What Are Study Skills and Why Are They So Important?

“Study Skills. Study Skills. Study Skills. Study Skills. Study Skills.”

Say that five times fast! Not easy, huh?

Neither is it easy to study effectively, especially if you’ve never been taught how.

But let’s take a step back. What exactly are study skills? Why are they important to teach explicitly? And how can we teach them most effectively to students?

In many educational settings, study skills are often viewed through a traditional lens—typically as a set of techniques that help students manage their workload and improve their performance.

However, our approach here in the Anti-Boring Learning Lab offers a more dynamic, evidence-based, and engaging perspective on what it means to study effectively.

Let’s take a closer look at the differences between conventional views on study skills and the approach we advocate in the Anti-Boring Learning Lab:

Traditional views of study kills

1. Focus on Techniques: Traditional views tend to emphasize specific techniques for studying, such as time management, note-taking, and test preparation. The goal is often to improve academic performance in a somewhat standardized way.

2. Teacher-Centric: Often, these skills are taught to students by educators as a set of prescriptive methods. The assumption is that if students follow these methods, their study habits will improve.

3. One-Size-Fits-All: Teachers often share the strategy that worked best for them when they were students, assuming that this strategy will work for the student as well

4. Static Strategies: The techniques are usually presented as static strategies that students are expected to apply uniformly across different subjects and tasks.

5. Short-Term Focus: The emphasis is frequently on helping students get through immediate academic challenges, such as exams or assignments, rather than fostering long-term learning habits.

Anti-Boring Learning Lab's perspective on study skills

1. Curriculum Design for Self-Learning: I’ve often wondered why we emphasize teaching teachers how to design effective curricula, yet it never occurs to anyone to teach students the same skills. In the Anti-Boring Learning Lab, we see studying as a form of “curriculum design centered on one’s own learning.” Studying is self-teaching, after all. Here’s an insightful article on how students can benefit from self-directed learning strategies.

2. Student Empowerment: Instead of relying on teachers to be constantly innovative and engaging, students learn to keep their own brains active and interested. By learning effective study strategies, they can take control of their own learning experience, including managing their engagement and preventing boredom.

3. Evidence-Based Practices: Our methods are grounded in the science of learning. We incorporate research-backed strategies such as spaced repetition and retrieval practice. This evidence-based approach ensures that the study techniques students use are effective and supported by cognitive science, making learning more effective and less tedious.

4. Long-Term Learning: We aim to equip students with skills that not only support their current academic work but also foster lifelong learning habits. By integrating these dynamic study skills into their daily routines, students become better prepared for future challenges, both in education and beyond.

5. Dynamic Skills Development: Our approach involves teaching four major skill sets: Get Active, Get Manipulative, Get Quizzable, and Get in Gear. These skills are designed to make learning both enjoyable and effective. By using hands-on activities, self-testing, and organizational strategies, students can actively engage with the material and maintain their motivation.

In other words, our approach defines studying as activities students design for themselves to cement their learning so that they can effectively show what they know in school and in life.

Although students are not usually in charge of the content or skills they are taught, they are in charge of how they choose to study that content.

Distasteful as studying may be to many students, it's one of the only times in schools & universities during which students are IN CHARGE of HOW they learn. That's actually pretty cool.

The four skillsets students need to study effectively

We strongly believe that students need more than just strategies for how to study effectively. Instead, they also need to understand the science behind why those strategies work.

To that end, all the study skills we teach as a part of the Anti-Boring Toolkit come with an explanation for:

1. The brain science behind why that strategy works

2. How to most effectively implement the strategy by putting that brain science into action, and

3. How to personalize the strategy to the student’s interests as well as their unique neurodiversity profile.

We’ve also broken up the skills a student needs to study most effectively into these four skillsets.

1. Get Active: First and foremost, a student needs to understand the difference between passive and active learning. They need to be able to notice when they have become passive, and make the intentional choice to become active learners instead.

2. Get Manipulative: We also believe that students need to have the tools and resources to interact with and manipulate information to make it their own. There are countless ways to “manipulate” information, but we like to focus on a variety of note-taking strategies to help students own the information and skills they are learning.

3. Get Quizzable: The science of learning reveals that retrieval practice is the single most effective action a student can take to consolidate their learning. We believe it’s important to teach a students variety of self-testing and quizzing methods so that they develop the habit of proving what they know to themselves before being tested by their teachers.

4. Get in Gear: Finally, what good is it to know how to study if you don’t actually put these strategies into action?! This is why organization, time management, planning, and self-regulation skills are all a part of effective study skills, as well.

In sum, studying is not just about cramming for the next test or following a rigid set of guidelines passed down by teachers. It’s an opportunity for students to take control of their own learning, to experiment with different strategies, and to develop habits that will serve them well beyond the classroom.

At the Anti-Boring Learning Lab, we believe that by empowering students with the right tools, understanding the science behind their study methods, and encouraging them to personalize their approach, we can transform studying from a tedious chore into an empowering and lifelong skill. After all, when students are equipped to design their own learning experiences, they aren’t just preparing for exams—they’re preparing for life.

Excited to learn more?!

In October, the Anti-Boring Learning Lab will be hosting The Art of Motivating Students to Study: a free study skills summit for academic coaches and tutors. It will be a wonderful opportunity for educators of all kinds to learn specific study skills to address specific learning situations. Join the waitlist to be the first to know when the doors open!