Set Time To Study And Work In Batches
At Regis, as at other universities, many students pursue their education alongside other responsibilities and obligations. Work, childcare, family obligations, internships and the like all compete for your time and attention, making it critical that you create a schedule that allows you to meet all of those challenges.
Chunking tasks, as I like to call it, gives students a way to feel accomplished, says Small. You feel like youre progressing. Additionally, scheduling time specifically dedicated to studying will help you build and stay on a routine.
Get Help If Youre Falling Behind
When you arent physically in the classroom, it can be harder to ask your professor for help. You cant just walk up to them after class or find them in their office around campus. Youll need to take more initiative.
However, dont let this difficulty prevent you from getting help. If you arent understanding the material or youre falling behind on assignments, talk to the instructor ASAP. The longer you wait to get help, the further behind youll fall and the more likely you are to perform poorly on exams.
If the assistance your professor offers isnt enough, look into additional resources.
Chegg Study offers affordable help with homework from subject experts, as well as solutions to problem sets from many textbooks.
And free resources like Khan Academy or Crash Course can provide explanations of common concepts across subjects, giving you a different perspective than your professors.
Develop A Sense Of Self
Some of us are just born with a natural sense of self-motivation, while others have to work toward achieving this highly valuable trait. Although you might be used to professors, classmates, and parents reminding you when assignments are due and what criteria these assignments must meet, you will have to prepare for an educational experience that requires initiative, motivation, and self-reliance.
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Start The Important Stuff Right Away
Lots of students procrastinate regularly, but you probably don’t want to be one of them. The more you procrastinate, the less likely you are to succeed. At least, that’s true of most people. Playing catch-up all the time is a recipe for stress and burnout. Instead, it’s smarter to start on important things like big reading assignments, research papers, and exam prep as soon as possible. The earlier you start, the more your subconscious can filter ideas and work on problems for you in the background. It also gives you a chance to actually enjoy the process at a more leisurely pace. No cramming necessary.
Check Your Email Regularly
Normally, I wouldnt advise you to spend more time checking your email. But with online classes, its crucial to keep up with messages from your instructor. This way, youre aware of changes to due dates, new guidelines for assignments, updated study resources, and announcements of office hours.
Depending on how youre taking online classes, there may also be an online message portal to check in addition to or instead of email. Whatever method the professor uses to communicate, be sure to monitor it regularly. To make sure you dont forget, create a recurring task on your to-do list called Check for messages from my professor.
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Icipate As Much As Possible
Whether youre taking courses online or in-person, participation is crucial to success. In addition to showing your professor that youre engaged, active participation shows that youre learning, and that youre willing to put in the effort thats required to be successful. While education is often perceived by some as a passive process, participation turns it into an active process.
Simply put, the more you participate as a student, the more youll get out of your experience, says Small.
Develop A College Plan
One of the best ways to start on the right foot in college is to develop a college plan. This is essentially a map of what future semesters will look like so youre one step ahead when it comes to class registration time.
Take a look at whats required for your degree, including course, certification and internship requirements . Using that information, plan out what classes youll need to take and when in order to graduate on the timeline that works best for you. Though this wont be set in stone and some things are likely to change over time, having a plan to guide your registration choices will help you stay on track.
Its generally recommended that to graduate in four years, you should take roughly 15 credits per semester. Of course, this will vary based on transfer or AP credits, as well as different classes required for a major and minor.
One of the biggest issues that prevents college students from graduating in this timeline is impacted majors, or majors that are at max, or even over, capacity of students that can take given classes. For students in these majors, certain classes they need to graduate could be filled up before they have a chance to enrollpushing their graduation timeline back by a semester or worse, by a year.
Weve included an example college plan here of course, yours will completely depend on your major, courses and preferred graduation timeline. Personalize away!
