College Study Tips

You may have gotten by in high school by frantically reviewing your notes at 7:15 a.m. on the morning of an exam, but don’t expect to get away with that in college. So says Sherrie Nist, coauthor of College Rules! How to Study, Survive, and Succeed in College (Ten Speed Press, 2002).

As a college educator at the University of Georgia who helps students with their high school to college transitions, Nist should know. After all, she’s seen A+ high schoolers turn into 2.0 undergrads time and time again. But that won’t be you, right?

Of course not! Especially not when you’ve got Nist’s scoop on successful student strategies.

Take action (with texts and lecture notes)
While you may have depended on rereading chapters and rewriting your notes as your main study plan before, things will be different at the college level. “You may have to read 250 pages a week. You can’t reread that three or four times,” says Nist.

Instead, adjust the way you read and take notes. “Since college is a passive activity (you sit there, listen to lectures, take some notes), anything you can do to make it more active is a benefit.” For example, jot notes in a textbook’s margin to highlight key points, reflect on your reading, and review class notes. “Your high school history teacher may have given you a study guide before a test, and all you had to do was memorize it,” says Nist. “Professors in college assume that you know the content; they expect you to synthesize and analyze issues.”

Time is on your side … or is it?
Think about this: You’re going from 7 to 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, of class in high school, to 15 hours per week in college. So why is it that college students are always saying they don’t have time to get things done? As Nist states, “students may have more time on their hands, but they don’t know how to manage it.”

In other words, just because your entire day isn’t bogged down by class after class, this doesn’t mean your schoolwork day is over. “I encourage students to have a 40-hour mindset. Those are the minimum hours you’ll work per week for a full-time job, so you should be a student for 40 hours a week, as well,” she says. Don’t worry–that includes class time, too!
Article provided by The CollegeBound Network