Improving Students' Exam Performance by Introducing Study Strategies and Goal Setting

This study addresses whether learning strategies would improve students' exam performance. Students in 2 sections (N = 65) of Introductory Psychology participated. I introduced students in the experimental section to learning strategies. Students set individual learning goals and recorded their learning related behavior during the first 2 units. Students in the control condition engaged in nonacademic tasks. All students experienced a lesson on learning at the end of Unit 2. First-year students in the control condition obtained significantly lower scores than all other students on the first 2 exams. On the 3rd exam, differences were not significant. On the final exam, the original pattern reemerged.