How to Make a Study Guide
Study guides can be an extremely helpful tool to organize and structure your learning on a particular subject. They can help foster comprehension and aid in consolidating your notes by summarizing large amounts of information into a single source.
What is a Study Guide?
Study guides are collections of overarching concepts and the important materials, topics, and notes in a subject. They are designed to aid students in preparing for exams, writing papers, and increasing overall subject comprehension. Study guides not only help you structure studying sessions, but they also help teach general organization skills and time management.
While study guides in subjects such as math and science will usually consist of problems and formulas similar to those on an exam, other subjects like literature will be structured a bit differently. In many cases, they will include summaries of relevant chapters, character and plot analyses, and open-ended questions designed to encourage critical examination of the novel or overall subject.
Because study guides are designed to organize and highlight important details to increase comprehension, they generally have a structured format and are specific in their expectations. However, there are a number of ways to go about designing a study guide depending on the subject and your needs.
How to Create a Study Guide
While the goal is to consolidate and highlight key concepts in a subject, the process of creating a study guide can be challenging. Before you begin organizing your guide, it’s a good idea to think about what your goals are. Do you want to focus on certain aspects of the lesson? Are you using it to study for a specific exam or paper? Try writing down your main goals to help you stay focused on what’s most important. You’ll also want to consolidate your notes and any past studying you’ve done on the subject to help you determine what to focus on.
Once you have clear goals and have chosen the scope of information you want to include, now is the time to consider the most effective way of presenting the information.
If it’s for a subject like math and your study guide will be used to prepare for exams, then it should include succinct descriptions of concepts and allow for extensive applications of these concepts through practice problems. If the subject is literature or poetry, then you’ll want to focus on comprehension and context and encourage in-depth analysis.
Study Guide Formats
How you choose to format your study guide will depend on what subject you’re studying as well as your learning style. Some students prefer more visual study guides, while others prefer text-rich guides. It’s a good idea to experiment with different formats until you find one that works for you.
Concept Map
If you’re a visual learner, you may find it helpful to create a concept map. These are visual diagrams that allow you to organize information or ideas spatially, rather than linearly. You start with one central, overarching idea. Write that idea down using just a few words, and place a box around it. You can then create additional boxes (related concepts) that you connect to the main idea with lines and/or arrows.
Comparison Chart
Another format to consider is a comparison chart. These can be great for understanding the similarities and differences between two concepts. Consider using this format to compare two or more scientific theories or two or more characters from a novel you’re reading.
Concept Cards
Concept cards are a great way to summarize complex information and help with memorization. They’re basically flash cards, but with more in-depth information. You write the concept (character, event, scientific theory, mathematical formula, etc.) on the front of the card. On the back, you write whatever is most important to know about that concept. It’s a good idea to source the information with a page number or other indicator so you know where to find it.
Timelines
Timelines are another popular format that can be very helpful in understanding sequences of events. As you might expect, they lend themselves especially well to history, but they can be useful in many other subjects as well. In literature, they can be a great way to summarize or map out key plot points, for example.
These are just a few formats to consider. Play around with these and other formats until you find what suits you and the subject matter you’re learning about.
Study Guide Examples
From practice tests and concept cards to summaries and timelines, study guides that comprehensively cover the material you’re studying can help enrich your learning experience, encourage critical thinking, and help you retain the information.
Breaking down your studying into distinct exercises, each with a specific focus, can help you dive deeper into the subject matter and develop a more thorough understanding of the material. When you’re studying literature, for example, having separate sections of your study guide for spelling and comprehension can help focus your learning.
Here are some examples of study guides that have been specifically developed for students studying particular works of literature.
Study Guide Template
A study guide should help organize your learning, allowing you to study a broad field such as chemistry or geography in a more focused and detailed way. The following template is designed to help students studying subjects like literature and poetry to focus on specific factors of learning, one by one.
Comprehension
Reading comprehension is about understanding the what, whom, when, why, and how of the material you’re engaging with. The comprehension section of your study guide should include prompts like: “How old was [character] when he left home?” or “How did [character] feel about her mother’s illness?”
Enrichment & Writing
Reading is more fulfilling when you enrich the experience with your own perspectives and understanding through additional methods. An enrichment and writing section of a study guide might encourage you to write a paragraph about your favorite chapter, create a watercolor painting to express the emotions in the story, or select bible verses that enrich the narrative.
Grammar
Simply put, grammar is a set of rules that govern words, sentences, and other elements of writing. Learning how to use grammar correctly is an important part of reading and writing skillfully. The grammar section of your study guide should include example sentences with grammatical errors and prompt you to identify and/or correct them.
Spelling
Despite common misconceptions, studying spelling is about more than memorizing the order of letters. The way a word is spelled can tell you a lot about its origin, root, and meaning. The spelling section of a study guide should include workbook-style techniques such as fill-in-the-blanks, example words to make flashcards, and more.
Vocabulary
While spelling is about the physical components that comprise a word (letters), vocabulary is about the word’s meaning. Studying the meaning – or meanings – of words strengthens your abilities as a reader. The vocabulary section of a study guide should include prompts like “Explain the meaning of Exquisite.” or “Describe all the possible meanings of the word Date.”
Enrich Your Reading and Learning Experience
The Total Language Plus program uses the “discover, do, drill” approach to help students develop their communication and critical thinking skills through the study of literature.