The common room is an unusual balance between a college dorm and home: a diffuser and decorative blankets offsetting the string lights and The Office posters. The folding banquet table-turned coffee table is covered with laptops, notebooks, pens, mugs of tea, and this semester’s favorite snack—Tostitos chips and various Trader Joe’s dips. Scattered on the couches and floor, three college seniors, all exercise science majors, among them Tara Weingartner, work in harmony.
Down the hall, in a similarly decorated room, surrounded by notes and cups of tea I will likely never remember to drink, I translate Herodotus to the sounds of the scores of Alexandre Desplat or Edvard Grieg.
I have noticed this difference in study habits over the last few months; as the fourth wheel in a trio of best friends, finding my footing amongst them has required a bit of observation. While they like to study together in the common room, I study alone in my room.
Quite possibly this is because they are social people who like each other while I am rather shy, but I think it may be rooted more in our fields of study and required courses. The humanities may lend themselves more to independent work, as opposed to the collaborative science classes, but students of the humanities can still find some benefit to collaborative work.
Tara had been interested in perusing nursing, athletic training, or other health programs before choosing exercise science. “It’s easier to have a job through hard times, such as a pandemic,” she says. “You’re needed.”
She says that she had been drawn to STEM fields after discovering that the humanities were not for her. The exercise science program requires, in addition to the occasional psychology course, mostly math and science classes.
“Your basic all-around sciences,” roommate Kristin Hood says. The exercise science major requires a variety of different science courses including everything from 100-level physics, biology, and chemistry to more specialized kinesiology and exercise prescription courses.
“Labs, lots of labs,” Tara adds. “And you don’t even get to pick your group.”
Lab exercises always involve group work, though Brie Dul, another of Tara’s roommates finds that the people in your group can make all the difference. In her chemistry lab, the groups often change every week.
“I like when I know how a person works,” she says, noting that working with experienced partners helps her to determine how well they will progress through the lab. “When we all had physics together it was more fun, and we got the work done.”
When they don’t have classes together, Tara, Kristin, and Brie still find working together helpful and fun.
All three note that their study methods depend on the severity of the assignment. Often, they first isolate and study alone before coming together to review. Quizlets, which Tara usually creates, are popular study recourses.
Generally, Tara creates her complete study strategy after the classes’ first exam. “That’s how you can determine the professor,” she says, “once you pick up their rhythm and what they do, that’s how I base my studying.”
In addition to Quizlet, Tara uses programs such as Notably, Grammarly, Chegg, and the Brightspace app to take notes on her iPad, review her writing, and keep up with her course materials.
After studying alone, they often come together to quiz each other and review more as a group, building off of what they had already learned by themselves. They have found that they have different note-taking methods and have taken many of the same courses with different professors, which allows them to compare notes.
“They may know something that you don’t that could be helpful for whatever you’re studying for,” Kristin says.
Many of their science professors recommend making study groups, Kristin says. “We’re all the same major, so why not? And we live together.”
Tara doubts that she would have joined a group—or been as successful in her classes—if she did not have her two friends.
But even when they are studying different material, they would rather work near each other than alone. “I like company, even if we don’t talk, I like having a body near me,” Tara says.
While the course material may be different, and there may be little obvious appeal in reading Plato, analyzing Dickens, or contextualizing Realism en masse, working together can be beneficial and enjoyable. So consider joining the group every once in a while; if nothing else, you may find companionship and good dip.