Two to Six, Take Your Pick!

By Garrett Spahn

Introduction

A lot of kids will struggle with studying when they first start college. Some kids may have gotten by with their study habits in high school but most of the time, these study habits don’t quite help anyone in college. College is so much different in that there aren’t many small assignments that help you to make sure you understand the material like there were in high school. There are lectures, quizzes, participation, papers, presentations, and exams and that’s pretty much it when it comes to grades in college. For me, I tried to take on high school by myself whenever I could but that will not go will with you for college. I highly encourage any freshmen coming in to immediately start going to some study groups or just collaborating with at least one person that you can count on.

How Do Study Groups Work?

Study groups are just such an awesome life changer in college. With that being said, you should always make sure if you start a study group, you need to make sure everyone stays on track and does what they need to be doing in order to not waste a lot of time. (1) Selecting the appropriate quantity of members is also essential in the creation of a study group. A group of 4 to 6 students is probably optimal. All members should be dedicated to learning and have a sense of responsibility to the other members. The group should not have a student who dominates or blocks discussions. It may be better not to have close friends in the group. This is because if you know the people that you are working with then you would be more likely to get off track and I know that for me, this has happened quite a lot. (1) Study sessions can be beneficial in developing lateral thinking. Once the group reaches a conclusion, the leader could introduce new information requiring the group to reassess the situation and develop new strategies.

What if I Struggle with Anxiety?

Many people might argue that they struggle with anxiety in group settings or just don’t like the idea of study groups because they are more introverted. However, research has proven that these types of people tend to get much better grades when deciding to join study groups. (2) Results indicated negative associations of attachment anxiety and avoidance with students’ self-reported instrumental and socio-emotional functioning in the group. However, attachment anxiety was associated with higher grades in the group task. Even though someone might struggle with anxiety, a new fresh start in college is just what you need to try to step out of your comfort zone and join study groups. This is what I started doing and it’s been a game changer for me because I hated working with people in high school.

What is the Best Way To Do a Study Group?

There are a variety of different techniques that different study groups may use. When I was researching these different ways, I stumbled upon a technique called silent collaboration and I really liked the idea of it. (3) The definition of silent collaboration is a technique in which students—through suggestions and exchanges—must compare their ideas to those of their classmates. I really like this idea because rather than having one person lead the group and share their opinions, it gives the other people in the group the ability to share their ideas and do their own work at first. This makes everyone feel that they are being heard and if someone is way off track then it’s okay because the other group members are there to help you out and make sure everyone is on the same page.

How Are Study Groups Helpful?

Study groups are helpful for a variety of reasons. The biggest reason why I believe study groups are very good is that it helps to prevent procrastination. Procrastination is a major issue with students and I think study groups could really help this to go away and prevent a lot of stress from getting to the students. (4) We argue that increased attention to such procrastination-friendly factors in academic environments is important and that relatively minor measures to reduce their detrimental effects may have substantial benefits for students, institutions, and society. With procrastination causing a lot of issues with students, study groups are an amazing solution to try and prevent this because the entire group needs to be on the same page. This is easier with people that you don’t know as well because you will try to show your best self and get things done on time.

Study groups also help students to gain a lot of confidence. Public speaking is the number one fear in the world and doing study groups could really help people to be at ease when talking to others and especially more than one person. Try finding others in your classes and especially any that you might be speaking in because when you know the people you are talking to well then you will be more comfortable for one but also know how to better your speaking and increase self confidence. (5) In one research done with study groups, the implementation of group work was able to improve: feeling of competence, feeling to be respected, feeling to be loved, feeling to have a chance for success, and feeling of confidence. Confidence is the best thing you can have as a student and I believe that study groups is the best way to do this because you start believing in yourself more and getting to others better.

Conclusion

Overall, study groups/collaborating with others is one of the best ways to study and incoming freshmen need to try and do this right away so they can get a head start on how to take on college. A lot of freshmen are very anxious when coming into college but they need to be able to get through that and start working with others in college as they will most likely in the future. After all, there were a lot of studies that I found that have proven study groups to help get rid of procrastination, get comfortable with others, and be able to improve and work on themselves even though they are working with other students. Even if students don’t want to go to study groups, collaborating with one other person is still a great way to learn and get through college classes. Just make sure that you are actually doing work and there isn’t one person just taking over and try to find people near your level.

References

1. Linn, W. D., Lord, K. C., Whong, C. Y., & Phillips, E. G. (2013). Developing Effective Study Groups in the Quest for the “Holy Grail”: Critical Thinking. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 77(8), 180. https://doi.org/10.5688/ajpe778180
2. Lavy, S. (2016). Who benefits from group work in higher education? An attachment theory perspective. Higher Education, 73(2), 175–187. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-016-0006-z
3. Szewkis, E., Nussbaum, M., Rosen, T., Abalos, J., Denardin, F., Caballero, D., Tagle, A., & Alcoholado, C. (2011). Collaboration within large groups in the classroom. International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, 6(4), 561–575. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11412-011-9123-y
4. Svartdal, F., Dahl, T. I., Gamst-Klaussen, T., Koppenborg, M., & Klingsieck, K. B. (2020). How Study Environments Foster Academic Procrastination: Overview and Recommendations. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.540910
5. ‌Wahyuningsih, Sungkawati. (2018). GROUP WORK TO IMPROVE CLASSROOM INTERACTION AND STUDENTS’ SELF-ESTEEM OF STAIN GPA. Research and Innovation in Language Learning. 1. 187. 10.33603/rill.v1i3.1125.