With the first semester begins to wind down here at AHS comes the beginning of finals. This means for many students it’s time to study! But how much does studying real help? Some students even feel that it barely helps or doesn’t at all while others say it helps them a lot.

Scientific studies say that studying does have a direct positive correlation with grades, although it has taken many years to prove it. Even though it has been proven scientifically, you don’t need to go far at AHS to find someone that believes it already.

Spanish teacher Daniel Vargason said he believes studying definitely has an effect on student performance. Vargason said studying does help, but he also stated that studying does not guarantee you will do well, but he still sees a noticeable difference. To help himself, Vargason recently had an anonymous survey asking how much his students study, and how well they thought they knew the information, so he could compare this to students grades. Vargason said, “It shows a noticeable difference between students that study and don’t.” Vargason also believes most students either don’t study or don’t study enough for his class.

Although many students study, some students don’t study at all or they study very little. Norman Welter said he studies once a week usually and sometimes before test or quizzes. Korben Peterson had almost the same thing to say. Peterson only studies before test and quizzes usually too and Spanish for a little bit every night. Most students also believe studying helps. Students such as sophomore Carter Hemphill said studying helps a lot. Hemphill usually studies by using Quizlet and Conjuguemos for Spanish.

Part of the effectiveness of studying is how you study. Hemphill uses Quizlet and Conjuguemos. While Peterson and Welter say they just look over the information and memorize it. Vargason suggest for his Spanish students to study in multiple stations for five minutes a night. Vargason stated that this amount of studying will help you to understand the language and pass, if you really want to learn the language and be able to have it as a second language you will need to study a lot more than that.

Vargason said even he struggled to study in high school. Ironically he hated Spanish at first, but he said something changed from his sophomore to junior year. He matured and he said he just started to become a better student and began to study. This shows that there’s always time to change your habits and start to study.

There are two sides to every story. Most think studying does affect grades and is a great habit to start and do more often. It is scientifically proven and teachers strongly suggest it. There are also the people that will testify they never study a day in their lives and still get good grades. If you don’t study, it’s never too late to start and if you already do, study more and effectively.