The first semester of college that I completed I was well organized, didn't procrastinate and succeeded in college. My very second semester I made a couple of bad grades and my GPA went downhill. It went from a 3.7 to a 2.5. Wow! I decided to write up a list of guidelines to help me get back on track. Upon just completing 5 summer school classes using these guidelines, I mad straight A's. Trust me. If this doesn't at least help you a little bit, there's no hope for you in college.
- Organization
- Go to the Library
- Isolate yourself
- Prepare assignments ahead of time
- >Study in your spare time
- Find ways to remember what you study
- Take advantage of extra credit opportunities
- Ask questions
- Study buddy up
Lesson 1: Organization
You can't survive college having a book bag full of papers. What if you can't find an important paper like a study guide, or your notes? You're screwed for the test. Get a folder to put your papers in, or buy a hold puncher for at-home use. Punch holes in your papers and stick them in your binder. It takes 5 seconds at the most to put a paper in a folder or clip it in a binder, but most of us are too lazy for even 5 seconds.
For your papers, a notebook computer would be good. A regular notebook and a P.C. (Personal Computer) would also suffice. You should get either a Flash-drive or a couple of disk to save your work on. I suggest you get a flash-drive; it's more compact and convenient.
Lesson 2: Go to the library
When you get out of class, it would be very beneficial to hit up the library. The library is about the best place to study. There's no noise, no distractions, no T.V. and most importantly no “Hey Billy, want to go to the movies?” LOL(laugh-out-loud).
The library is also good for doing a research papers. The library as you already know has books, magazines and the widest variety of sources for a paper.
Lesson 3: Isolate yourself
You just got to know when to tell your girlfriend “Baby, I can't take you to dinner today because I got to study.” “I can't hang with you today Chris, I got to do my paper.” It helps a lot of times to get away from friends, away from distractions and isolate yourself.
Lesson 4: Prepare for assignments ahead of time
To prevent procrastination, work on your assignments immediately and DO NOT WASTE TIME!!! A little bit of work here and there never hurt anybody. Do a little take a break, Do a little take a break, and etcetera. Divide subjects into individual study time.
Lesson 5: Study in your spare time
You might not want to hear what I'm about to say next. Make studying a habit. Sitting at the table eating, you're doing nothing. Lying on your back watching T.V. you're doing nothing. Wheeling away hours on Myspace you're doing nothing. If I could write a whole lesson on Myspace it would be called “Myspace is a complete waste of time.” Sorry Tom, but it's true. While you are talking on the phone you are also doing nothing. By nothing I mean you still have idle time to do more studying. It's good for if you are on a schedule budget.
Lesson 6: Find ways to remember what you study
If you have to remember “Oranges are Juicy” for example. Think about your favorite aunt who always wears orange giving you a big fat juicy hug. See what I'm saying? It helps to sequence your mind into an easy flow of answers when an exam is slammed in front of you.
Lesson 7: Take advantage of extra credit opportunities
Do not overlook any extra credit points. If she says go to the beach, pick six seashells out of the sand, do research on which animal of the sea each one of them came from, bring me back the shells, and write a research paper on it for half a point, then there you go. O.K. that would be dumb, but at least consider it.
Lesson 8: Ask questions
There are a lot of hard words to learn in college. Nine times out of ten a student will not know ALL of the words that are coming out of the professor's mouth. Ask what the word means, I don't care if you're too embarrassed to raise your hand and ask what the stupid word means. Nah, just kidding. If you are simply just too embarrassed to ask, write it down on paper and wait until class is over to ask. Anything else you don't know jot it down and ask the man. Or woman.
Lesson 9: Study buddy up
It's always great to get at least two or three phone numbers from people in each of your classes. Make sure that they are members of the opposite sex just in case you might want to hook up with them. Seriously though, call them up, meet in the library or something and study with them. Sometimes studying alone is hard. If you have a study buddy, they can read questions and you can feed them answers. This is to make sure that you know what's on the exam. Get what I'm saying?
The best way to substitute for a study buddy (in case you are too shy), is to go to the academic success center, let them help you with Math, English, or whatever, or just get some tutoring help. Don't be afraid to use the free help that is available, or if it's not free it's worth it if you can find cheap tutoring.
