If You Want to Do Better at School, Ask for Help
Studying can seem like a solitary activity – looking back on my student days, I remember sitting alone at my desk with my textbooks, markers, cans of Coca-Cola and growing self-doubt. If I didn’t understand the concept or couldn’t find the answer, I would frantically dig through the pages, thinking that maybe I’ve missed a clue. If it still seemed hopeless, I would have slept explaining that perhaps some way a revelation would appear in my dreams. (This usually did not happen.)
Get out those Trapper Keepers and sharpen your # 2 pencils – it’s a week back to school ! Going far beyond the classroom, Lifehacker offers you ingenious tricks and ideas on how to get started on a chore, brush up on old skills, or learn something new this fall.
Science argues that there is a more effective tactic that students don’t address enough: asking for help . (Rats, I was hoping I would need to buy more markers.)
The Wall Street Journal article covers a 2016 study by researchers at the University of St.Louis that enrolled 414 college students in introductory science courses. Those who sought help from their instructors during working hours were more likely to receive an A, but fewer than 1 in 5 students did. It was not that hours were necessarily the key to good results, but what mattered was that these students adopted what the WSJ calls an “activist approach”. This meant that they held themselves accountable for achieving their goals, so if they ever didn’t understand anything, they asked teachers or classmates or looked for other resources for guidance.
Professors expect students to master this skill before going to college, but many have not. Factors can be culture and gender (men tend to seek help less often ), as well as fear of “bothering” a busy teacher or being unprepared. One study by a psychologist at the University of Michigan found that as they get older, children are less likely to ask classmates for help understanding concepts and are more likely to just want to copy their homework. But, according to experts, seeking help can improve the effectiveness of training. Simple reading and re-reading of the material does not fix it in memory.
Chemistry teacher James Kennedy even recorded his observations in his own class.
Kennedy writes:
I looked in my inbox for the names of each student I teach, and then I counted hundreds of questions they have asked me together since the beginning of the school year. I grouped students by quartile and plotted the average number of questions asked over the past few months, compared to their current performance.
The results were shocking: Not only did the more successful students email me more questions than the less successful students, but the correlation was surprisingly strong (R2 = 71%). This begs the question: Do successful students get higher grades because they ask for more help? Is there a causal relationship between getting extra help from a teacher and getting a higher grade? Common sense dictates that there is.
Learning to confidently ask for help with your studies is something that takes practice. Here are some tips for students on how to connect with others to achieve more:
- Use the 5 minute rule. Kennedy writes that you should seek help from your teacher or tutor if you have been stuck on a question for more than five minutes and have not made any progress.
- Find or create a partner or training group. A 2015 study found that students who gathered in groups and surveyed each other on a weekly basis scored higher than those who used other teaching methods.
- If you are nervous about asking a teacher in person for help, email him or her. Remember to be specific about your request and be aware that by asking the question, you are showing that you want to do your best.