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

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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.