How to Help Your Child Study Effectively

The weeks between Thanksgiving and winter break are jam packed both academically and socially for students. Students are inundated with exams, quizzes, projects, and essays, which compete for attention with standardized tests, college applications, and, of course, family traditions and events. It can be a lot to juggle, and it can be difficult for students to know what to prioritize. Even when students are working hard, their hard work doesn’t always translate to better grades. This guide is designed to make things easier by differentiating between studying and effective studying. 

When it comes to effective studying there are a few things that you can encourage your child to keep in mind.

• Time Management

For any major assessment–whether it be an essay or a test–students should be planning a week in advance. A week out, they should look over the topics list just to get a sense for what is going to be assessed. 

Around 3-4 days before the exam, they should begin to test their knowledge (more on that later). This gives them ample time to go to the teacher and ask clarifying questions. 

Then 1-2 days before the exam, they should do a full recap of what they have been working on. They can do a few practice problems that are similar to difficult ones they encountered earlier in their studies, complete a new review packet or redo an old one, and brush up on vocabulary or formulas. 

Now, I know that not all teachers give a full week of lead time, but many do! You can always adjust this schedule or adapt it for an essay. But the main takeaway is for students to be working on the bulk of their studying beginning 3-4 days in advance and not starting the night before. 

• Set Targets not Time Limits

At times, students will say to me, “I spent 4 hours studying on Saturday!” But then, when I have them try to attempt a practice problem, they freeze and don’t know how to do it. How is that possible? 

Oftentimes, the culprit is ineffective studying. Many students will track the amount of time they are spending on studying. But at the end of the day, the time spent studying doesn’t matter. It’s a metric that doesn’t tell us much. Instead, students need to be setting targets for themselves. 

How many problems did they complete? 

How many pages of the review packet did they do? 

How many topics from the topics list did they cover? 

These metrics are much more effective than looking at time, and it’s a much better indicator for how they will do on an exam. Start by encouraging them to set a target number of problems to complete!

• Answer Keys are for Afterwards

Teachers will often provide answer keys for homework assignments and review packets. But many students don’t know how to use these resources effectively. So often, students look at the answer key while they are studying and doing their homework! That won’t form the neural pathways needed to complete problems successfully on our own. Answer keys are for after they have completed the problem from scratch.

It’s not enough for students to read over their review materials or completed answer keys. They need to be actively creating study guides, typing out definitions, and completing practice problems in order to figure out where they have gaps in their knowledge. 

I was just talking to a former student of mine, now a successful freshman in college, about how best to prepare for finals. She built a study guide from her teacher's notes, highlighting key components and procedures, and then completed blank practice problems before checking the answers–just like I taught her. I wish I could have her speak to all my current students too! 

Once students build their study guide and complete blank practice problems, then they should absolutely be checking the answer key. Studying is much more effective when a student can check their work after it’s been completed.

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Every week, I am seeing new light bulbs click in my students. One of my favorite parts of my job is watching students achieve studying independence. I’ve already seen students come back this fall with several grade improvements including A’s and A-’s in math, physics, and chemistry quizzes and in-class essays after practicing and mastering these tools. 

Best of luck and happy studying!