Study Groups

[ion_exchanger]

I assume the majority of us posters have begun taking classes. I'm two weeks in and my first test is 3 weeks away. People are talking about forming study groups already. I stayed away from study groups in undergrad due to my bad luck with them. In my experience, study groups were where a few people who were not studying tried to get with people who were studying to learn the material that they would have learned if they had studied themselves. I know that this is not the case with all groups, but this was my experience. I know that being able to teach someone else demonstrates understanding, but I am not interested in using study time to be a tutor. My idea of a study group is where you discuss the material with a deeper level of understanding, quiz each other, and try to anticipate test questions. When my friend and I studied together, we each designed a test for the other to take test our understanding of the material. Also, if I am weak in one area and strong in another, I would give help where I could, and receive help when I needed. Are you joining or have you joined a study group? Will you study alone? Thoughts?

[fuzzylogician]

I did a lot of studying in my first year in a group. Some of it was more of an exchange of ideas and discussion, as you say, but sometimes some of us actually taught some of the others parts of the material because we had more background and they had none. These people were classmates and friends and teaching was good both for us and for them. There was no such thing as freeloading and no one tried to get the others to do the work for them, because, well, it's grad school and you're there because you want to and you study these things because you need to know them. I don't know, maybe your situation is different, but I'd give it a try. 

 

[disclaimer: I used to HATE working in groups in high school and undergrad precisely because of the freeloaders. Don't even get me started. It's been a very different experience for me in grad school and really I only encountered freeloading behavior elsewhere in academia (and again, don't get me started).]

[pears]

Although I haven't had a study group yet — except the review session I led today for the class I'm TAing — I did have to meet up with a small group to give a presentation together for a similar class. My experience was very similar to what fuzzy described: no "freeloading"; just good, informal back-&-forths about our thoughts on the material. Again, as fuzzy said, everyone is in grad school for a reason, so slacking can't result in any personal or group benefit, short or long term.

 

I, too, have always hated working in small groups, but it seems that most or all of my program's fellow grad students are likeminded, in that nobody wants to be "that person"/"the freeloader" anymore. It's just not par for the course, y'know? But that might vary from program to program. I would say it's worth going just to get a sense of what your cohort's all about.

[ion_exchanger]

You bring up excellent points. I did not think about it from that point of view. It's just my natural reaction to tense up and shy away from study groups. I'll give it a shot.