Study Skill Checklist

What are your study habits and attitudes? Read each statement and consider how it applies to you. If it does apply to you, check Y. If it does not apply to you check N.

 

1.       ___Y___N            I spend too much time studying for what I am learning.

 

2.       ___Y___N            I usually spend hours cramming the night before an exam.

 

3.       ___Y___N            If I spend as much time on my social activities as I want to, I don’t have enough time left to study, or when I study enough, I don’t have time for a social life.

 

4.       ___Y___N            I usually try and study with the radio and TV turned on.

 

5.       ___Y___N            I can’t sit and study for long periods of time without becoming tired or distracted.

 

6.       ___Y___N            I go to class, but I usually doodle, daydream, or fall asleep.

 

7.       ___Y___N            My class notes are sometimes difficult to understand later.

 

8.       ___Y___N            I usually seem to get wrong material into my class notes.

 

9.       ___Y___N            I don’t review my class notes periodically throughout the semester in preparation for exams.

 

10.  ___Y___N            When I get to the end of a chapter, I can’t remember what I’ve just read.

 

11.  ___Y___N            I don’t know how to pick out what is important in the text.

 

12.  ___Y___N            I can’t keep up with my reading assignments, and then I have to cram the night before.

 

13.  ___Y___N            I lose a lot of points on essay tests even when I know the material well. 

 

14.  ___Y___N            I study enough for my test, but when I get there my mind goes blank.

 

15.  ___Y___N            I often study in a haphazard, disorganized way under the threat of the next exam.

 

16.  ___Y___N            I often find myself getting lost in the details of reading and have trouble identifying the main ideas.

 

17.  ___Y___N            I rarely change my reading speed in response to the difficulty level, or my familiarity with the content.

 

18.  ___Y___N            I often wish that I could read faster.

 

19.  ___Y___N            When my teachers assign papers, I feel so overwhelmed that I can’t get started.

 

20.  ___Y___N            I usually write my papers the night before they are due.

 

21.  ___Y___N            I can’t seem to organize my thoughts into a paper that makes sense.

SCORING

 

Within each of these number groups, did you check Y/Yes two or more times? If so, the adjacent section states what you should be focusing on in order to improve your study skills.

Adapted from Virginia Tech’s Cook Counseling Center

www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/checklis.html