Practical Study Skills

Most of us believe that good study skills can help a student become more successful in school. As a result of this belief, there are an abundance of courses taught by tutoring agencies, educational organizations, and schools that teach study skills as a separate subject.  The courses are often aimed at keeping students organized, improving their abilities to study and take tests, acquiring effective reading strategies, and practicing good time management. 

The problem with most of these well-intentioned courses is that they are not always practical for individual learning styles, not practiced on a daily basis and seldom linked to a current curriculum.  Ideally, study skills should be taught within the context of each class a student takes in school.  Unfortunately, these skills are often left untaught, or reviewed so quickly that the students do not have a chance to practice them or relate them to specific subject areas.  If study skills are not used on a daily basis and are not relevant to the subject area, then they will not become automatic and practical. 

Certainly parents can encourage their children from the early grades to study in a quiet, well-lit location, keeping necessary supplies organized and easily accessible.  Parents can also help their children organize their notebooks so they can easily locate assignments to be turned in or used for future assignments.  Many parents help their children prepare for tests, research papers, gather materials for and design projects, or proofread and edit writing assignments.  These are necessary and functional tasks to teach children to become better students, but this is just the beginning of learning practical study skills.

Colleges find that incoming freshman are often lacking good study skills and therefore offer their own classes to encourage students to become better students.  But these skills need to be instilled long before college and parents are not always equipped to teach the necessary skills, not to mention that children often will rebel against parental suggestions. 

Good study skills should be practical, used on a daily basis, and linked to a curriculum.  So if the skills are not taught in school and the commercial courses offered to the general public are not aimed at the individual, how will students learn these skills?  I suggest a good tutor, who will teach study skills that fit a student’s learning style and can be linked to the school’s curriculum.  Therefore the tutor will have to communicate with the student’s teachers, have current textbooks available, understand which skills will be most effective with various learning styles, and encourage the student to use specific skills on a regular basis.

Study skills necessary for a successful student should include note taking from various sources; time management of homework and long-term assignments; keeping a calendar of events, long-term assignments, and tests; test preparation; test-taking strategies; visual organizations, such as outlining; memory techniques; and systems for reading texts and novels.

Check out the website (www.ruthbrodskyconsulting.com) for Ruth Brodsky Consulting.  You will find a list of reputable tutors, who have expertise in specific subject areas, but also teach study skills in connection with the student’s curriculum, learning style, and will reinforce them until they become part of the student’s repertoire.