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: 7-8

Successful Students

7-8

7.  … understand that actions affect learning. Successful students know their personal behavior affects their feelings and emotions which in turn can affect learning.

If you act in a certain way that normally produces particular feelings, you will begin to experience those feelings. Act like you’re bored, and you’ll be bored. Act like you’re disinterested, and you’ll be disinterested. So the next time you have trouble concentrating in the classroom, “act” like an interested person: lean forward, place your feet flat on the floor, maintain eye contact with the professor, nod occasionally, take notes, and ask questions. Not only will you benefit directly from your actions, your classmates and professor may also get more excited and enthusiastic.

8.  … talk about what they’re learning. Successful students get to know something well enough that they can put it into words. Talking about something, with friends or classmates, is not only good for checking whether or not you know something, it’s a proven learning too. Transferring ideas into words provides the most direct path for moving knowledge from short-term to long-term memory. If you really don’t “know” material until you can put it into words. So, next time you study, you don’t do it silently. Talk about notes, problems, reading, etc. with friends, recite to a chair, organize an oral study group, pretend you’re teaching your peers. “Talk-learning” produces a whole host of memory traces that result in more learning.

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Successful Students 5-6

Successful Students

5-6

5. Don’t sit in the back of the room. Successful Students minimize classroom distractions that interfere with learning.

Students want the best seat available for their entertainment dollars, but willingly seek the worst seat for their educational dollars. Students who sit in the back cannot possibly be their professor’s teammate (see no. 4). Why do they expose themselves to the temptations of inactive classroom experiences and distractions of all the people between them and their instructor? Of course, we all know they choose the back if the room because they seek invisibility or anonymity, both of which are antithetical to efficient and effective learning. If you are trying not to be part of the class, then, you are wasting your time? Push your hot buttons, is there something else you should be doing with your time?

6.  …take good notes. Successful students take notes that are understandable and organized, and review them often.

Why put something into your notes you don’t understand? Ask the questions now that are necessary to make your notes meaningful at some later time. A short review of your notes while the material is still fresh on your mind helps you to learn more. The more you learn then, the less you’ll have to learn later and the less time it will tale because you won’t have to include some deciphering time, also. The whole purpose of taking notes is to use them, and use them often. The more you use them, the more they improve.

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Successful Students: 3-4

Successful Students

3-4

3.   ... ask questions. Successful students ask questions to provide the quickest route between ignorance and knowledge. In addition to securing knowledge you seek, asking questions has at least two other extremely important benefits. The process helps you pay attention to your professor and helps your professor pay attention to you! Think about it. If you want something, go after it. Get the answer now, or fail a question later. There are no foolish questions, only foolish silence. It’s your choice.

4. … learn that a student and a professor make a team. Most instructors want exactly what you want: they would like for you to learn the material in their respective classes and earn a good grade.

Successful students reflect well on efforts of any teacher; if you have learned your material, the instructor takes some justifiable pride in teaching. Join forces with your instructor, they are not your enemy, you share the same interests, the same goals -  in short, your teammates. Get to know your professor. You’re the most valuable players on the team. Your jobs are to work together for mutual success. Neither wishes to chalk up a losing season. Be a team player!

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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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Study for Multiple Exams Part 3

Study for Multiple Exams

Part 3

English, math, foreign tips: Practice—especially foreign language. It is hard to succeed in a foreign language class if you are just showing and doing the work. But if you are in your room and look at objects and try to do say them in the language you are learning it actually helps. Or if you send a simple text to a friend think about it, you can translate that to German or Spanish? These are the little things that will help.

Here are my final words of wisdom for students who want to get better grades in college: Time management and organization are critical key factors to success in college. And never be afraid to go ask your teacher for help. They have office hours for a reason-use them!

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Study for Multiple Exams: Part 1

Study for Multiple Exams

Part 1

How I study for multiple exams, deal with multiple projects: Really it is my time management that I explained above. If I see I have multiple things due or to study for all at the same time I spread out my time beforehand. For example, if I have a test Monday, and 2 tests Tuesday then I will study for my Monday test Thursday and part of Friday. Start Studying for my next test on the second half of Friday and part of Saturday, then my second Tuesday test on Saturday as well and part of Sunday. Then Sunday night I can review for my Monday test because I already studied for it. When that test is over I can begin reviewing for the other tests.

My overall study method: I try to break it up over several days or at least two. I get bogged down if I try to bust an all nighter.

How I’ve overcome an initial bad grade: If I received a low grade I probably knew it was coming because I didn’t prepare properly or I didn’t use the right study habit for that class. I usually try to go over what I did wrong and sometime discuss with the teacher what I can do differently on the next exam or what they suggest I do for studying for the next exam.

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Effective Study Methods: Part 3

Effective Study Methods

Part 3

How I deal with multiple projects/tests: When I have more than one test or project, I break up my studying. I will study for one test for 30 minutes or so and then switch to the other one. If there is some part of a project that I know will not take me very long, I will do it when I don’t have much time. If I am really in a crunch for time on a specific day, I will study for one test in the morning and the other in the afternoon or at night. By breaking up the studying into different sections, I feel like I get much more done. Cram sessions do not work for me. I need to study something for a shorter period of time more often for it to sink in.

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Effective Study Methods: Part 2

Effective Study Methods

Part 2

My time management secret: My secret is to use time wisely. I know that on certain days I do not have time to run errands or hang out with friends even. Each minute of each day is used for something. One thing that works really well for me is to write everything down. I mean everything. I write down if I am going to email people, write letters, or study. It works for me to have a planner that goes by the day and shows me what I am going to be doing every day. Knowing what I have to do everyday helps me plan out my week and my days. If I know that I don’t have time on Tuesday, I will try to get more things done on Monday or Sunday. I plan ahead, especially if I am going to be on the road for volleyball. When I am on the road, I bring my books and read on the bus/plane/hotel room. Missing class is a killer to make up from, but if you are upfront with your professors, they are usually nice about having to turn things in late or not being in classes.

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Effective Study Methods: Part 1

Effective Study Methods

Part 1

My test study method: When it comes time to study for the test, I usually start 2-3 days before the test. I go through my notes and make flashcards on what was important for those sections, paying special attention to what the teacher said would be on the test if there was a review session. Also, I go through the book and read the inset stories and add to my flashcards. If there are practice problems or online assignments or old tests, I use those to help me study for the test as well. Once the test is over, I keep the flashcards so that I have them for the next test or for the final. Flashcards are a marvelous learning tool. The key to remembering something is to repeat it numerous times-spaced reversal. If you forget something,   it is because you haven’t repeated it enough times for an extended period of time. Repetition is a law of learning; therefore, to learn and remember, to recall, it is mandatory that you repeat over and over the things you desire to learn and remember. You may be thinking. “Oh, no, repeating something.” You need to get used to it. For example, the more you practice a song on the piano, the better you become at playing that song. Learning and remembering is like playing the piano-the more you practice saying or doing is the better you can remember it. Look now at what you remember. You remember it because you have repeated it numerous times since first being exposed to it. So, Practice rehearsing those things you desire to remember, and they will stick with you.

Practice---àProficiency-àPleasure

The better you remember, the more pleasure you obtain from studying and learning.

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