How to run a study group that works

Most study groups are social hour with a textbook nearby. A few rules turn them into the most effective hour of the week.

Explaining a problem to someone else is the strongest form of retrieval practice there is; you find out instantly whether you understand it. That is why good study groups work. The bad ones fail for predictable reasons: no plan, one person does the work, and everyone leaves feeling productive without having done any problems.

Setting it up

• Three to five people. Two is a tutoring session; six is a party.
• Post it as a study session in Mathub so people from your section can join, and pick a room in the library.
• Fixed time, weekly, 60 to 90 minutes. Groups that "figure out a time each week" stop meeting by week five.

The format

1. Everyone arrives having tried the problems. No exceptions. The group is for the ones you could not do, not for starting the homework.
2. Go around: each person names the problem that stuck. Sort the list by how many people got stuck.
3. For each problem, someone who got it explains at the whiteboard while the others try to poke holes. If nobody got it, work it together and flag it for office hours.
4. Last fifteen minutes: quiz each other from the flashcards or one Mathub practice set, on paper, in silence, then compare.

Rules that keep it useful

• Phones in a pile in the middle.
• Whoever explains has to do it without looking at their solution.
• Split up when it turns into chat; reconvene next week. No hard feelings.
• Rotate who runs the session so nobody becomes the unpaid tutor.