Helping Your Middle School Teen to Learn How To Study

The National Association for College Admission Counseling (2007) lists the following ways that parents can help their middle school teen:

It is no surprise to you as parents that good study skills can help your child succeed in school. Your job is to provide a nurturing and supportive environment so that teens want to learn. Now that your teens are taking more courses, you can begin to teach them how to develop their personalized schedule, which includes school and activities outside of school. This schedule can be kept in their rooms or on the refrigerator, as well as in their school notebooks.

At home, teach them how to study smart and efficiently by:
• Identifying a comfortable place in the home to study
• Clearing off the desk or workplace; only include relevant material
• Making sure they have all the materials they need
• Encouraging them to study at the same time every day if possible. Regular study time is ideal
• Making sure the space is quiet (Some teens like studying with music, and that’s fine as long as you see results)
• Taking them to the library, recommending it as another place to study
• Making sure they know how to use the different resources in the library. This will be helpful when they have to write research papers
• Making sure they understand the difference between doing homework, reviewing homework and studying for exams.