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.

Preparation

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 1

MultipleChoice_MjMzMDM=.xml

Task 2

Matching_MjMzMDQ=.xml

Discussion

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

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Language level

B2 Upper intermediate

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.