Hi everyone – I’ve been a longtime lurker but love this community…it was an invaluable resource for me as I went through college.
I’ve been asked by a former professor to put together a series of “how to’s” and best practices to help current students conquer some of the biggest challenges that are holding them back academically.
I finished my undergrad back in 2011 (which feels like yesterday :)) so I certainly can draw on my own experiences, but thought it would be more valuable to hear the frustrations of current students. I’d really like to make this meaningful and would greatly appreciate your input.
My initial thoughts are that procrastination, time management, and test preparation lead the charts – but would be curious to hear what you think:
When it comes to getting better grades in school, what is the single biggest challenge that you’ve been struggling with? (please be as specific as possible)
Thank you in advance for your input! If you’re interested in seeing the end product I’d be happy to share.
This is my advice to students…you can gather the challenges from the items. For example…a challenge may be affording books, or organization, or personal problems.
GO TO CLASS, BUY THE BOOK, READ THE CHAPTERS, AND DO THE HOMEWORK!
Go to Professor’s office hours early in the semester and Ask this question: “I know this is a really difficult class-- what are some of the common mistakes students make and how can I avoid them?”
If you have problems with the homework, go to Prof’s office hours. If they have any “help sessions” or “study sessions” or “recitations” or any thing extra, go to them.
Form a study group with other kids in your dorm/class.
Don’t do the minimum…for STEM classes do extra problems. You can buy books that just have problems for calculus or physics or whatever. Watch videos on line about the topic you are studying.
Go to the writing center if you need help with papers/math center for math problems (if they have them)
If things still are not going well, get a tutor.
Read this book: How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less by Cal Newport. It helps you with things like time management and how to figure out what to write about for a paper, etc.
If you feel you need to withdraw from a class, talk to your advisor as to which one might be the best …you may do better when you have less classes to focus on. But some classes may be pre-reqs and will mess your sequence of classes up.
For tests that you didn’t do well on, can you evaluate what went wrong? Did you never read that topic? Did you not do the homework for it? Do you kind of remember it but forgot what to do? Then next time change the way you study…there may be a study skill center at your college.
How much time outside of class do you spend studying/doing homework? It is generally expected that for each hour in class, you spend 2-3 outside doing homework. Treat this like a full time job.
At first, don’t spend too much time other things rather than school work. (sports, partying, rushing fraternities/sororities, video gaming etc etc)
If you run into any social/health/family troubles (you are sick, your parents are sick, someone died, broke up with boy/girlfriend, suddenly depressed/anxiety etcetc) then immediately go to the counseling center and talk to them. Talk to the dean of students about coordinating your classes…e.g. sometimes you can take a medical withdrawal. Or you could withdraw from a particular class to free up tim for the others. Sometimes you can take an incomplete if you are doing well and mostly finished the semester and suddenly get pneumonia/in a car accident (happened to me)…you can heal and take the final first thing the next semester. But talk to your adviser about that too.
At the beginning of the semester, read the syllabus for each class. It tells you what you will be doing and when tests/HW/papers are due. Put all of that in your calendar. The professor may remind you of things, but it is all there for you to see so take initiative and look at it.
Make sure you understand how to use your online class system…Login to it, read what there is for your classes, know how to upload assignments (if that is what the prof wants).
If you get an assignment…make sure to read the instructions and do all the tasks on the assignment. Look at the rubric and make sure you have covered everything.
If you are not sure what to do, go EARLY to the professors office hours…not the day before the assignment is due.
My biggest challenge is: where do I start? My major throws a lot of things at me from fulfilling course requirements to getting the minimum GPA requirement to just getting ready for the professional years.
Each major is unique in its own way, but since I go to a science school, the biggest problem for students is how to do well with classes. Students at my school come from a variety of backgrounds from international students to local PA and NJ people (like me) to people from California. All of them are focused on getting A’s in all of their classes: for some it’s worked out, for many others, it hasn’t worked out. Every person has a different way of studying which can either be beneficial or harmful depending on the classes they’re studying for.
