Help with becoming a successful student

Here are some hyperlinks to web sites that discuss how to be a successful college student, adult learner and life-long learner. Explore and experiment with your study habits. For more information call Bill McGraw at 608-334-4514 or send an e-mail to wmcgraw@wisc.edu

Effective study skills and strategies are the basis of effective learning.
They give you an opportunity to approach learning tasks systematically and independently. By always using good study habitsólearning to work smarteróyou will work like and become a successful student.

Learn To Learn

Learning is a very personal matter. There isn't one study/learning skill or strategy that works for every person in every situation. Therefore, learning to learn strategies are about learning what you know, learning what you don't know, and learning what to do about it. Your repertoire of study/learning strategies will:

enable you to take more responsibility for your own learning

allow you to spend your time effectively and stay on task

help you select the best approach(s) for each assignment or task

provide you with the knowledge and skills needed to begin, follow through, and complete assignments/tasks

present you with access to a variety of content and reference materials

give you the confidence to know when and who to ask for help

Concepts of learning

Conceptions of learning are the beliefs and ideas people have about what learning actually means. People often think that the notion of learning means the same to everyone. Research is showing that the conception of learning an individual holds actually influences the way in which he/she approaches tasks in class, which ultimately affects the quality of the learning outcome.

Learning strategies

Learning strategies are sequenced patterns of behaviors used in all activities to make individuals more effective learners. Strategies are used to overcome difficulties in such areas as time management, language skills, reading, writing, and memory. They can help students manage stress, become more self-assertive, and develop the tech‚niques to help in lifetime learning situations.

Employing appropriate strategies is essential in college due to the nature and volume of work. Postsecondary learning requires students to connect old and new information, extend or make new associations, and effectively use their memory capacities. Strategies also provide structure to deal with the higher-order processing demanded in college but not stressed in high school.

LEARNING STYLES

Students preferentially take in and process information in different ways: by seeing and hearing, reflecting and acting, reasoning logically and intuitively, analyzing and visualizing, steadily and in fits and starts. Teaching methods also vary. Some instructors lecture, others demonstrate or lead students to self-discovery; some focus on principles and others on applications; some emphasize memory and others understanding.

When mismatches exist between learning styles of most students in a class and the teaching style of the professor, the students may become bored and inattentive in class, do poorly on tests, get discouraged about the courses, the curriculum, and themselves, and in some cases change to other curricula or drop out of school. Professors, confronted by low test grades, unresponsive or hostile classes, poor attendance and dropouts, know something is not working. They may become overly critical of their students (making things even worse) or begin to wonder if they are in the right profession. Most seriously, society loses potentially excellent professionals.

What your mother never told you about college

Becoming an excellent student

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