Maximize Your Learning Efforts, Part 2 of 6

One extremely important part of successful learning is your attitude - about the amount of effort and time required and about the material in general.

• When you sit down to study be sure you are mentally planning to learn as opposed to thinking about how soon your can be done.  The same idea goes for reading your assignments - be sure you intend to understand and remember as opposed to counting down the pages!
• If you are taking a class you are not interested in, don't constantly bemoan the fact of how much you do not like it or the professor.  Instead, focus on your goal and see the class as one step closer to reaching it.
• When you are struggling to learn a particular topic (and everyone struggles at some time during their academic career) be sure you see yourself as succeeding and talk to yourself about how your will persevere and succeed.  Of course, your learning actions have to match this positive attitude!
• When taking an exam, don't immediately think about how you will fail.  Focus on how well you prepared, what your know and how you will succeed.
• In general, see yourself as an educated, successful learner and then match your habits to that image.

Our mental self-talk is very powerful and can shape who we are, how we persevere and succeed.  Be positive and focus on what is working and your successes!
Next week Part 3 will look at the importance of using a variety of strategies and what some of those strategies are.
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First Semester Success: Learning Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (or Any Semester) of College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available at amazon.com, wordassociation.com and barnesandnoble.com.  Click on the upper right link.