group. Too often, students join study groups with the hope that they can coast while the rest of the group does the work. If they are not pulling their weight in the classroom, they probably won’t do their share in your group.
Only email once or twice about starting the group. It’s best not to alienate and annoy your classmates with several emails. If they haven’t responded after two requests, they are probably not interested.
You can also ask the teacher if you can make the announcement yourself. This way, students know exactly who to see if they are interested in joining your group.
Be sure to know your school’s rules for posting flyers. Many colleges and universities only allow flyers to be posted on dedicated boards. Check with the teacher or the department secretary to find out where posting is allowed. If you are in middle school or high school, ask the teacher if you can hang a flyer on the corner of the board so it is out the way, but still visible to all the students.
Be prepared by having the announcement already written up. Keep it short, enthusiastic, and simple. Just tell them you are creating a study group, what class it is for, and how to contact you or find you.
For a really difficult class, you may want to schedule 2 or 3 hour study sessions. Any longer than 3 hours and people may lose focus. [4] X Research source
Many university and municipal libraries have study rooms that you can reserve. Just make sure you reserve an area where your group is free to talk and won’t disturb others. If you want to meet in someone’s home, consider switching up the homes each week. This way, no one person feels burned out by hosting guests every week.
You don’t need to make this schedule very detailed. It just helps for the group to have an idea what topics will be covered each week so everyone can plan ahead.
The rules will depend on your group and your needs but you should consider making rules against tardiness, not coming prepared, skipping meetings, and being disrespectful toward other group members. If any of these issues should arise in one of your study sessions, the group members will have the agreed upon rules to use in resolving the issue. Should someone in the group not work out, you will be glad you have made the rules clear at the beginning, so there are no surprises when that person is confronted. Make the rules as a group. To ensure that no one feels as though you are being bossy or trying to control the group, ensure that each group member is heard and their opinions on the rules are recognized.
Having two group leaders in each session protects the group in case one of the leaders gets sick, can’t make it, or is unprepared. A good way to assign group leaders is to have everyone sign up on the weeks they are most interested in leading. Use the weekly topic plan you made to have everyone choose which weeks they’d like to be responsible. Or, randomly assign weeks to make sure all topics are covered and no one feels like they lost out.
It’s a good idea to set rules for the chat group as well. Sometimes people get carried away with messages or memes and drive away potentially great group members who do not want the extra distraction of constant phone alerts.
Opt for finger foods with a lot of protein and not a lot of grease. Choose things like fruits, veggies, nuts, cheese, hummus, or pretzels. Pizza works in a pinch for a late-night study sessions, but remember it’s greasy and probably going to make you feel full and tired after eating it, instead of alert and focused.
The agenda should begin with the hardest material to get that out of the way while everyone’s brain is still alert and awake. The structure should be determined by the group leaders and whatever they think makes the most sense for covering the topics of the day. Structure largely depends on the class. For a math class, you might spend ⅔ on homework problems and ⅓ on concepts, but for a history class, you’d probably spend most of your time discussing main ideas.
The break schedule should be included in the agenda for the day. Decide together as a group what you think works best. Some people like to work for 25 minutes and then take a break for 5 minutes. Others prefer to work longer sessions and take longer breaks. It doesn’t really matter as long as everyone agrees.
People learn differently. Some are visual learners, some learning by writing, and some learn best by teaching others. Since your group will be made up of diverse individuals, be willing to try out different methods so that everyone can benefit. Some proven study methods are teaching each other the materials, having debates, watching and discussing film clips, playing trivia games, and quizzing one another.
Even if you think you know the material well, you will benefit from hearing it again or answering questions of your group members. [14] X Research source
