Study Groups by Nicholas

Study Groups by Nicholas - January 2014 Scholarship Essay

Throughout high school I realized that maintaining good grades is not going to come easy, and cannot be done without effort. In order to receive good grades you have to do more than just be attentive in class, and do the minimum for the work provided, you have to dedicate some of your own time to understanding the lesson being taught. During my freshman year of high school I remember believing that I was invincible, and that school would be a cake walk. Boy was I wrong. I soon understood that getting good grades and maintaining those good grades would not be easy. I realized I was going to have to study.

After realizing that I would need to study a bit more than I had been, I started looking at alternative study techniques than that I had been using. Simply going over one or two problems in Geometry, or quickly glancing over the noted I had taken in history was not going to cut it. I tried to do more problems each night and look more in depth at notes, but still there was little change in the outcome for my grades. The next thing I tried was going to the teacher for additional help, but it was difficult to take the time for each class, and sometimes I still did not understand what was going on. It was at this point I thought that I had to face the reality of not doing well in school. It was around the end of the first quarter when I finally found my most effective studying method.

One of my peers had come up to me and asked me if I understood what was going on in Geometry. Luckily for him I actually knew how to do the problems very well. After explaining to him what was going on, I realized that my best bet for studying was to go to my peers. Unlike teachers, my peers were in the same boat as me. I soon started hosting study groups and it was clear that there was positive correlation between my grades and the study groups. The more study groups I held the higher my grades went. I believe the reason why study groups helped, and continue to help me today, is that you are hearing it from a fellow peer, in their own words. Sometimes a slight change of wording can make all the difference in understanding and utter confusion. Not only learning from my peers helped but also teaching my peers. During the study groups sometimes I had to explain things to my fellow peers. When I explained subjects and matters to my fellow peers, I developed a deeper understanding of the subject myself. By having to explain it to someone else, I also explained it to myself, deepening my understanding of the material. Study groups also helped because sometimes peers may have seen something small that you had not seen, and it helped you understand the material more. Overall, the study method that I have found most successful and still use today, has to be studying with a group of peers. Not only did I learn more through my peers, but I also learned more and retained more through explaining to my peers.