Division of study group

Classification essay sample

There are many ways to study, and the choices a student makes to get through college are
basically a means to an end that hopefully leads to knowledge, a high grade, and future success.
While the study skills a student has may develop over time, they are often combined with innate
skill that can be frustrating to those who do not come by the skills naturally. No matter what
study method a student uses, there are benefits and drawbacks to each method. To have one
study style is to have found a compromise between the costs and the rewards of those study
habits to gain whatever academic achievements a student deems important. The purpose of this
paper is to articulate the division of study skills used by college students and explain some of
their advantages and disadvantages.
The first type of study skill used by very few students is the dedicated, motivated method. These
students typically have good grades, but they earned them through hard work. Often, these
students do not know the meaning of the word procrastination. They do not hurry through their
assignments because they start them early. They do not stress about due dates because they are
finished early. They have time to contemplate and learn to a greater extent because that is what
they spend their leisure time doing, schoolwork. This is the greatest drawback to this plan, time
consumption. The students using these study skills are very good at schoolwork, but they have
little time for anything else. It the long-term, some would argue that this does not matter because
school takes up very little time relative to a lifetime, but others would argue that it’s a waste of
the college experience. The conundrum lies in the tradeoff between fun and dedication, but those
who have this skill do not necessarily see it as a problem.

There are also students who are very particular about their conditions when studying. They may
require complete silence and not be able to study unless they can find a quiet environment.
Others carry headphones to drown out outside sound from their hearing range. Some must have a
certain writing utensil, lighting condition, or other specific item to study effectively. The
advantage to this study skill is that the student has found a tool that will allow them to study. The
disadvantage is that they cannot study without this tool. It is a crutch, but as long as it’s
available, there is no problem.

Night owls are students that like to study late into the night. They are likely late to their classes,
but they make up for it by studying into the wee hours of the morning. Sometimes these people
go to the library to keep their focus on their studies. Often, night owls fall simultaneously under
the category of procrastinators because they have to get their work done before their class the
next morning. The advantage to this study skill is that the person is accomplishing the task at
hand, even though it is late at night. The disadvantage is that they are likely forgoing other
commitments in the morning, and they are possibly giving up social time.

The opposite of night owls exists, but they are rare. These individuals get up early to study prior
to class. This can be a benefit because many students have more effective learning capacity first
thing in the morning. However, the effort that is used on early morning study is lost in early
morning classes, where a student has already exhausted some of his or her ability for the day.
The procrastinator is the most infamous of all the study habits. Waiting until the last minute is
never advised, but some people do their best work at crunch time. Working on a strict deadline
creates a stressful environment in which some thrive. You’ll often hear of people racing to class
after turning in an assignment two minutes prior to the deadline, and although exasperated, they
are performing life as usual. The advantage to the study skills of the procrastinator are that they
are able to connect haphazard, disorganized, and poorly learned material into cohesive,
intelligible work. It takes skill to create acceptable work in those conditions. However, the
procrastinator loses the permanency of learning that occurs with quality time spent studying.

The last study skill is inexplicable unless you possess it. There are some who seem to absorb
content through lecture and osmosis. Every college student who is not one of these magical
learners has known one or heard of one. These are the students that show to every social
gathering, possibly stay up late, and they ace their exams every time. They are sponges that
absorb information, and they have active enough social lives that they could not have learned in
any other environment than in the classroom. The advantage to this is obvious because they don’t
require repetition or time to contemplate to learn. The disadvantage is that when instructors do
not fully teach out of the classroom, there is no way these students can ingest the content
required for an A. However, they sometimes inexplicably do.

The division of study skills is vast and varied, and it ultimately does not matter which skill a
student has, as long as it is a means to a passing grade and a furtherance toward success. While
each student is shackled with their particular learning style, they can usually find the advantages
of their method and focus on success with that method. For others, they must remove those
shackles and change their ways, but that is a more difficult process.