Here’s my takeaways from classes in my first year (literally this year):
Schoolwork comes first: you’re in college because you’re planning to get a degree in something. Make sure that you are on top of everything. Stay organized. Prioritize the courses that you know you’ll struggle with and plan accordingly.
Find a way to study for each class: not every class is built the same way. For example, I did incredibly well in Chemistry II by constantly doing practice problems from each chapter. In a course like that, practice makes perfect. On the other hand, my Human Development Psychology class was rote memorization. I would summarize my notes from the class and study off of that for the exams. You can also make study groups with friends, but personally, I found it didn’t work. Instead, I would just list out what I’m struggling with in a class and work at it until it “clicked”.
The professor/lecturer is there to help you, not hurt you. Be sure to know the professor! If you’re in a large lecture course like bio, orgo, chem, physics, etc., be sure to go to office hours to make sure the professor knows who you are. Don’t be a face in the crowd. My professors from fall semester still recognize me and I always say hi to them whenever I see them. They can also write recommendations for you if ever need it! For example, this spring semester, I would always go to my Chemistry II professor each week with a bunch of questions. I kept doing this so much that I’m convinced I’m her favorite Chem II student :). When it came time for the final exam, my average was at an 89.4 or a B+, but she bumped me up to an A-. I believe that if I didn’t go to office hours at all, I wouldn’t have gotten that grade and I probably would have done much worse. Moral of the story: GO SEE THE PROFESSOR IF YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND SOMETHING. IT MIGHT HELP YOU IN THE END.
Seek help when needed: in addition to knowing the professor and going to office hours, there are a variety of ways that you can get academic support. The school tutoring service is one of the largest resources available. They can be taught by students who previously had the course with the same teacher. They can give you tips and tricks to do well. Remember, you’re being strong by asking for help when you need it.
Find back-exams: these are past exams that professors upload to the course website (like Blackboard or Sakai) so that you can use them as a study tool. Other students can sell back exams from the same course and instructor, so be on the lookout for those too!
Build upon what you’ve learned and how you did on exams. What went well? What didn’t go so well? What can you do in the future to improve your score?
DO EVERYTHING THAT’S BEEN ASSIGNED TO YOU: doing the assignments earns you easy points. They can also act like a buffer for when you don’t do so hot on exams. Sometimes, the professor can throw in some extra credit, so be on the lookout for that too.
RELAX. College is about getting a degree, but there’s so much more to than that. Explore the local community. Take part in clubs and activities. Watch a little YouTube or Netflix. Go exercise. At some point, you need to take a break and then get back to it. The worst thing that you can do is stress yourself out and exhaust yourself. Don’t pull an all-nighter. Sleep is important.
Consider buying a book about executive functioning skills and looking through that to trigger some of your own ideas for advice for students. Many smart people who do not do well as well as one might expect in school have trouble with executive functioning. They can learn some compensatory techniques and strategies to help themselves. (I like the McCloskey and Cartwright books. I have used those in workshops for teachers. MCCloskey might be good for college level.)
I hadn’t thought of incorporating executive functioning into this but it makes a ton of sense. Thanks for the recommendation! I’ll check out the sources you mentioned.
Distractions – find ways to avoid them. Turn off the Internet on computer & turn off phone when studying. Try to go straight to the library after dinner – if you go back to the dorm, you risk getting pulled into something that isn’t studying.
I think the major difference is the difference in how information is presented and e a!hated. What is pht on the board is real!y important as is whatever is presented orally. Information in the textbook, but is not discussed in class. Information presented orally n class may be expansion or expiation of what is presented in class. Further classes are not isolates. Instead, information in earlier c!asses is the foundation on which more information is built.
It see s reasonable to ask whether information that is not an talked about in class but requires memorization will be on the test. You need to know formulas to apply and names and theories, speled correctly. Asking how many items on the test is silly because you can’t reduce answers to factoids in that number. Further, tests can’t exceed the ammount of time the class meets. Mist leave before the end of class, while latter’s seem to stare at the ceiling while they wait for theanswer fairy. Your are most successful if you know everything perfectly.