Ways of Achieving Academic Success - Essay Example

Lecturer: Achieving Academic Success Academic Success is an important part of life and is one of the most important factors in determining an individual’s success. Many parents strive to ensure that their children are successful in school by employing tutors as well as taking them to private academies that boast of a high average test score. Governments also sponsor research into approaches to improve teaching methods as an educated population is of vital importance to a growing economy. As a student there are several things one can do to improve their test scores both in and out of class including proper time management and improving their note-taking skills as shown below. The first step a student can take to be successful is to categorize their impending coursework according to urgency and importance. This is important so that they can formulate a proper time-schedule to do the work and to evaluate how much time is necessary to carry out each learning task, and to ensure there is no tasks postponement. The concept importance dictates whether a task can be postponed for the future even if it is urgent, since at times a student may find themselves constrained by time making it difficult to complete all the tasks on their time table (Croft 42). Thus, it is important to rank tasks in order of importance to ensure that tasks even if urgent are foregone, except that with extreme consequences, such as if a student has yet to complete a report whose deadline is the next day. Nevertheless, if for instance they are to go to the gym for a workout session in a few hours, the workout session might have to be postponed for the sake of the assignment due to the lack of penalty in skipping a gym session. Sometimes there is an overemphasis by students as well as lecturers to focus on grades and passing exams, and this has been found to cause poor performance among students, as they look for simple shortcuts of no benefit. Therefore, it is important for a student to focus on learning and not grades that they get, since while it is important to hope for a high grade it is not practical to work for it by using tricks such as targeting particular topics or cramming for a CAT, since in the long term such strategies produce lower grades. Instead, a student should look at the course as a learning experience whereby they are to be imparted upon valuable knowledge. In this case, practices that are encouraged to be successful include constant review of coursework as well as being in continuous consultation with lecturers regarding unclear topics, instead of over-reliance on classwork and searching the internet for answers. Therefore, a student must focus on understanding the course content to comprehend the subject in depth and only look at assessment tests as a measure of their comprehensive skills and not a guaranteed pass (Kaech 65). In addition, it is important for the student to set goals for the semester as they will use and be guided by these goals to gauge their success throughout the term. These goals should be self-chosen by the student as nobody else is in a better position to understand the challenges that they will face, as they go through the semester. Goals set by the student should be moderately challenging, as they should require some effort to achieve, as it would not be beneficial to the student to set goals that they can achieve with ease or little effort. While being challenging these goals must also be practical, as overestimating ones skills and capacity will only lead to failure and disappointment on the student’s part (Blerkom 37). There are different types of goals that a student can set for himself or herself when coming up with goals for their academic year; among these are academic goals, which will aid them in improving their study habits. These academic goals will be in terms of setting a minimum number of lectures they have to attend or even a maximum number of lectures they should skip. Furthermore, a student can also set for themselves goals that relate to their completion of assignments to avoid missing deadlines (Blerkom 38). Being open to change is also of great importance to a student, as a sudden change in lifestyle is always difficult to cope with often limiting their success in education. Several factors cause individual students to cling on habits that have proved harmful to them including the belief that they cannot change. This belief mainly stems from a culture of failure whereby a student has accepted their dismal performance as part of whom they are and will not strive to change their life and does not believe it possible for them to change positively. Changing this belief though not easy can be done if the student has an external support group and even if they don’t, through association with those practicing better study habits the student could see that a change is possible (Blerkom 39). At times students are also not sure at which parts of their routine they need to change and which are okay meaning that they cannot improve on their habits on their own. Some students also hold the view that the changes being pushed for are so small that they could be viewed as insignificant and therefore unnecessary. Such a view means that they will only cooperate with the changes with resentment and if it was the case of the creation of a new study program then it will not succeed due to it disregard. For a student to change their habits it is important for them to acknowledge that there are problems in their life which they need to change. Note taking skills are important during class lectures as a means to provide brief and accurate notes especially when doing a revision for an exam or CAT. These notes can also prove to be a substitute for the textbooks used especially in cases where more than three have been used by the lecturer or when class work has come from several website references making it difficult to have them all studied in a single session without internet access. Therefore, note taking is useful to record the basic crucial points, which can be expounded on later either through research, or through a personal revision of course textbooks. The first step to proper note making for a student is to read each line carefully and to underline or highlight the important words. Initially, the text should be read carefully so that the student has a rough idea on what the book entails, the second reading should then be done at a slower pace for proper comprehension (Marian 7). The first draft of notes drafted and should not be more than a hundred words, since the purpose of this is to ensure that there is an emphasis on the essentials of the text read. The paragraphs should then be reread and any mistakes edited, additionally the words should be counted to ensure that they do not surpass the target. After reviewing the paragraph, a student can then rewrite it ensuring to make the necessary corrections, and if they feel that the copy is not good enough for a final draft they can use it as a second draft and write another cleaner one. In conclusion, success in the academic field is of utmost importance to a student considering that there are steps they can take towards improving their test scores and learning experience. Among the steps taken include proper time management so that they have a clear idea on what on their schedule is important and what is urgent so that they can do their work accordingly. For a student to grow academically they must also be open to change; however, as some see the change as not possible not all are willing to adopt new practices. The improvement in note taking skills is also a necessary step in academic success and as they develop, other habits including consultation of teachers shall be adopted. Works Cited Blerkom, Dianna. College Study Skills: Becoming a Strategic Learner. Boston: Wadsworth, 2012.Print Croft, Chris. Time management. London: Thomson business, 1996.Print Kaech, Buddy. What are Students Achieving: A Look at the Influence of Grades on Student. Eisenhower: UMI, 2008.Print Marian, Barry. Summary and Note-Taking. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.Print Read More