Group study hacks

If you’re more ‘lone wolf’ than ‘team player’ when it comes to exam prep, there’s a solid chance you’re missing out on some of the awesome benefits of group study. Maybe you’re worried a group dynamic might be too competitive or the session won’t be productive enough, but done right, study groups can be a huge boost to your study game, especially with exams right around the corner.

For starters, studying with friends helps you interact with the content better than you would on your own. Which basically means that when you teach someone else something, or when you’re put on the spot by others, or have a friend explain something to you in a different way you make the information your own (rather than just pages in a textbook) and are therefore wayyy more likely to understand and remember it 🤓. It’s the difference between thinking you’ve memorised the first chapter of your Chemistry textbook and actually having to explain those concepts to someone.

It also gives you the priceless opportunity of figuring out what you don’t know (which is probably handy to know before you step foot into that exam room), so you can target those areas and sleep easy at night knowing you haven’t somehow skipped a whole topic.

Plus, everybody has their individual talents and unique ways of understanding and remembering the content, so why not share those around and cash in on everything you learn in exchange.

So without further ado, here are our top tips to hack your study group:

Make it VIP

Keep it small, this is a study group not a free. We reckon 3-5 people who are all committed to a common goal (aka getting good marks) should do the trick. This means picking people who will be effective study partners, not just for their snack game. 🤪

Assign a group leader

Not to be all Karate Kid, but crowning a session ‘master’ is key to keeping you focused and on schedule. The leader can rotate each meeting so no need to fight over the power. Which brings us nicely to my next tip…

Make a plan and stick to it

No point rocking up and winging it. Get a Facebook group going, name it appropriately (we like “Bae’s getting A’s”) and decide the topics you are going to cover BEFORE you meet. Be sure not to jampack too many things into one session though. Stick to either: one or two particular topics, questions that each of you struggle with from the textbook or a past paper. Whatever you do, pick one and stick to it (looking at you group leader).

Show up prepared

Everyone should be familiar with the content before the session, that way each person knows what area they are having difficulty with and equally those that they are strong in. Get to the session with a few areas of confusion you need clarifying and an area which you feel confident explaining to others.

Schedule a time period

1 hour is definitely too short but anymore than 3 and chances are you’ve consumed enough chocolate to feed a small town and you have zero idea of what’s actually going on. Stick to anywhere between 2 to 2.5 hours, and make sure the group leader keeps to that time.

Use each other’s strengths

What may seem utterly baffling to you, might be so obvious to someone else. Use your group time to teach others the content you feel strong about and learn from others what you really don’t get. Vocalizing your knowledge clearly to a mate so that they understand will actually solidify your understanding of the content too, and chances are you will be surprised at how much you already know.

Wrap it up effectively

Set aside the last fifteen minutes to do a quick recap of what was covered. Pay attention to this because the best thing you can take out of a group study session is a list of what you DON’T KNOW YET. This is actual gold because once you know where your weak areas are, you can spend more time going over these topics. After the session, work out an action plan on how to tackle these areas. If there’s a few of you at the end with similar weak spots, set another time to get together and cover them, or even jump onto an Atomi video for a quick recap and if all else fails then don’t be afraid to approach your teacher. They’re actually more willing to help out then you may think.

Make it fun (or as fun as possible)

In this never-ending lead up to mid-year exams (😓), studying by yourself can leave you feeling more brain dead than prepared. Group study is a really easy way to break that slump, so make sure you’re as vocal as possible during the session. Test each other, plan mini presentations, think up ridiculous mnemonics, appoint a ‘teacher’ for each topic and take bags full of snacks – because brain food.