Earlyface

Successful students exhibit a combination of successful attitudes and behaviors
as well as intellectual capacity. Successful students . . .
1. . . . are responsible and active
Successful students get involved in their studies, accept responsibility for their
own education, and are active participants in it! Responsibility is the difference
between leading and being led. Active classroom participation improves grades
without increasing study time. You can sit there, actbored, daydream, or sleep.
Or you can actively listen, think, question, and take notes like someone in charge
of their learning experience. Either option costs one class period. However, the
former method will require a large degree of additional work outside of class to
achieve the same degree of learning the latter provides at one sitting.
2. . . . have educational goals.
Successful students are motivated by what their goals represent in terms of
career aspirations and life''s desires.Ask yourself these questions: What am I
doing here? Is there some better place I could be? What does my presence here
mean to me?Answers to these questions represent your ''Hot Buttons'' and are,
without a doubt, the most important factors in your success as a college student.
If your educational goals are truly yours, not someone else''s, they will motivate a
vital and positive academic attitude. If you are familiar with what these hot
buttons represent and refer to them often, especially when you tire of being a
student,nothing can stop you; if you aren''t and don''t, everything can, and will!
3. . . . ask questions.
Successful students ask questions to provide the quickest route between
ignorance and knowledge.In addition to securing knowledge you seek, asking
questions has at least two other extremely important benefits. The process helps
you pay attention to your professor and helps your professor pay attention to you!
Think about it. If you want something, go after it. Get the answer now, or fail a
question later. There are no foolish questions, only foolish silence. It''s your
choice.
4. . . . learn that a student and a professor make a team.
Most instructors want exactly what you want: they would like for you to learn the
material in their respective classes and earn a good grade.Successful students
reflect well on the efforts of any teacher; if you have learned your material, the
instructor takes some justifiable pride in teaching. Join forces with your instructor,
they are not an enemy, you share the sameinterests, the same goals - in short,
you''re teammates. Get to know your professor. You''re the most valuable players
on the same team. Your jobs are to work together for mutual success. Neither
wishes to chalkup a losing season. Be a team player!
5. . . . don''t sit in the back.
Successful students minimize classroom distractions that interfere with
learning.Students want the best seat available for their entertainment dollars, but
willingly seek the worst seat for their educational dollars. Students who sit in the
back cannot possibly be their professor''s teammate (see no. 4). Why do they
expose themselves to the temptations of inactive classroom experiences and
distractions of all the people between them and their instructor? Of course, we
know they chose the back of the classroom because they seek invisibility or
anonymity, both of which are antithetical to efficient and effective learning. If you
are trying not to be part of the class, why, then, are you wasting your time? Push
your hot buttons, is their something else you should be doingwith your time?
6. . . . take good notes.
Successful students take notes that are understandable and organized, and review
them often.Why put something into your notes you don''t understand? Ask the
questions now that are necessary to make your notes meaningful at some later
time. A short review of your notes while the material is still fresh on your mind
helps your learn more. The more you learn then,the less you''ll have to learn later
and the less time it will take because you won''t have to include some deciphering
time, also. The whole purpose of taking notes is to use them, and use them often.
The moreyou use them, the more they improve.
7. . . . understand that actions affect learning.
Successful students know their personal behavior affect their feelings and
emotionswhich in turn can affect learning.If you actin a certain way that normally
produces particular feelings, you will begin to experience those feelings. Act like
you''re bored, and you''ll become bored. Act like you''re uninterested, and you''ll
become uninterested. So the next time you have trouble concentrating in the
classroom,''act'' like an interested person: lean forward, place your feet flat on the
floor, maintain eye contact with the professor, nod occasionally, take notes, and
ask questions. Not only will you benefit directly from your actions, your
classmates and professor may also get more excited and enthusiastic.
8. . . . talk about what they''re learning.
Successful students get to know somethingwell enough that they can put it into
words.Talking about something, with friends or classmates, is not only good for
checking whether or not you know something, its a proven learning tool.
Transferring ideas into words provides the most direct path for moving knowledge
from short-term to long-term memory. You really don''t ''know'' material until you
can put it into words. So, next time you study, don''t do it silently. Talk about
notes, problems, readings, etc. with friends, reciteto a chair, organize an oral
study group, pretend you''re teaching your peers. ''Talk-learning'' produces a whole
host of memory traces that result in more learning.
9. . . . don''t cram for exams.
Successful students know that divided periods of study are more effective than
cram sessions, and they practice it.If thereis one thing that study skills specialists
agree on, it is that distributed study is better than massed, late-night, last-ditch
efforts known as cramming. You''ll learn more, remember more, and earn a higher
grade by studying in four, one hour-a-nightsessions for Friday''s exam than
studying for four hours straight on Thursday night. Short, concentrated preparatory
efforts are more efficient and rewarding than wasteful, inattentive, last moment
marathons. Yet, so many students fail to learn this lesson and end up repeating it
over and over again until it becomes a wasteful habit. Not too clever, huh?
10. . . . are good time managers.
Successful students do not procrastinate. They have learned that time control is
life control and have consciously chosen to be in control of their life.An elemental
truth: you will either control time or be controlled by it! It''s your choice: you can
lead or be led, establish control or relinquish control, steer your own course or
follow others. Failure to take control of their own time is probably the no. 1 study
skills problem for college students. It ultimately causes many students to become
non-students! Procrastinators are good excuse-makers. Don''t make academics
harder on yourself than it has to be. Stop procrastinating. And don''t wait until
tomorrow to do it!