What Does a Study Skills Tutor Do?

Study Skills and Executive Function Coaching utilizes educational psychology and practical skill development to help students become better learners.

Someone asked me recently what subjects I tutor, and I ran through a list of familiar ones before mentioning something called “study skills.” He looked puzzled and asked the obvious question, “What is study skills tutoring?” In short, I told him, it’s learning how to learn.

His response was indicative of both the value of study skills and a common misconception many of us have about what academic success looks like: “I didn’t realize when I was in school that, essentially, that’s what I was doing—learning how to learn. I wish I had realized that earlier!” The misconception is to think that school is all about content. Classes can be taught this way, as if you actually need to know bivariate calculus or the impact of the War of 1812 on mercantilism for your future life. Of course, many facts are worth learning, but a much more foundational, lifelong skill you should be developing is simply knowing how to succeed as a student of anything.

HOW WE DEVELOP STUDY SKILLS 

In our proprietary study skills program, we look at four foundational pillars of study skills: 

• defining goals; 

• getting organized; 

• working smarter; and 

• building self-sufficiency. 

Students can work at any one of these areas independently, but real growth comes from cumulative, sustained development in each area, starting with a good foundation (more on that below). Throughout the curriculum, we focus holistically on both the practical skills needed to be a successful learner and the deeper, underlying psychology that shapes how we approach learning. We also take advantage of the latest research in brain science, executive functioning, and educational psychology to develop reliable, expert advice. In study skills tutoring, we help students develop study skills by presenting them with sound research, reflecting on their existing attitudes and habits, modeling best practices, and providing tools to make lasting, impactful change.

PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS 

As a preview of the kind of work that goes on in study skills tutoring, I’ll highlight a couple skills you could start developing right now.

One of the most important skills a middle schooler or high schooler can develop is regularly setting their own goals. Because so much of secondary school has built-in structure, students sometimes miss this opportunity, but setting your own goals gives you a sense of ownership a prescribed task rarely does. Goals also present a way to organize your time: if you want to get an A on an upcoming Chemistry exam, you need to chart out the steps that will lead you there. Once you identify these steps, schedule them into your week. We encourage students to set goals that have a concrete “what, when, and how,” which makes working towards a goal and measuring its success easier and much more effective.

Setting goals is a big-picture practice. What about something more concrete? Let’s talk about taking effective notes. The primary value of learning to take good notes—or any notes at all—isn’t where most students think it lies. Many of us think notes are for referencing later on. We need to look up a piece of information, and unless it’s in our notes, we won’t know it. This is half true at best.

The value of taking notes has more to do with active learning and engagement. Taking hand-written notes, in particular, leads to better comprehension and long term memory retention. How? When you take notes, you have to decide what information is important, since it’s impossible to transcribe everything. Deciding what’s important means you have to be critically engaged with the material. This also means that typing notes tends to be less useful, as most of us are too good at typing, so we mindlessly record as much as possible. 

Similarly, merely listening to a teacher or reading a presenter’s detailed slides is fundamentally passive and thus an inefficient and ineffective to truly learn.

CONCLUSION

Working with a private tutor can help you shape these practices to suit your own circumstances and needs, as few of us are able to achieve meaningful changes in our habits without experienced guidance and encouragement. Get in touch to learn how an expert study skills coach can support your student’s academic success. Ultimately, what we seek to develop is confident, self-sufficient learners that are experts at learning, no matter the subject.