As you move through your first few weeks of
college, it’s likely that one of your most crucial adjustments will involve
studying. There are a lot of high
quality resources out there to assist you in the development of study skills
and I will touch on some of those in the coming weeks. However, I would like to focus today on
developing a healthy study attitude and plan.
I was good at this in
high school...will I really have to study that hard?
If
there are two monumental mistakes I see students make in their transition to
their academic life at Scranton, it’s thinking that even intensive study of any
subject in high school will render it unnecessary to study smart, hard and
often in college or that the level of rigor of high school coursework at even
more competitive high schools is comparable to what can be expected in college
work. These are usually both very costly fallacies.
Examining
this view critically, remember, you are paying a lot for college and possibly
more importantly, you are investing four years of your youth in your higher
education...would you really want to do that if college was a rerun of high
school? Otherwise, you would just be paying for a diploma, not investing
in an education. Don’t get me wrong--a good education should make you
marketable to employers and help secure a successful future for you but it
should do so much more...it should shake up the way you see the world and leave
you not only with the ability to know what questions to ask and how to find the
answers but also the passion to do so. It should prepare you to embark on
a lifetime of continued learning and the intellectual ability to find the
truth. It should prepare you to lead yourself and others in your
discipline and in your life. That’s a tall order for four years so you
have a lot of work to do.
How much should I study?
Educational
experts suggest that you should be studying 2-3 hours a week for every hour you
spend in class. That means that the
average freshman who is carrying around 15 credits should be finding 30-45
hours a week to study, read for class, do practice problems and otherwise
engage the material. I know that may
seem unrealistic at first but remember that you spent around 36 hours a week in
class in high school and now you are committed to less than half of that
time. To learn more than you learned in
high school, you will need to invest more time and effort.
Anyone
can do anything...but most things probably won’t come naturally to you so you will
have to work very hard. Sometimes it might seem like your peers don’t
have to work as hard as you to achieve better grades and that might very well
be true. In college you will encounter many people with different levels
of aptitude and background. Don’t allow this to discourage you.
Your job is to figure out if you want to succeed in a specific major/field
badly enough to invest the effort required.
If you start feeling like your effort is not matching the result, talk to
your faculty members, come see us in the advising center and consider signing
up for a tutor!
How do I prepare for
class?
Ben
Franklin is credited with saying, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to
fail.” By now you should have a syllabus
for each class that outlines not only the dates for tests and quizzes but also
what you can expect to cover each day and what reading or problem sets you
should familiarize yourself with prior to class. The lecture should not be your first exposure
to new material; it should be your opportunity to gain a deeper understanding
and get your questions answered. You may
not always have time to read every last word before you come to class but you
should at the very least look through the chapters, familiarize yourself with
key terms, study important diagrams and study the chapter overview. The deeper you can delve into the material
ahead of time, the more productive your time in class will be.
Revisit the Material
At
some point shortly after class, you should reread your notes. Does what you wrote make sense or is it a
disorganized jumble? Do you feel clear
on the topics or do you need to seek your professor’s assistance? Are there key terms you can put on index
cards to study or do you need to work on some practice problems? Doing these things shortly after learning new
material will deepen your understanding and save you time and effort later.
Developing a Study Zone
The
where, when, how and how long you study is tremendously important and will be
dependent upon what works best for you but there are some key things to
consider. Most students, whether they
want to admit it or not, study better in a distraction free environment—usually
a dorm room is not conducive to productive study. Having your roommate traipsing in and out,
your friends knocking and texting and having constant access to the
distractions of social media and television can keep you from focusing and what’s
worse, can make you feel like you spend all of your time with your face in a
book without accomplishing anything. Going
to a quiet study room or the library can help you eliminate distractions. You should make time in your life for socializing
and relaxing as well as for studying but you should try to keep these times
separate.
Consider
your most productive time. Many students
benefit from developing an 8-5 attitude about college. For the next four years, college will be your
full time job; it can help to schedule it that way. If you establish that the daytime is dedicated
to classwork, you will have more free time in the evening to socialize or
pursue entertainment. You will also
decrease the chances of too many late night cram sessions.
Be
sure to take breaks for meals and stretching.
Most people can only be productive for around 45 minutes at a time. You shouldn’t expect yourself to hunch over a
textbook for hours at a time. Frequent
breaks will help you maintain focus.
What if I am
overwhelmed?
These
adjustments can be a lot to take in and incorporate into your life. There are so many supportive resources on
campus to help you do just that.
Remember that your faculty were in your shoes once too. Your biology teacher had to figure out how to
study for biology at one point and they obviously managed to adapt to the
subject successfully. Who would be
better to assist you in doing the same?
You can also come to the CAS Advising Center, go to the CTLE or the
Counseling Center! It would be our
pleasure to help!
Katie Robinson
CAS Academic Advisor
katherine.robinson@scranton.edu
