PREPARING FOR ACADEMIC SUCCESS

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PREPARING FOR ACADEMIC SUCCESS

• Heather Davis, MS, NREMT-P

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THE EFFECTIVE STUDENT

• Has a regular study schedule
• Works at the same time each day
• Works in a regular study place
• Works for short sessions with frequent breaks
• Reviews notes soon after a lecture

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More on the effective student

• Does not procrastinate
• Is not easily distracted
• Does not need exams for motivation
  From Encouraging Effective Learning by
  Alex Main, 1980, p. 2.

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Problems Faced by Older Students

• Time management
• Time distribution between family, school, and the
  workplace
• Regimentation seems restrictive and pointless
• Course content confusing and time-consuming

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TRYING NEW WAYS

• You can change bad habits
• Break out of your comfort zone
• Blind spots are limiting your success

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Scheduling Time to Gain Time

• Im constantly amazed by the number of people
  who cant seem to control their own schedules.
• -Lee Iococca, saved Chrysler from bankruptcy

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Principles of Scheduling

• Eliminate dead hours
• Use daylight hours
• Study before recitation-type classes
• Study after lecture-type classes
• List according to priorities
• Allow time for sleep
• Double your time estimates

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California or Bust!

• Focus on a goal
• Write done all the benefits of goal attainment
• Write down all steps leading to your goal
• Write down all the obstacles to meeting your goal
• Finish with steps to overcome obstacles

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SELF-DISCIPLINE

• Do you cram for exams?
• Do you stay up most of the night to finish
  papers?
• Do you give up recreational time to study?
• Do you miss exercise or sleep time to
  study? From Psychology by
  William James, 1983, p. 145.

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CONCENTRATION

• Consider the postage stamp. It secures success
  through its ability to stick to one thing until
  it gets there.

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Are You Type-A or B?

• I like to do things quickly, such as eating,
  walking, talking.
• I am hard-driving and feel competitive about
  everything.
• I dont really trust many people.
• When others talk too slowly, I finish their
  sentences to speed things along.
• I like to be on time and get irritated when
  others are late.
• I often think of other things when people talk to
  me.
• I hate being interrupted.
• I get irritated waiting in lines and behind slow
  drivers.
• I am very aggressive about what I want.

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Behavior Patterns of Type-As

• Excessive competitiveness
• Constant Impatience
• Chronic sense of urgency
• Insecurity
• Aggressiveness
• Irritability
• Drive for accomplishment

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Type A People Die Young

• Type A people suffer more hypertension, heart
  attack, stroke, and divorce.

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Forgetting and Remembering

• Fading Theory
• Retrieval Theory
• Interference Theory
• Interactive Interference Theory
• Reactive Interference Theory
• Motivation Theory From A survey of dynamic
  principles governing memory by R. Williams,
  1944, p.167-79.

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What it is to KNOW something

• Requires deep cognitive processing
• Understand (be able to explain it in your own
  words)
• Analyze (consider other views, approaches)
• Relate (to other pertinent information already
  stored in your memory)

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Problem 1

• The letters O,T,T,F,Fform the beginning of an
  infinite sequence. What would be the next two
  letters of the sequence?

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Problem 2

• Consider the letters H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O. The
  solution to this problem is one word. What is
  the word?

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Listening and Notetaking

• The horror of that moment, the King went on, I
  shall never, never forget! You will, though,
  the Queen said, if you dont make a memorandum
  of it.

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Dos of Note Taking

• look over previous notes before class
• attend ALL lectures (its a continuing story)
• be academically aggressive
• take a front seat to see and hear better
• use large paper
• write on only on side of the sheet
• on top sheet, record course, lecturer, date

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More on Note Taking

• write in short sentences, paraphrase
• use the lecturers words
• capture ideas as well as facts
• develop your own abbreviations and symbols
• record all examples

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Donts of Notetaking

• do not sit near friends
• do not convert lecturers words
• do not give up on a fast lecture
• do not stop to ponder
• do not doodle
• do not consider any example too obvious
• do not over-indent

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Getting the most from textbooks

• SQ3R
• Developed by F. Robinson at Ohio State University
  in WWII

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SQ3R

• Survey (headings and summary)
• Question (read to answer the questions)
• Read (search for the answers)
• Recite (recite the answer to the questions)
• Review (major subpoints in each
  section) Record (questions and answers)

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Questions?