<ol>
<li>Absences.</li>
<li>Partying instead of studying.</li>
<li>Looking at the book instead of studying and learning.</li>
<li>Losing books, assignments, and papers.</li>
<li>Procrastinating on assignments.</li>
<li>Tuning out in class.</li>
<li>Taking classes out of sequence.</li>
<li>Overloading with too many classes.</li>
<li>Accepting too many tasks out of school: friends, clubs, religious organizations, work hours.</li>
<li>Not using time well: wasting minutes/hours.</li>
<li>Slow reading.</li>
<li>Lack of understanding of material.</li>
<li>Weak vocabulary.</li>
<li>Lack of support groups: baby sitters, study help.</li>
<li>Family distractions: sick children, bad relationships.</li>
<li>Lack of transportation and alternatives.</li>
<li>Not reading assignments.</li>
<li>Not willing to learn: to put forth effort/hard work.</li>
<li>Poor note-taking skills.</li>
</ol></li>
</ol>
<p>Cite from a book titled Key to the Success (by Carter, C., J. Bishop and S. L. Kravits).</p>
<p>What is your opinion? What experiences did you have?</p>
<p>For me, it’s poor note-taking skills, but that’s mainly because I physically can’t listen and take notes at the same time. Thing is, whenever I take notes, I have to physically mouth or think about what I’m writing down or else I forget what I was going to write down, and consequently, I tune out what the professor is saying without meaning to–it just happens. Additionally, I might forget what phrase I was going to write down, and I either waste time trying to remember that phrase, write it down wrong, or just have words jotted down that make no sense to me after class at all. This is a problem in classes where the professor doesn’t podcast because then I can’t review the podcast to hear info I’ve missed out on or misheard. I’ve heard this is common in people with auditory processing disorder, which I suspect I have because note taking and listening at the same time is extremely difficult for me (when I listen to podcasts of lectures, I have to hit the pause button several times and even have to replay a few sections over and over again to make sure I’m hearing right). Wasting time going over podcasts or fretting over my incomplete notes for classes that don’t podcast prevent me from getting to understanding the materials, which is why I tend to get B’s and C’s and not A’s (the only A’s I’ve gotten were in my music and foreign language classes back in community college).</p>
<p>I’m really surprised that mental illness wasn’t on that list, as college-age is when a lot of those problems crop up, due to major life changes. Mental illness can also cause or contribute to a bunch of other items on that list. Most colleges have counselling services for a reason, folks – use them!</p>
<p>Absolutely true. IMO, poor performances in academics mixed with difficulties in human relations cause to mental illness. Then, mental illness aggravates the performances again. A self-fullfilling vicious circle arises.</p>
<p>I have issues with time management and outside activities. Most people I know that do poorly (or just not as well as they’d like) do so because of outside obligations- many of them work (a few work full time) and a lot have really overloaded in clubs, honor societies, etc. and it leaves very little time for actual schoolwork.</p>
<p>I probably have some mental illness that hasn’t been diagnosed yet, but I lack health insurance. Anyways, I know a huge thing preventing me from getting straight A’s instead of B+'s and A-'s are just time management because I study maybe an hour or two a week, if that. Then around midterm time it goes up to like maybe 30-40 hours during that time. I just need to put in some time reading the material and not putting it off until last minute, even studying for my finals this time around I allocated most of my time studying for the easiest of my four classes because I had to make up for 6 weeks worth of ditching and I aced the final (was an upper-divison stats class). The others I studied the bare minimum because I just didn’t have time (intro proofs, Partial Differential Equations), although I still pulled A-'s in the end 'cause I actually went to every class, did most of the recommended problems throughout the corner, and did every homework assignment that I was able to remember enough to apply my knowledge correctly to the test problems. </p>
<p>I don’t go to parties or do anything fun 'cause all my friends are engineers who also work and have children (we’re only 23-24).</p>
<p>As far as note taking goes, I write down everything in sight and focus hard on what the teacher is saying. I do get sleepy a lot if it’s boring. I still take down everything I can. I never refer back to my notes but if I ever needed to they would be there. </p>
<p>I am changing my attitude somewhat 'cause I need to graduate next year or try very hard to so I am already studying for all of my fall quarter’s classes to just zoom through them when I get to them in September. Also studying for the GRE. </p>
<p>I don’t do outside activities because there’s always too much to do at the beginning of the quarter and I get turned off by thinking I have to give time to something that doesn’t really help me in my classes. I know in the fall I won’t have any time at all.</p>
<p>I think the biggest reasons kids don’t do well at my school is skipping classes. Pretty much, if you go to class and put in minimal effort, then you can at least come out with C’s.</p>
<p>The people who I know who do poorly, it’s because they started skipping class. I guess that could fall under the time management category. It’s okay to miss class 2 or 3 times during the semester, but beyond that, it really can start to hurt you.</p>
<p>sopranokitty, have you tried Livescribe? I have no affiliation with the company, it just seems as though something along these lines would be useful to you.</p>
<p>Believe the following should be added (some of which others have posted as well)</p>
<p>Drugs/alcohol use/abuse
Medical problems
Social adjustment issues
Mental health issues
Learning disabilities
Not adequately prepared for college and needing remedial work first</p>
<p>Time management and stress is a big issue here. The book referred in #1 introduces (a) effective time management and (b) anti-procrastination strategies. </p>
<p>(a) How Can You Effectively Manage Your Time?
Identify Your Time-related Needs and Preferences
Build a Schedule: Use a tool that works for you: Memo pad, Planner, PDA
Use Scheduling Techniques: Prioritize
Fight Procrastination: Act early and plan for the worst
Be Flexible
Manage Stress by Managing Time: You cant achieve your goals if you dont manage your time.</p>
<p>(b) Anti-Procrastination Strategies: What do you do to avoid what you dont want to face?
Act early and plan for the worst
Ask for help
Take the first step
Reward yourself with something tangible
Dont expect perfection of yourself
Think about the positive effects of completing the task
Set reasonable goals
Use positive self-talk</p>
<p>And this book said that students give up because they fall into the trap of
i) Poor self-management (values not consistent with goals), ii) No goals, iii) Misuse of time, and iv) Ultimately = STRESS!</p>