As everyone said it is a huge time-waster. I can count the number of times I actually studied at study hours on one hand. My chapter's study hours weren't mandatory (unless your GPA was low and you had to bring it up).

I loved study tables and my GPA went up when I was required to attend, so I ended up attending even when I wasn't required. I even set up a system for myself when I was in grad school.

But I was (and still am, I guess), a huge nerd. It didn't work for most of the rest of my chapter, but rewarding high GPAs and good performance on quizzes and exams, along with study skills tips and assistance with time management did work for lots of people.

In short - you can't rely on study hours (or I guess in this case "hour's") to do the hard work for you. Implement a full-on scholarship program and you'll probably see better results. Forcing someone to sit in a library for 2 hours a day "just cause" is pointless. There's no point in punishing folks for not attending if their GPA is still at or above the required GPA

AFAIK, my chapter only does study hours with pledges as part of Pledge Ed (there's a certain number of required study hours with an initiated sister). In theory it's a great idea, to make sure that schoolwork doesn't get neglected during the pledge term, but I can attest that certain degree programs would not lend themselves well to making study hours useful. For instance--I was in the music school and, much more often than not, had more practicing than written work to do (and I play the piano, not exactly a portable instrument). I could see the same issues for dance, theatre, architecture, art/design, etc. I wasn't asked to complete study hours as a pledge, since I was a founding mother, but I did supervise a few for the music students in my house, and it usually became a social gathering...

(Just something to think about, depending on the distribution of degree programs in your chapter!)

Has your chapter looked into swapping required hours? For example, if you are to do your hours in the library, is there an "exception" for folks with majors that require out of class lab time? My campus had a ton of health care majors, and I believe if people did extra lab hours (outside of what was required for class, but basically in preparation for exams) they were not required to complete all of their study hours.

Of course, lots of freshmen take a lot of gen eds which would require "traditional" study time. So it would depend on the courses they were taking, as well. You could work with faculty to devise the "optimal" study program for each major/year, but that's a lot of work. Of course, if your chapter doesn't have a full-on scholarship program, it might be worth the time. Depends on how big the chapter is and the diversity of majors.

Whatever, I'm a fan of study tables. I've already said that. Libraries are my safe space.

OP, please review the following link and then consider editing this thread's title.

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apostrophe

The OP hasn't posted since May. (Maybe she's been in mandatory study hours.) And I thought only mods could edit thread titles.

But otherwise, Amen!

I can't believe I allowed a misplaced apostrophe to stand unchallenged in May. Where was I?

Okay then, never mind, I was on my game.

But what's going on with you today?

Fair point.

What my sorority did last semester was require sisters with lower GPA's to schedule one-on-one study sessions with one of the eboard members. (We're a tiny local sorority, which I'm sure is the only reason why that worked.) As an eboard member, though, that was a huge hassle. What kind of rewards and incentives have you guys done for high GPA's and good performance on exams?

Also, we currently have a sister on academic probation and we're not really sure how to help her. Anyone have any ideas?

That seems really unreasonable for your executive board. They're supposed to be leaders in the chapter, not babysitters.

Your "scholarship" or similar person should set up a study plan with her, with goals. They together (your scholarship person and the sister on probation) should go through all her courses, come up with a study plan that works for each of them based on the assignments for the syllabi (so that she's not freaking out over everything being due at once). Then they should meet monthly to go over progress. A lot of times when a sister is bombing LOTS of courses, it's a case of poor time management, rather than her not being able to hack it intellectually.

This will be relevant net week. The rest of this thread will never be relevant again.

In addition to the excellent suggestions from agzg, you could also pair her up with someone who is in the same major or can help her with the classes she struggles in, rather than random eboard people. You could help her find a tutor if nobody in the chapter can help- help her find the resources on campus.