Learning is Cumulative – Success is Habitual

This is the 9^th week of the semester at my university, and many of my students were absent this week.  This is a portion of the email I sent them to remind them about the importance of class attendance and effort in their studies:

1. Learning is cumulative - you can't just pop in and out of a class.  One class builds on another.  When you are absent you miss the continuity of the subject and cannot easily follow the material.   Also, if miss you too much you not feel a part of the class the next time you are there.

2.  Success is habitual - you must do good work constantly, not just sometimes or occasionally.     You cannot expect to earn good grades on quizzes and exams if you are not doing good work all along with your studies.

**The successful student and the successful person in life are able to maintain their efforts over time!  The semester is only 14 weeks long - stay strong to the end!

How to Raise Your Grade Point Average

This week one of my students who is on probation asked me how to raise her grade point average. There is not one quick fix for this.  It involves day-to-day effort in multiple areas.  Here are some ideas:

• Use a daily planner and write down all assignments.
• Use a semester calendar to keep track of large assignments and exams.   LOOK AHEAD so that you are preparing in advance.
• Review your lecture notes as soon as possible after EVERY class. 
• Do something else with the lecture notes to learn them – recitation, make a study guide, make a pre-test.
• Read whatever is assigned.  If it is a long assignment, annotate and/or take notes.   If it is a short assignment, read it twice.
• Start to study for exams at least one week in advance.  (Keep in mind that this is in addition to reviewing and learning your notes after every class!)
• Take advantage of tutoring or Supplemental Instruction offered on your campus.
• Talk with your professor if you do not understand something from the class.

As you see, the answer is not ONE thing but MANY things.  Keep focused, keep working, and don’t let up!

Studying Over Spring Break

Spring Break is generally scheduled sometime during the month of March.  Hopefully you do not have a lot of work to do – it is called a “break” for a reason!  If this is not your first semester, you already know that it is next to impossible to study when you are home.  Here are a few things you can do to be sure you get some studying time in:

• First, try to get as much done before you go on break
• Decide on specific times when you will study before you even go home
• Tell these times to someone else so they will help you be accountable
• Go to your local Library – putting yourself into an academic atmosphere definitely helps
• Set yourself up to be successful – plan to study when you have the house to yourself, if possible
• Study a few hours before something especially fun and use that event as a reward

Even if you do not have an exam or paper due immediately after break, consider taking your notes home and reviewing them a few times over break.  Forgetting happens very quickly and if you completely remove your studies from your mind for a week, you will have to do some relearning when you get back to classes in addition to learning the new material.

Four Time Management Tools

 There are four tools that will help you manage your time successfully and be able to do everything you want to do.

#1 – Semester calendar

At the beginning of each semester, write all of your exams, major papers and projects and important social events on a monthly calendar.  Post this and check it often to see the big picture of the semester.  Look for when you have clusters of exams and/or major things due and then plan your life around those.

#2 – General weekly schedule

Graph out your class schedule for the semester.  Add in anything that happens regularly on a weekly basis such as work or meetings.  This will give you an idea of when you can study and how to fit in other activities.  This weekly schedule needs to become a habit.

#3 – Daily planner

Write down daily assignments as they are given by your professors or listed in the syllabus.  This is where you will plan each individual week including special events, appointments, etc.

#4 – To-do list

Use this to plan your goals for each day.  Write this out either before bed or first thing in the morning.  This will help each day be more purposeful and productive.  If you have a busy week, you can make a to-do list for each day of the week either Sunday night or Monday morning.  This helps reduce stress because you plan exactly what you will do and when you will do it.

Many students feel that they don’t want to be so scheduled and want to be able to “go with the flow.”  By planning your time, you actually will have more free time and be able to enjoy it more because you are not always thinking about what you should be doing.

Try it!

We are what we repeatedly do.

Albert Einstein said, “We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” 

Think about what you do on a daily basis and ask these questions:

• Are my daily activities moving me toward my goal?
• Am I doing the best job I can at whatever task I am preforming?
• Would I be proud of how I spend my time if someone shadowed me for a day?
• What activities and things do I repeatedly do?  Are they positive to my future?

Be sure to do something every day to move yourself toward your goal!

Motivational Goal Setting

My students often struggle with motivation.  Some students find that there are so many fun and distracting things to do that academics comes last.  Other students have an extremely tight schedule with family and/or work obligations and find it hard to squeeze in studying.  One way to keep you motivated and on track is to set goals for yourself.  An effective goal has three characteristics:

• It must be measurable
• It must be attainable
• It must have a definite time limit

Goals can be short term (day or week), medium length (month or semester), or long term (one or several years).

Here is a plan:

1. Set your goal for the week on Sunday night or Monday morning.  Make sure it fits the above three criteria.
2. Write it down.
3. Put it where you can see it daily.
4. At the end of the week, evaluate how you did and set a new or the same goal for the next week.

Here are some examples

Too vague, unattainable:

I will study harder.

I will never miss another point on an exam.

I will earn better grades.

Great goals:

This week I will go to all of my classes.

This week I will review my notes after every class.

I will study 1 hour a day for my exam next Friday.

What is your goal for the week?   Send it as a comment to this post or write it down and tape it to your bathroom mirror.  Good luck!

Characteristics of a Successful Student

In class this week we talked about the characteristics of a successful student.  The most common suggestions from my students included:

• Motivated
• Determined
• Persistent
• Optimistic
• Organized
• Focused
• Puts forth effort
• Works hard
• Organized

Students have displayed many of these characteristics in other settings such as sports.  We reflected on what students did to be successful at a sport (practice, not giving up, analyzing mistakes and adjusting, etc.) and then discussed how they could be transfer these attitudes and strategies to an academic setting. 

Another strategy is to focus on your goals – why are you in college?   You can set a goal for the semester (for example: be on Dean’s List, have chosen a major or career) and then post that goal where you can see it every day to remind yourself of what you want to achieve.

I asked my students to write a short paper and tell me:

1.) how they are currently displaying the positive characteristics they already possess and

2.) what behaviors they would be doing if they had other characteristics that they want to develop.

You can do the same if there are some characteristics from the above list or others you would like to work on.

In the next two weeks the topics will be:

Goals – how to set a workable, motivational goal

Motivational quotations to keep you going