Studying Still the Key to Academic Success.

• Position: Brief Article

Improving one's grade point average takes more than a few extra hours of study each week. In fact, a study of 79 college students found that a one-letter grade increase in quarterly GPA was associated with a 40-hour increase in weekly study time.

"A lifestyle change has to happen before an impact is made on a student's grades," maintains Carl Zulauf, a study co-author and professor in the Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics at Ohio State University, Columbus. "A few extra hours of study each week isn't going to do it"

Overall, the study found that every additional hour spent studying per week meant just a 0.025 increase in GPA. "This finding raised the question of whether educators should be resigned to this small relationship between effort and reward" Zulauf points out. "Or perhaps changes need to be made in how educators evaluate a student's efforts....

"The ability to use time is positively related to academic performance. But it takes a lot of commitment by a student to significantly...