When planning a new educational program concern has been given to the fact that a new coming student at the University does not know anything about scientific reading and writing. Also a new student does not have an academic study technique. Students have a wage idea of what to do during their studies at the University. Therefore the two first courses in the educational program came to be focusing perspectives on knowledge and learning and an introduction to their studies to come. The article reflects on instructional strategies and learning outcomes in academic studies, using a narrative research approach. Narratives are used in four ways. Student narratives are used for data collection. Teachers use narratives as instructional strategy. Narratives are in this research used as an analytical tool and in this article as a research presentation model. Qualitative narrative statements from students have been taken at four occasions, direct after the courses, three months after, one, two and three years after the courses. Interpretations of the narratives have shown that students forget the course content rather soon after a course where mainly surface instructional strategies are used. They express though, that the surface learning have eased their learning capability when studying subjects later in their study program. This generative effect should be regarded we think when planning academic course programs. Another reflection is that students are better able to fulfil the academic deep learning studies when they get an early introduction of academic studies concerning critical scientific reading and writing. Also instructional strategies that early introduce concepts and views in generative topics make learning more efficient. When teachers and students communicate and are able to create a positive and for the students developing study climate, learning is promoted.