Undergraduate students who initially perform poorly usually continue to do so. Strategies designed to help students are often voluntary, or too general, and don’t tend to reach those most in need. What can help low performers improve? In a large (>150) introductory geoscience course, students who failed the first exam were randomly assigned to meet with an instructor and participate in a targeted intervention focused either on (1) study skills, or (2) course content. The study skills intervention addressed how to use instructor-articulated learning goals to focus one’s study time. In the content intervention, instructors helped students with content they had missed on the first exam. Was one of these interventions more effective than the other? For failing students who self-reported study times for the first exam greater than the class median (i.e. students who appear to be wasting their study time the most), those who participated in the study skills intervention increased their average z-scores on the second exam by about 0.9 standard deviations without increasing their study time. Students who participated in a content-focused meeting improved their z-scores almost as much, but increased their study time. Surveys administered both prior to the intervention meetings, then again at the end of term, show that although both groups claimed to have changed their study habits during the term, only those who participated in the study skills intervention responded differently at the end of term regarding specific actions they took to study.

Becoming an expert, self-directed learner who generates and pursues one’s own learning goals takes practice. The study skills intervention used here gives students tools and opportunities to practice effective studying in a specific context. Key to success is that this course has well-aligned goals, learning opportunities, and assessments. Class time is structured around learning goals and exams are written to assess those goals. In this case, a short meeting with an instructor appears to generate desired studying behaviors in initially failing students, without increasing student study time. A content meeting, though standard practice, appears to also increase exam scores, but at a cost: more study time. In either case, those at the bottom of the class are not hopeless.