Creating a study group

Listen to the conversation about creating a study group to practise and improve your listening skills.

Do the preparation task first. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises.

Transcript

Ali: Hey, you guys, I've been looking for you. I've got an idea – a study group. What do you think? Are you interested?

Dina: Yes! I need a study group, in a big way.

Bea: Me too.

Ali: Do you think we have enough people here for a study group? I mean, there are only four of us …

Bea: Sorry. Three of us. Chris can't do study group. Right, Chris?

Chris: Yeah, there's no way I can do a study group. I have an assignment and then I'm too busy. But I'll stay for this first meeting.

Ali: Should we try and get another group together with us for this?

Bea: No, I don't think so. I think three is fine. Ideal size, really.

Dina: Me too.

Ali: OK, three people then. Four people for the first meeting. What next?

Bea: What about a meeting place? We can't meet here in the library …

Ali: It's not too bad, especially if those other people would go away.

Bea: But we can't exactly ask them to leave, and people might get annoyed with us talking.

Dina: Can I say something here?

Ali: Sure, go ahead.

Dina: There's a study hall next to the cafeteria. It's almost always empty. Could we meet there?

Ali: A study hall?! Who knew? Well, it sounds good to me.

Bea: Yeah. I've never been there but …

Ali: So, we ought to decide how long for and how often.

Dina: I read somewhere that you should make the meeting at the same time each week. Like a seminar. That way we'd take it more seriously.

Bea: We may as well make it for this time since we're all here. Is this time OK?

Dina: Works for me.

Ali: Me too.

Chris: Hang on just a minute. I know I'm not going to be in this group, but aren't we supposed to have a seminar at this time every other week?

Dina: Umm, no.

Bea: Thursday, no?

Ali: No, that's on Thursday.

Chris: Sorry. Forget I said anything.

Ali: Don't worry about it.

Bea: So everyone agrees that this time is fine? Every week?

Ali: How long should we make it?

Bea: An hour?

Dina: Could we find a way of making it two hours?

Ali: Two hours seems a bit like … too much. To start with then?

Bea: Ninety minutes? Compromise?

Ali: Is that OK with you, Dina?

Dina: Fine by me.

Ali: OK, so I guess all we have left to decide is exactly what we'll do when we meet. The final exam is a way off. I guess we could review our notes, or practise learning things by heart.

Dina: I have a list of dos and don'ts actually that I got online. I could be a moderator, and we could use the ideas as a starting point …

Task 2

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Discussion

Have you ever created a study group? What are your tips?

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Language level

B2 English level (upper intermediate)

Yes I have, when I was studying I have created more than one study group with some classmates, usually we created study groups to make some assignments or prepare main tests or exams. In my experience I could say that the next tips work fine to do study group:
+The group wouldn't have more than 5 members
+If the group has the same number of women and men is better than all men or women
+The members of the group wouldn't live far away one from each other.
+It's more convenient to set the same place, day and time for all the meetings

Thanks for the lesson.
Great site!

Yes, I have. It was during my exam period.
My tips are the following:
- to help the mates in the group by explaining sth they don't remember.
- to encourage other people to do it.
- to make a plan of work beginning with the most significant assignments.

I have ever created the study group for learning Japanese language. My tips is nothing special but I think we should divide the learning content into small parts for each member to learn. After a while, everyone will share what they had learned to each other and then discuss about it together. If we can do this, then it will save time for self-learning and always make sure that everyone had learned together and no body was lazy.

I have never created one but I have been in a group for our thesis. It's quite challenging as you have to start in gathering data and for validity you have to conduct a survey. In addition, neither spend so much time reading books in the library nor searching in the computer.

Yes during my college study me and my class fellows/friends planed for a study group. we created a study group named the Golden Stars Study Group. We were seven members of the GSSG. I gave some ideas and tips to my friends like, we can do group study every Saturday night from 9:00 pm to 11:00 pm near exam in the college hostel in my friend room. I gave a tip to my class fellows that every member of the group will arrange a quiz competition every week for education improvement of our group study.

many years ago, i and one friend make a group and study English and study TOEFL book.

HI! From Dom. Rep. I must say I've passed so much time on study groups that I feel like Neil Armstrong, when he gave the first step over the moon, in those things. The most important thing you should keep on mind, as the leader, is not to worry about what you must do or how you must do it just to find the best solution for everybody, it's better when you aren't under pressure, you should see what the rest of the team thinks about your idea and what you think about their ideas.

Yes. I created a study group with four people. We discuss about our subject related things. One group is big way. Members of this group is about 40 people including professor. In this covid period my country facing very big challenges and announced lockdown. Group is very helpful in this time. Where we share about ideas and professor's advice about some things.

