AP exams and finals are officially upon us! As you prepare to cram for upcoming tests, it’s worth reflecting: is studying in groups actually a helpful strategy? Or will it just slow you down?
The answer is yes and no… to both questions.
Depending on your situation, studying in groups can be a good or a bad thing. Here are the pros and cons, with some tips to help you maximize the pros and mitigate the cons:
Five Pros:
1. Keeping you on a schedule
It’s tough to stay motivated to study, especially at times like midterms and finals when you have so many different subjects to study for, and it seems like the workload never decreases no matter how long you chip away at it. Next time you feel your motivation waning, try getting a group together for a specific date and time. When other people are expecting you, it’s easier to be on time.
2. Gaining new perspectives and knowledge
No one has a perfect memory. But if you can’t recall that date, formula, or definition, chances are, someone in your study group can. Crowdsourcing these questions could save you valuable time that you’d otherwise have to spend digging through your notes or textbook.
You might also gain new study tools—a helpful flashcard app that a group member uses, a creative mnemonic device, or a genius hack for organizing your notes. You never know what useful strategies you’ll glean from seeing how others study.
3. Divide and conquer
While your group members can’t study for you, there are some boring and time-consuming tasks in the process of studying that it can be helpful to divide up. This can allow everyone in the group to save time and energy for more intense and useful tasks.
4. Teaching is the best way to learn
Teaching someone something else requires a high level of comprehension. You will be able to challenge your own understanding of the material when you teach it to someone else. Can you summarize The Whiskey Rebellion in two sentences? If your friend asks you about it, you’ll have to.
You’ll also benefit from the questions your group members ask you while you explain something to them. When they ask a question, it could bring up something you forgot to mention, or point out a flaw in your own reasoning. That gives you a chance to fix a mistake you might have made on the test.
5. Keep it light and stay sane
Sure, you don’t want your fellow group members to distract you. But at the same time, you should realize that it is helpful to take breaks and socialize a bit. Just don’t let it get out of hand.
Three Cons:
1. It’s easy to get distracted
Some people love to chat, no matter how many times you ask them to stay on topic.
Sure, maybe you’ve developed the self-control to say no when your phone buzzes during a study session… but what if six phones buzz at the same time, all with a Snapchat from that really funny friend? Group studying can sometimes have the effect of magnifying and multiplying everyday distractions.
2. The group could move too fast, or too slow
If you are by far the best student in your study group, you may find yourself slowed down by having to explain concepts that you don’t need much review on. On the other hand, if you are in a group full of students more advanced than yourself, you might be eating their dust and be too embarrassed to speak up. To maximize productivity, make sure you’re in a group where everyone is at roughly the same level of academic ability and understanding.
3. You might all have the same weaknesses
One time in high school, I got a group together to study for a Latin test. The problem was, on the day the teacher taught the trickiest grammar for the test, we all left school early for a track meet and missed it. So we ended up spending three hours trying to teach ourselves from the book. We could have saved a lot of time if we had just invited someone who had been there that day. Think ahead and plan intelligently!
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Ultimately, it’s up for you to decide whether group studying is right for you. If you do opt to study with friends or classmates, we hope the pointers above will help you to make that study group something that contributes to your success, rather than detracting from it.
Good luck on your finals and APs! And we’ll see you on the other side.
