Will You Be in the 60%?

According to the U. S. Department of Education, the national average for college graduation after six years is 60%.  This means that only 60% of freshmen enrolling in a four-year degree-granting institution will graduate within six years of starting their education.   For many of my students on academic probation this is a grim statistic as they are already behind.  So their “ticket” out of class today was to tell me what they were doing today to be sure they were in the 60%.  Some of their answers were:

·         Go directly to the Library

·         Review notes after each class

·         Start to study now for exam in several days

·         Go to tutoring

·         Talk to professors during office hours

·         Make study cards

I was happy to hear that students were planning to do concrete things rather than just “studying harder.”  This information was a wake-up call to my students who sometimes think they will automatically move forward when actually they are the ones who have to be proactive and make it happen.   I also suggested that they write down their priorities and post them where they will see them and be reminded every day in order to keep themselves focused and motivated.  

Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (2016)

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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, barnesandnoble.com and wordassociation.com.  Click on the upper right link.

Ingredients for Successful Learning - The Importance of Time

Another part of learning is to give yourself time.  It takes much more than one exposure to information to get it securely into your memory, so your learning needs to be spaced out over time.  There are many easy ways to do this:

·       Review and start to learn the information as soon as possible after the class.

·       Put difficult information on study cards and review almost every day.

·       Once a week or so review all of the information that will be on the next exam.

·       Attend any study sessions available – Supplemental Instruction, walk-in tutoring, professor-led review sessions, etc.

·       Make use of any online help associated with the class such as practice quizzes.

·       Start to study for an exam at least five days prior to the exam.

While learning is not easy, using time to your advantage will increase your efficiency and make it easier to earn higher grades.

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First Semester Success: Learning Strategies and Motivation for Your Frist 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.

Ingredients for Successful Learning - Variety

When you sit down to study, what do you do?  Reread your lecture notes over and over?  Maybe reread the book?  The is not enough and it is boring!  Learning requires several things – variety, repetition, self-testing and being spaced out over time.  So there are many things you can do to improve your learning and the next several blogs will focus on some of these. 

One important thing is to do a variety of activities with the information you want to learn.  Rereading your notes over and over will not work.  If you do memorize your notes through that strategy you will only know the information in those exact words and in that order.  Here are some other ideas:

·       After rereading a section of notes, cover them up and restate the information in your own words.  If you can do so, move on to the next section.  If you cannot, repeat.

·       Make a review chart combining information from your notes and textbook.

·       Go to any study or review session scheduled (Supplemental Instruction, professor-led, etc.)

·       Take advantage of anything offered by the textbook such as a list of terms you should know, on-line quizzes, review questions at the end of chapters, etc.

·       Form a study group and take turns either quizzing each other or re-teaching the information to each other.

·       If you like color you can highlight you notes, add color to the study guide, use colored paper, etc.

·       Once you are pretty far along in your learning you could try to vary your study location so that you know the information in a variety of settings.

·       If you have access to a large white board or chalk board you could graph out the information on that.

·       You might find it interesting to watch a movie or documentary that relates to the information.

The point is to do a variety of things with the information to be sure you know it in different formats, different words and different order and can instantly recall it.

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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.