Tips for Academic Success

According to American inventor Thomas Edison, “The three great essentials to achieving anything worthwhile are, first, hard work, second, stick-to-it-iveness, and third, common sense.” From my perspective, those are pretty strong tips. The most successful students in my classes are always those who work hard and smart. In other words, they actually do the assignments—all of them. They read what is assigned, perhaps outline the chapters and complete any study guides; they go to the library and review reserve materials; they review their assignments, asking questions about anything that is unclear. They begin assignments early –rather than late—and they schedule conference times with me to discuss their progress. They understand that a major project requires time and effort, and they recognize that such projects cannot be completed overnight. Because they have read the materials and are prepared for class, they engage in classroom discussions: they act as though LEARNING IS AN ACTIVE PROCESS (which it definitely is).

Even with such dedicated efforts, however, sometimes course material seems difficult or dense. At that point, the weaker or less dedicated students will sometimes give up or decide to “deal with it later” or blame whatever excuse seems handy. The successful student simply reviews the material and tries to discern what is the most confusing part of the material and then contacts me with questions. Sometimes these questions can be addressed via email; sometimes they are best addressed in class (if you are confused, other students are likely stumped as well); sometimes such questions are best addressed during a conference. Regardless, of how the questions get answered, successful students don’t stop until they find the answers. Perseverance is an amazing character trait—LEARNING IS AN ACTIVE AND ONGOING PROCESS.

Effort and commitment come from self-discipline. As boring as it sounds, successful students plan time to study and actually use that time to study. Time management is critical. You can’t dedicate enough time to study effectively unless you schedule the time and adhere to that schedule. I encourage students to think about college as work—from 8 to 5, you should be in class or studying and then expect to spend at least a couple of hours studying at night. Yes, it is a lot of time and effort. Do it anyway.

Common sense is probably the most underrated component of successful students. Common sense tells us that if we have a big test on Monday, then we’re probably going to need to study over the weekend, but it should also tell us to learn the information throughout the semester so that we only need to “review”—as opposed to “cram”—for the test. Common sense also lets us know when what we’re doing is detrimental to our success as students. For example, common sense should alert us that missing class is counter-productive to our success, especially if participation points are at stake. Common sense should also tell us to be alert to deadlines for assignments and to plan accordingly in order to avoid the hassle and opportunity cost of late assignments. Losing points for missing class or assignment deadlines just isn’t very smart.

Effort, commitment, and common sense can go a long way toward making any student very successful.

Dr. Brammer’s Pet Peeves
(1) Meet the deadlines. In the real world, you will be fired for missing deadlines. Learn to meet them now.
(2) Fulfill the assignment. If the assignment calls for a full draft for peer review, don’t bring in two pages and hope I won’t notice that it is incomplete. The peer review is not for my benefit—it’s for yours.
(3) Edit carefully. Even if your writing skills are not strong, you can still edit basic errors (misspelled words, sentence fragments, strange spacings, etc.). If you don’t know how to use Word to include page numbers or headings, LEARN how to do so.
(4) Look for the big picture. Don’t get so absorbed in meeting the page limits of your assignment or the minutes for your speech that you forget the purpose and the audience and the larger learning goal.
(5) Keep your priorities straight. Yes, academics are even more important than social events are.