A study examined whether sixth grade students taught formal study skills would obtain significantly higher reading achievement than those not taught these skills. Study skills can be broken down into ten or more skill areas including: study habits, time management, test taking, lecture notetaking, reading comprehension, vocabulary, test anxiety, textbook reading, reading speed, and memory. Subjects of the study were 181 sixth-grade middle school students from a Chicago suburb. Of these, 79 students had participated in formal study skills training prior to the Illinois Goal Assessment Program (IGAP) test and 88 had not. From each of the 2 subgroups, 30 students were randomly selected. Results from the 1995 IGAP Reading Scores were used. A t-test (p<.05) for independent samples was done on these 2 sets of scores to determine if there was a statistically significant difference in reading between the 2 groups. Results revealed that the means for both groups were within 11 points. Results indicated that teaching students formal study skills had no visible effect on their academic achievement. These results contrast with earlier studies done by J. Fisher (1986). Further research is recommended at middle school and elementary grade levels. (A table of data is included; contains 13 references.) (CR)