|
Vital Lessons for Surviving
College
-or-
Essential Study Habits All
College Students Must Learn
- Get organized and stay organized. In fact, developing good organizational skills is
essential for survival not only in college but for all of your future
academic and business activities as well.
The best way to get organized and stay organized is by maintaining a
three-ring binder for each of your courses.
Each binder should also include divider tabs.
For example, a tab for the course syllabus, notes, assignments,
homework, handouts, tests and quizzes, projects, and any other tabs that may
be useful. And whenever the
instructor hands back papers that need to go in your binder, don’t
delay… Put them in your binder right away so they
don’t get lost or misplaced.
- You must do all of the assigned
class work and homework. Gone
are the days where doing homework is optional.
Beginning with your first semester in college, and for all
your current and future college courses… Doing your assigned homework and
turning it in on time is a requirement in order to pass
the class. This is because most
college instructors structure their grading policy whereby if you don’t do
all of the assigned class work and homework, you
won’t be able to pass their tests and you won’t be able to pass their
class.
- You must read your textbook when
assigned to do so. This is
because it is usually impossible for the instructor to cover all of the
material in class. Further,
most courses make you responsible for learning all the
material in each chapter even though the instructor may choose to discuss
only a portion of the material in class.
- Procrastination is fatal.
Waiting until the last minute to do things is a recipe for certain
failure. Accordingly, you
cannot wait until the last minute to complete homework assignments. You cannot wait until the last minute to start projects
that were assigned weeks earlier. And
perhaps most importantly, you cannot wait until the last minute to study for
tests. In fact, “cramming”
for tests at the last minute is never a good strategy
for doing well on tests. Instead,
make it a priority to keep up with your learning on a day-to-day basis and
you will always be prepared come test day.
- Learn to develop good time management skills. Indeed, with so many different courses and teachers;
each placing demands on your time, you must develop an effective system of
allocating enough time to each of your courses as required.
And this is precisely the purpose of an agenda.
Keep and maintain your agenda on a daily basis
by writing in it all of your assigned homework with due dates, test dates,
project due date, reading assignments, and any other important dates that
the teacher may mention to you in class.
Learn to effectively manage your time and you will
have enough time for school, sports, playtime, and all your other
after-school activities.
- Preparing and studying for tests is essential
for success. And
knowing exactly when the tests will be is the primary purpose of your
agenda. So again, you must keep
and maintain your agenda and make note of all test
dates as well of what’s going to be on the test.
For example… “9/12 - Test on Chapters 1 and 2.”
- If you need help with a given course, then get
help! Ask your
classmates for help… Ask your friends and family for help… Or hire
a tutor… Because falling behind in learning the assigned material
is a guaranteed recipe for failure. And
a failing grade on your transcript severely jeopardizes your chances of
success with the more advanced courses that follow.
Failing grades also reduces your chances of getting hired by an
employer or being accepted into a professional school upon graduation.
- Your first and foremost purpose in life is
doing well in school. Because
most student’s that don’t do well in college simply cannot earn a
professional wage. And without
a professional income, all your life will most likely be an unhappy struggle
to survive.
- In
Conclusion… Learning all the lessons on this
page is your first step in achieving academic success in college and beyond.
Learn to be responsible to yourself and to your education, and be sure to get
help with your coursework when you need it.
Note: This message and our bcctutors.com Bulletin Board
(list of tutors) is provided to the South Florida college community as a
public service.
|
