This article speaks on a critical component of independent learning is to cultivate the habit of self-study, which is an effective way of improving students' grades, material understanding, class participation, and confidence. Self-study also enables students to be independent learners, which not only hones their critical and reasoning skills but also allows them to be lifelong learners by enabling them to use their "reflective or metacognitive skills to work strategically toward solving novel problems, to self-monitor their emerging skills." The author focuses on their observations of the behavior among students in a final-year course that they taught for two consecutive years titled "Advanced Development Economics (ADE)" via a teaching activity and survey.