This grounded theory study sought to understand how tenth grade public school students in average and advanced classes used strategies for learning material in their high school social studies classes. This study sought to understand the strategies that students used to learn information, the frequency of their strategy use, the students' method of acquiring these strategies, and the impact of the teachers' method of instruction (direct or indirect) on the students' strategy use. This study suggests that teachers need to stress the relevance of higher-level thinking to students and require more high-level thinking on class work and on exams.