When I have problems in a class I like to make a study group with my friends, that's an easy way to pass exams

I had a study group with my prof and some of my best classmates. We were studied management theories every week and reviewed our notes. That was a good way to memorize theories. That study group makes us good friends to each other.

I've neither created nor been in a study group, I don't like to study with people, I prefer to study and stay alone.

I was like you. I preferred to study alone. But I experienced some good study group and now I tend to be a member of it. I suggest you to experience it for once.

Yes I have. It’s a good way to learn some difficult subject. It’s awesome because sometimes I can understand better in a study group than at class. A terrible important tip is to join with people who are disciplined and like to study. Other ways you can get bad habits and you will waste valuable time.

According to my experience, a study group is a very effective way that could assist and encourage students to improve themselves and profit from each other's ideas and tips. However there is always pros and cons: some students are so apathetic and do not prepare well, they just rely on the others and don't even give an effort.

Working a group is better than working a lone as well as studying a group is much more benefit than a lone. Therefore, we can discuss and share all of thing together, but it is crucial thing that we should choose people concern also about the same goal. If not, we are easily to make something get annoyed. Then we can't feel more comfortable each other, so we sperate it. In our job, f we have a great group the same ideas, we can overwork a number of difficulties. This is one of reason, we will succeed with the best group. The more we understand together, the more we achieve our goal.

I found the podcasts absolutely fantastic, they are absolutely perfect, the quiz also helps to make sure that we have understood the podcast accurately, I would like to thank you for this great job, by the way, is it possible to download the audio file, is so, I would be thankful if you tell me how does that work.

Hi Mahdi.t78,

Thanks for your kind comments :)

Yes, you can download the audio if you right-click on the audio player (the grey bar). Then, choose the 'Save audio as ...' option.

Best wishes,

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

I remember once a little group of study when I was at University. We formed a group of four people but it was a completely mess because one of them was very talkative and other girl was always distracted , so my friend an I decided not to participate anymore. After this experience we decided to look for people with similar intereset and personalities by an interview. It really worked.

No, but I have created a group to make a study presentation in school. It was a little bit tiresome to guide, but it went good in the end.

Yes, I have created study group of my class fellows. Study in group can be helpful in many ways. Group study can ease our predicament. We can get guidelines from fellow students to learn a topic. Group study is very beneficial in sharing knowledge and gaining confidence of attempting a paper.

Good evening, I need help. I don't understand why the answer to Task 1 - 4 is "every two weeks on thursday".

Hello andreaz98,

Chris says that they have a seminar every other week, which means every two weeks. He thinks that it is today, but the others correct him and tell him that the seminar is on Thursday. Thus, the seminar is on Thursday every two weeks.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

me too, I find it confusing as they agreed same time every week.

Actually no, I like studying on my own and preferably in my room. I easily lose my concentration, so studying with people makes it hard for me to be fully concentrated on my work. I had loads of group assignments and projects when I was at university, fortunately, technology was always there to help us work together without having to study in group.. Most of the time, only a few short meetings were necessary to assign tasks and monitor the project's progress. I'd never been able to carry something out with other people, because I was kind of perfectionist. As time has gone by, I have been taught a fairly valuable lesson; we live in a community and we are meant to help each other, variety is wealth so the share of ideas and effort often leads to better results.

Yes, I have created study groups at university. In my degree we had to do a lot of group work, where over 4-5 people were needed. I used to work along with my friends, but we didn´t work efficiently because there was so confidence between us. That made that we left our duties for the last minute, and as you can guess, the final result was a mess. From time to time, I worked along with randomly people of the class, and I enjoyed it because I discovered new and interesting points of view, different ways of seeing life. Cheers from Madrid.

I never created a study group at university. I always joined with other mates to realize some tasks but never a big deal, through the university I used to study with a friend in the library, her home or cateria, we tried to choose the same subjects to help us each other.. I just know that little groups work better than big ones, big groups sometimes could be a disorder and choosing properly your mates could work to avoid lazy people.

Yes, I've created a study group at the university, and usually, people join with others because of convenience, so that somebody has better knowledge of a specific topic and you need to get a good degree or simply learning more, or sometimes people is a little bit competitive and trying to do the best possible group.

When I was at the university, I used to study every weekend in a group consisted for four students, and it lasted for five years. We studied very hard on average of eight hours a day, at the beginning it was so stressful, but we got used to it, now we are majored.

Yes, i had created a study group when i was at last level in my college to present a capstone project, my advice to others choose good people to be with you.

No. I got invited into a study group in a cafe once, there were many study groups in that place as well which made me not so comfortable. I didn't feel like it was effective for me. After that, I always rejected invitations to any study group. Up until now, I prefer studying alone.

