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: 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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Sarah’s Academic Success Story: Part 2

Sarah’s Academic Success Story

Part 2

My test study method: I have different strategies for different types of tests or subjects. For me, any type of math is exceptionally difficult so I had to spend extra time on that. I would go back through the homework problems focusing on the problems that I had extra difficulty on. Many times I would ask the teacher for any additional study materials they could provide. If it was a class that required memorization or applying concepts I would create a sort of study guide for myself many times focusing on what were key focal points in the class. If I knew there were going to be essays I would try to take the terms and apply them to an example or create different questions on the concepts focused on throughout the semester.

My time management secret: I always always always carry a planner with me. I even use different color highlighters to show what each event on my calendar if for. For example, pink is personal, yellow is school, orange is work, blue is for appointments, and green is for my sorority. Although I use white-out frequently, I can see in bright yellow that if I have that project for finance due on Tuesday, I need to start working on it on [the previous] Wednesday so I can just get it done. My friends have always been amazed at how early I get things accomplished but that is all I really do.

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Sarah’s Academic Success Story: Part 1

Sarah’s Academic Success Story

Part 1

Time management became a key factor in my study skills for college. In high school, there were times I was able to study for an hour or two the night before a test and get away with it. This was not the case in college. I made sure in college I was prepared for each class. Sometimes that meant writing out the terms for the chapter we read (even if when it isn’t required) to better understand them. That way when the midterm or test comes around I was able to understand what I was studying. I started taking excellent notes in class in college. I may have done this in high school, but in college I started typing up the notes after class. This helped me remember what I just went over in class then when I had a test one week later I was more likely to remember then as well.

My overall study method Structured. One thing I learned was I had to adapt or change my study method according to the class. I couldn’t study for a Religion Class the same way I studied for a Finance class. But making sure I had enough time to study for each class -- even if it meant carrying a planner with me at all times was a big part of my success.

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