How to make a study guide that students actually use

Rereading notes feels like studying and does little. Testing yourself does more, which is why the best study guides are closer to a practice test with a map than to a summary. The method below takes about an hour for a unit, and most of that hour goes on deciding what to leave out.

Step 1: List the skills, not the topics

Start from your learning objectives. "Photosynthesis" is a topic; "explain how light energy becomes chemical energy in a leaf" is something a student can practise. Aim for 6 to 10 skills for a unit test. More than that, and the guide stops being a guide.

Step 2: For each skill, write four lines

1. The idea in one or two sentences. Plain words, the way you would say it at the board.
2. The trap. The wrong idea students most often bring, and why it is tempting.
3. A worked example with the reasoning shown, not just the answer.
4. A self-test question with the answer on the back of the page or at the end.

Line two is the one most guides skip, and it is the one that stops students repeating the mistake. If you want help finding traps, the distractor guide shows how to mine them.

Step 3: Tell students how to use it

Put these instructions at the top, because the usual use is wrong:

• Cover the page. Try the self-test question first.
• Check. If you were right, move on. If not, read the idea and the trap, then try again tomorrow.
• Spread it over several days. Three short sessions beat one long one.
• Put a star next to anything you missed and start there next time.

Step 4: Cut

Read the guide as a tired thirteen-year-old. Anything that is not an idea, a trap, an example or a question can go. A guide of one page per two or three skills is easier to start than one of twelve pages.

Using ClassSense for the raw material

1. On the Skill Packs tab, open each pack for the unit. The learning objective gives you a skill statement, the three explanations give you wording at different depths, and the Misconceptions list gives you the traps.
2. Read it first. AI makes mistakes, and you are the final check (see how to check AI lessons for errors).
3. Copy what you want into your own document and cut it to the four lines above.
4. For a printable version of practice, use Create Content: a Worksheet (guided practice with an answer key) or Task Cards (printable question cards). Both download as Word files. Select a published skill pack, press the generate button, and expect it to take 15 to 30 seconds.

Students can also revisit published skill packs themselves, each with a review page and practice, so a guide can tell them which pack to open for each skill. To see how that goes for the class, check the Students tab afterward. The study guide generator page covers the product side, and retrieval practice explains why the self-test comes first.

Common mistakes

• A summary of the textbook. Students already have the textbook.
• No answers. A self-test without an answer key just produces anxiety.
• Given the night before. A guide handed out at the start of the unit, and updated as you go, gets used.
• Same guide for everyone. Where class data shows a skill is shaky, add one extra example for that skill.

Common questions