No,I haven’t created a study group but I wish I could have friends also interested in learning English to do so.We would probably create a study group because I love to study and I love English and my big dream is to speak like a native.

No I've never created a study group ,but once I took part in similar events. It was a training on sustainable development. We discussed with teachers and students what we can do for our planet. This event took place in the school. It was great!

It's one of those hard-to-answer questions because I've never created any study group and I've even never been a part of one. All the experience I have - studied together with my best mate a couple of times in the library or at home. It's obviously not the same. But, I have enough experience working in a small team so I think I may give some advices. First. It has to be quite a small team. Fewer people - less noise and easier to organize your meetings. Second. You need to choose co-learners properly. They have to be well-organized and responsible to not spoil your efforts. Third. You badly need a schedule. All of us have our own life (not just study) and to cope with our needs (work, family, fitness, yoga, etc) we need to know about future activities in advance. Fourth. Your study-meeting has to be not too long. I think about an hour or so. Otherwise, you might get tired at the end and it would lead you to lesser effectiveness of your lessons. Fifth. But, if you want to study longer than an hour, I think a little coffee-break would help you to stay fresh and ready for new tasks.

To be honest, I have created a study group. We often met in early days before we had examinations. I prepare materials and knowledge for the terminal sufficiently . It was very effective and salutary for each of us. By the way I can not find any lines in the text that they said about they had another seminar every two weeks on Thursday.

Hello Giahaitruong,

The part of the conversation where they mention this is the following.

Chris: Hang on just a minute. I know I'm not going to be in this group, but aren't we supposed to have a seminar at this time every other week?

Dina: Umm, no.

Bea: Thursday, no?

Ali: No, that's on Thursday.

Chris: Sorry. Forget I said anything.

Dina and Ali say that it's on Thursday every other week, not today. Chris realises he was wrong and apologises for the confusion.

Does that make sense now?

All the best,

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Hi Razan Mahairy,

No, there's no problem at all. Thanks for your comment!

We check all comments first before they are published, so they won't appear immediately. You can find the full list of House rules here: https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/house-rules

Best wishes,

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

yes i have created a study group with 3 people. It's quite effective to get focus on. We make the motivation to study better and if we have assignment or any problem, we'll exchange together and it's solved faster. there are some tips for u to create study group: Make a decision about the place and time to meet. Before meeting, you have to prepare what would we discuss? it will be better if you can come up with some idea for the problem.

no,i haven't been in study group before,but i think it great way to study for tasks!

I think study group may waste my time and make less concentration but if it’s organized well this could lead to having good results and if I decide to make study group, my tips will be, firstly The meeting should be at the same time every week to feel more seriously. secondly it should be not more than four persons in order to be more focus and finally it shouldn’t take more than two hours. Study group may help in exchange point of view and get knowledge to new ideas of others . Pls is there any mistake in writing ?

No, i haven't And i think it is not good idea. It may waste your time. In addition, you may not concentrate when you study in a group

Yes, I took part in a group for while. There was nobody in charge, we decided what we were going to read and we had meetings regularly. The meetings lasted for hours, like three hours.

Yes. I had. The tips include: - Having a number of 2 individuals and above. - Having a meeting point or venue. - Choosing time and duration of meeting. - Deciding on days of meeting. - Having someone as a moderator or coordinator. - And having some rules serving as do and don't for the group.

Yes, I created a study group when I was in college, but it was difficult because everyone has different times. I think it is very important for you to study with friends or people with whom you feel comfortable, in this way learning is more meaningful and you can be more constant in your process.

hi can you please tell me if my writing is correct

Hello yoyoraw

I'm afraid we don't correct users' texts. If you have a question about a specific word or part of a sentence, we're happy to help you with that.

But I can say that your text is quite clear and the only error I spotted was 'its', which should be 'it's'.

All the best

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Actually no i have not created a study group before. But, i would like to be in a group one day, because i feel its a useful way of studying. Plus, its more fun to study with a group than being alone .

I've never created group study but i think it's a great way to motivate each other and to make us more smart. My tips : - for making group study four or five people is enough because more than 5 become more crowd and hard to get focus on. - Consistent, if we had make a deal to make group discussion then we decide the day and time we will meet. Be consistent to do the group discussion. Sometimes only on the beginning we have to do then later become stuck and finish.

Hello, I haven't created a study group, not a stric group but I had been in a lot of group depending of the assignment and if we want to get a higher degree we used to have meetings in differents places. A few years ago we didn't have cellphone's and we get focused on what we had to do, not as these days how Mujtabaaman says, were all the students have mobile cellphone's and they get easily distracted

Creating a study group

Preparation

Transcript

Task 1

Task 2

Discussion

Language level