Successful Students: 9

Successful Students

9

9. …don’t cram for exams. Successful students know that divided periods of study are more effective than cram sessions, and they practice it.

There is one thing that study skills specialists agree on, it is that distributed study is better than massed, late-night, last-ditch efforts known as cramming. You’ll learn more, remember more, and earn a higher grade by studying in four, one hour-a-night sessions for Friday’s exam than studying for four hours straight on Thursday night. Short, concentrated preparatory efforts are more efficient and rewarding than wasteful, inattentive, last moments marathons. Yet, so many students fail to learn this lesson and end up repeating it over and over again until it becomes a wasteful habit. Not too clever, huh?

When you cram, you are taking a shortcut, and shortcuts never produce any real worthwhile results. Also, when you take shortcuts, you feel rather rotten knowing that you could have done better but didn't. Shortcuts cut you short. You can’t plant watermelons seeds and harvest fresh watermelons the next day. It takes time. Cramming for a test or project and expecting to make a high score for the next day is like planting watermelon seeds and expecting a harvest and eat fresh watermelon the next day. Plus cramming for a test doesn’t help you academically, so why even do it. Plan ahead, prepare ahead. Give yourself plenty of days and weeks to prepare for upcoming accountability opportunities.

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Successful Students: 1-2

Successful Students

1-2

Successful students exhibit a combination of successful attitudes and behaviors as well as intellectual capacity. Successful students . . .

1. . . . are responsible and active. Successful students get involved in their studies, accept responsibility for their own education, and are active participants in it! Responsibility means control. It’s the difference between leading and being led. Your own efforts control your grade, you earn the glory or deserve the blame, you make the choice. Active classroom participation improves grades without increasing study time. You can sit there, act bored, daydream, or sleep. Or, you can actively listen, think, question, and take notes like someone in charge of their learning experience. Either option costs one class period. However, the former method will require a large degree of additional work outside of class to achieve the same degree of learning the latter provides at one sitting. The choice is yours.

2. . . . . have educated goals. Successful students have legitimate goals and are motivated by what they represent in terms of career aspirations and life’s desires

Ask yourself these questions: What am I doing here? Why have I chosen to be sitting here now? Is there some better place I could be? What does my presence here mean to me? Answers to these questions represent your “Hot Buttons” and are, without a doubt, the most important factors in your success as a college student. If your educational goals are truly yours, not someone else’s, they will motivate a vital and positive academic attitude, If you are familiar with what these hot buttons represent and refer to them often, especially when you are tire of being a student, nothing can stop you; if you aren’t and don’t, everything can and will!

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I Will Persist Until I Succeed:Part 2

I Will Persist Until I Succeed

Part 2

How I’ve overcome an initial bad grade: When receiving a bad grade. I just try to do better on the second exam and study harder. It’s hard when you have your first test in a class and have no idea what to expect. The second one is usually easier since you know what to expect from your teachers.

My strategies for written assignments: Start early and make sure that you have it proofread. Also, with written assignments, having a timeline planned out can help like by setting a certain number of pages done by a certain day before the paper is due

How I succeed in team projects: COMMUNICATION!  Despite your group synergy, communication is crucial. I remember I ran out of cell phone minutes constantly when working on a group project for my marketing research class. It’s really important that everyone is on the same page and getting the same emails. The worst is when two people are working on the same portion of the project and don’t even realize it.

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I Will Persist Until I Succeed Part 1

I Will Persist Until I Succeed

Part 1

Heather A.’s Academic Success Story

In high school, I didn’t study as much in groups as I do in college. I feel I learn better when I can teach other people information and we can exchange notes when taken in class because other students pick up on more information than others.

My overall study method: I prefer to study in small groups and practice problems where I can work out the methods verbally with others.

My test study method: I have very different techniques. For financial tests, I try to work on problems given in class as well as problems from power points and homework. When it comes to marketing classes, I review my notes and try to make diagrams to describe different processes.

My time management secret: One of my biggest secrets is to look over the information that you just learned when class is over. After reviewing the information, it sticks a little bit better than waiting until the night before the test.

How I deal with the multiple projects\tests: I try to work on whatever has the shortest deadline and work from there. My overall study method: I tend to so massive studying blocks of about an hour or so in order to really learn the material.

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