Effect of Quality and Quantity of Study on Student Grades

Abstract

In this study we investigated the relationship between study time and test scores in a course on learning principles for college education majors. The students were required to keep a continuous log of the amount of time that they spent reading, reviewing, and organizing for the course. Weak relationships with test scores were found for total study time and time spent reviewing. A much stronger relationship was found for time spent organizing the course content. An extreme-groups analysis revealed that students with high test scores spent 40 min per week organizing compared with 10 min per week for students with low test scores. The results support the importance that information-processing theorists attribute to active learning strategies.