You’re off to college and you want to be sure that you are
successful – after all, you are making a pretty big investment of both time and
money. You don’t want it to go to
waste. If you want to be sure to be successful
at college, apply these 10 tips:
1. Find a good location for studying. Cafes, buses, and your busy kitchen table
are not likely the best places to absorb information. You need a quiet place where you can work
undisturbed. Libraries are ideal and the
library on you campus is likely open during school hours and may be open into
the evening, too. Empty classrooms are
sometimes available to students. Your
kitchen table might be a good place to study if you can find a time of the day
when no one is at home or while everyone else is still sleeping.
2. Be consistent. If
you study and do course work every day it will be easy to keep up. If you start putting off your work to do
other things you will soon get behind.
The more the work piles up the more discouraged you will get and the less
motivated you will be do actually do it.
Before you know it you’ll be pulling late nights to catch up and
cramming for tests because of all the work that didn’t get done.
3. Get help when you need it. Don’t struggle too long with
an assignment or a concept that you don’t understand. The longer you struggle
with it the more frustrated you will get.
Most schools have resources when you need help or you can go to your
teacher or a fellow student that is doing well in the course.
4. Stay organized.
The life of a student can be incredibly busy. Many students have families and jobs on top
of their school work. Plan ahead to
succeed. You can use a physical paper
planner and carry it with you or you might want to use a planning app through
your iPhone or tablet. Make sure you
plan for time to study!
5. Take care of yourself. Everyone needs a few basic things –
sleep, food, exercise – and when you don’t get those things your brain doesn't work
as well as it should. You may think that
you can pull all-nighters but your body and brain beg to differ! If you take care of yourself you will comprehend
your coursework better and have better memory retention!
6. Be prepared for class.
Make sure you do the readings ahead of time. Take notes.
Listen carefully for the teacher’s emphasis on key points as those are
often questions on tests and exams. Jot down questions as you read so that you
are able to ask questions after lectures.
7. Look to your textbook for organization. The table of contents and the headings and
subheadings in your book can help you see the most useful information. Pictures, graphs, and examples are often used
for test or exam questions.
8. Study actively.
Just reading is boring and you won’t retain as much as you will if you
study actively. Make notes (don’t just
copy text though – read, then summarize in your own words), highlight key
information, create your own examples and charts. Active learning makes it easier to remember
information.
9. Review. Create
practice questions for studying what you have already learned. Index cards are great for this. Write a question on one side, try to answer
it, and then check your answer on the back. These can be used anywhere and are great
for 5 minute blocks of time when you are in between tasks. You can even use these while you’re doing
dishes, cooking dinner, or on the bus.
10. Pay attention to test instructions. It is easy to make a mistake if you are you
are nervous and not paying attention to what the question is asking. Before answering a question make sure you
understand the question!
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