What Determines Success at the University - Assignment Example

Being Successful in College Time Management As a in a one of the most important skills to possess is the ability to manage time in a productive fashion. Many students in college need to balance school, work, studying and homework, maintaining a fairly decent social life, and visiting family when opportunity allows. Unfortunately, one of the biggest blunders of a college student is not handling their time wisely. Many decide to party or hang out with friends as often as possible, completely forgetting that they have a paper due the next morning, or a test that they should have studied for. Time management helps students take control of their schedules, allowing them to do all that they need to by the time it needs to be done, while still enabling them to spend time with friends. Time management also helps students to realize that the important things need to be done first, such as homework or studying, and that hanging out with friend should be considered a leisure activity. Note-taking and Reading Note-taking is as equally important, seeing as students attend university to learn new things. Therefore, they should write these new bits of knowledge down. If the professor finds it important enough to talk about, then the students should realize that importance for themselves and write down the information. Students should also read more while they are in college, aside from the reading that they are required to do in the class. Especially if they do not understand something, they should find other books on the subject and help themselves absorb the new information. While they are reading these books, they should also take notes on what they have read. The more that someone is subjected to a piece of information, the better chance they have at remembering it. This can come in handy especially for exams. Reading more is essential for college success, and making notes of the information that the student learns will make the knowledge go further. Highlighting Along the same lines of note-taking, students in universities should embrace the invention of the highlighter. While everything that a student is told, reads, or learns in college is important, there will always be certain key words that will stick out, which could help students to remember the rest of the information. Highlighters come in handy for these key words or phrases, letting a student highlight the words or phrases that stick out to them the most in regard to the information that they are being given. Highlighting not only makes it easier for the student to find those specific bits of information, but it also helps them to remember what they have read and what they need to keep in mind for future reference. Memory One of the most difficult things a student will face while in college is actually remembering the things that they learn. While they may feel confident when they are learning the subject, or studying for a test, many of them lose the information completely when they are actually taking the test. Students should take it upon themselves to learn memory techniques to help them remember what they learn. Association and mnemonics are two methods that a person can learn to strengthen their memory, as well as the tried-and-true methods of studying and repetition. Association involves the student remembering one thing that can be connected to another piece of information, while mnemonics can be a variety of memory methods, such as thinking of a rhyme or poem to remember information. Mnemonics help us to remember something difficult by remembering something easy. Studying and repetition are good methods, as they allow the student to be subjected the same information multiple times; the more they read or study something, the more that they absorb. Memory is not only important while in college, but also for obtaining and keeping a career in which the information is vital. Concentration With all of the things that a student must do while in college, it is no wonder that many of them have the inability to concentrate for long periods of time, especially in class. The two surefire methods of guaranteeing concentration during lessons is to one, get a good night’s sleep the night before and two, eat breakfast. These will help the student to stay focused, as their minds will not be on other things, such as taking a nap or getting something to eat, as those things have already been taken care of. When it comes to concentrating while studying or doing homework, the student needs to make sure that their are no distractions that will draw them away from their work. Televisions should be off and game systems should be put away. If the room they are in is too noisy, or if their is too much activity going on outside their rooms, then they should take their work to the library or computer lab. The less distractions a student has, the more they can get done, and they more they can remember. Motivation When a student attends college for the first time, they are often ecstatic at the thought of being away from home and away from the rules and boundaries that their parents have set down for them. Many college students take advantage of this newfound freedom, often to the point of abusing it. When it comes time to attend a class, study, or do a homework assignment, they find that they do not have the motivation for it. To ensure good grades in classes, students need to find the motivation to not only do the work, but to actually attend the classes. Without the motivation to do the work or attend classes, students only set themselves up for academic failure, which depletes the purpose of attending college. They need to understand why they are at college and become grateful that instead of doing chores at home, they now have a little more free time to focus on their studies. Test Preparation The biggest requirement of college is taking tests -- and doing good on those tests. To prepare for tests, students need to study their notes, lecture notes, and their textbooks. To ensure a really good grade, outside research is recommended, such as reading extra books or looking up more information on the Internet. Taking tests is another good reason as to why students should take notes, highlight the important pieces of information, and study, and not just the night before the test, but the days, or weeks, leading up to it. If there is something that the student does not understand, then they need to seek the help of a fellow classmate or the teacher, and continue to study until it all makes sense to them. Being On Time College classes and exams wait for no student. If a student has a test at 9:30 in the morning, they should be in their seat at 9:30 in the morning, if not sooner. Most teachers are very stringent about students being in their classrooms in time for not only exams, but for the class itself. If the student misses even a few minutes of a lesson, they are missing a lot of important information that will most likely be on a future exam. What I Learned and How My Studying Has Changed This class has taught me a lot on how to be a better student. I learned how to manage my time properly and how to prepare myself for exams by taking notes and studying. Overall, I learned how to be a proper student so that I may not only be successful in college, but so that I can be successful once I have graduated. My studying methods have changed in the sense that I am now more aware of what I am studying. Before this class, I would only look over my notes or the chapters in the book a couple times on the few nights leading up to the test. Now, after having taken the class to improve my study skills, I have taken the steps to improve them. I am now studying days in advance, which has not only given me more time in which to absorb the information, but to question fellow students or the professor if something does not make sense. By highlighting and using memory techniques, I am able to remember this information when the time comes for me to use it. Read More