Parents who call me seeking academic coaching often begin, “My child is very bright, but he [or she] just does not know how to study.” Learning how to study is one of the end goals for high school students, a critical skill that predicts success not only in college but also in life.
I have developed the following four-pronged test, so you can measure your child’s studying proficiency and assess whether he or she would benefit from intervention.
1. How well does my child manage his or her materials?
Students who struggle with knowing how to study are often disorganized. Their backpacks contain an unwieldy mound of crumpled papers from every one of their core classes. If they have a notebook or binder, it is stuffed with papers either in the front pocket or its inside pages.
Is your child an organizational guru, a slightly organized student (whose papers are at least contained), or a walking disaster?
With a fresh semester upon us, now is the time to comb through these papers. Help your child start the semester with a clean three-ringed binder for every class. In my opinion, there is no substitute for a sturdy three-ringed binder, which enables students to order and re-order papers, chronologically and by topic, and ensures ready-access to the critical papers needed to prepare for the next assessment. Students cannot study well for a test when they cannot locate the papers that they need. Other organizational methods, such as folders and spiral notebooks, pale in comparison with the irreplaceable three-ringed binder.
2. How is my child’s work ethic?
Bottom line, a student must want to perform well in school. Almost every student will tell you that he or she wants to earn good grades, but many want the good grades with no investment of time.
How motivated is your child to find success: motivated enough to save his or her favorite television show until the weekend, to turn off his or her cell phone during study sessions, to complete more math problems than assigned, and to seek answers to questions about a subject outside of the classroom?
And if you think I am being absurd, I am not. I know these children, they do exist, and they are not freaks of nature; however, it is true that some children are naturally more motivated than others.
As parents, we must instill and cultivate a strong work ethic by modelling one and by constantly reminding our children that school work must be prioritized.
3. Does your child take meaningful, legible, dated class notes?
Many students can navigate middle school without exerting much effort. Teachers often are guilty of spoon-feeding students by offering review sheets that summarize the critical points on a topic and then by requiring the students to regurgitate this information in a similar format on the test. This widespread approach to testing has produced an entire generation of students whose study skills have atrophied from such coddling. Students step into my office daily without notes from class lectures unless their teacher has warned, “Write this down!”
Peruse your child’s notebooks and ask, how much of class lectures is he or she recording, and do these notes tell a meaningful story and contain concrete lessons?
Our children need to develop an acuity for identifying important information, information worthy of recall. (This rings true not only for the classroom but also for the media-frenzied world in which we live). Students should review notes daily, particularly in classes where they struggle, to maximize retention. Strong notetaking skills are often among the final study skills students acquire.
4. Does your child make good use of the internet?
Finally, our children have access to a world of information at their fingertips. Educational websites, instructive videos, and study tools abound. A student can no longer simply complain that he or she has a “bad teacher” and then renounce all responsibility. There are simply too many free alternatives readily available, but is your child accessing them? Perhaps a review of your child’s internet history will tell the story.
Survey your child’s performance in each of these four areas, and you will know whether your child knows how to study or perhaps whether your child needs help.