We compared the effectiveness of a "Study Smarter, Not Harder" presentation to spending an equivalent amount of time reading an article: "Optimizing Learning in College." One-hundred-sixty undergraduate students participated. The presentation and article yielded comparable ratings of study tip effectiveness, helpfulness, and usage. Article readers better discriminated between effective versus ineffective and helpful versus unhelpful strategies. Presentation attendees increased their use of all study strategies, whereas article readers only increased their use of recommended study tips. Results highlight advantages of reading the article over attending this presentation and suggest ways to more effectively teach students to study smarter, not harder.