How to Teach Study Skills to Teenagers

If you have teens in your house, you probably know how bad teenagers' study skills can be. Many adolescents do their homework sprawled out on their beds with papers falling everywhere, resulting in procrastination and missing assignments. Here are some tips to help.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Discuss your teenager's study habits with him. Ask him how he likes to study and why, what he feels his strengths and weaknesses are and similar questions. The stereotype of teenagers wanting to be left alone has some truth to it, but secretly most teens want their parents to show interest in their lives.
2. Decide if your teenager really needs help with their study skills. Even if he has messy handwriting and a cluttered room, if he's getting good grades, has time to socialize with his friends and carry out extracurricular activities, you should let well enough alone.
3. Teach your teenager organizational skills. Make sure that his binder is divided between classes and that each class folder contains the proper notes. Look at his backpack and make sure there aren't crumpled papers in the bottom. If there are, ask where they go.
4. Make a checklist of school subjects and extracurricular activities for your teen. Every day, go through and ask him what is due in the upcoming days in each subject. You might have to hammer him over the head with it for a while, but eventually he will start keeping track of this information on his own.
5. Help your teenager study for tests. Show him how to use flash cards and outlines. Make it clear that he can only study with friends once he improves his performance.