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Break Your Time Outside Of Class Into Small Chunks That Match Your Body’s Natural Rhythms
Generally speaking, a person’s energy waxes and wanes in roughly 90-minute intervals throughout the day. By paying attention to when you feel more awake and focused, you can schedule your most challenging tasks for those times. Then you can leave the less-challenging stuff for the dips or use the low-energy times for refreshing naps or social and recreational breaks. This way, you can get everything in without feeling like you’re missing out or ignoring your studies.
How To Succeed In Elearn
Students who want to take online or FlexPace courses are required to complete How to Succeed in eLearn . It is recommended for students taking blended or in-person courses. Anyone with a Sinclair username and password may take HTS.
- HTS is a FREE online tutorial-available anytime
- It is not for credit or a grade
- HTS is self-paced and takes approximately 30 minutes to complete
- HTS teaches you how to use eLearn
To get started, follow the steps below:
For help, contact the Help Desk at or call: .
Proof of HTS Completion
- If you completed HTS in the October 2017 section or later, you will have a certificate. Go to any of your eLearn courses, click on the Progress tab and choose Awards or follow these instructions on accessing HTS certificate .
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Beware Of Credit Cards
Big banks often see college students as easy targets for credit card offers. Think about it: They can generate a substantial profit by charging high interest rates to people who may only be able to afford making the minimum payment each month, if that. But despite their “special student offers” and enticing on-campus promotions, credit card companies end up getting a lot of students into financial trouble. It’s true that building good credit is important. But, as a student, you should probably only get a credit card if you know that you’ll be able to pay your balance in full each month. If not, it’s best to resist.
Speak Well Of Other People
Gossip is a favorite pastime for countless people who don’t realize the harm that can come from it. Word travels. So you always have to be mindful of what you’re saying and who you’re talking to, especially when it comes to talking about other people. But the biggest danger of negative gossip isn’t necessarily that it could get back to the person you’re talking about. Instead, the biggest danger is often that you’ll be written off by the people you’re talking to. They might start imagining all of the negative things you could say about them later on. And that can kill a potentially good relationship before it ever has a chance of getting started. But when you find ways to speak nicely about others, it can have the opposite effect. It’s much better to have people imagining all of the good things you’ll say about them when they’re not around.
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Keep Your Body Moving
Movement can help your brain process ideas better, which is essential for finding solutions to the complex problems that are sometimes part of class assignments. Exercise is especially good for keeping your mind sharp. So rather than sitting around while you study, you might find it beneficial once in a while to get up and go for a walk, jog, or bike ride while listening to a recorded lecture or a voice recording of your own notes.
A Good Study Environment
Another critical component of academic success is a good study environment.
- Get some peace and quiet. You will need a quiet place to work without distractions from things like television, family, or roommates.
- Avoid games. Consider uninstalling any computer games to avoid temptation. Or keep the games on a different computer in the house.
- Turn off your cell phone. Let friends and family members know the hours that you will be “at” school.
- Beware surfing the black hole of the Internet. It is easy to lose track of the time as you wander from site to site.
- Consider ergonomics. Adjust the height of your chair, keyboard, and screen so that you are comfortable. Forearms and thighs should be level and parallel to the floor. Wrists should not be bent while typing.
- Set up good lighting and comfortable seating. Lighting in the room should be at least as bright as the computer screen to avoid eye strain.
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Youll Need To Manage Your Time In Online Courses
Without that ringing bell to signal the end of class, it can be very easy to get so wrapped up in an assignment that time passes you by. Use a timer app to set a specific amount of time to work on an assignment. If you juggle multiple assignments, you can always follow the Pomodoro methodwork on an assignment for 25 minutes, take a five-minute break, then work on another assignment for 25 minutes, and so on. As an adult, you now have multiple responsibilities, including work and family, so its important that you maintain a healthy balance among all of your priorities.
Powerful Tips On How To Stay Motivated In College
Understanding how to get motivated in college is essential. We’ve all had times when our enthusiasm takes a dip and we aren’t sure how to keep going. It’s completely normal. Yet, like most of us, you probably just want a way to turn those feelings around and start moving forward with confidence again.
These 11 tips for staying motivated in college can revitalize you and help you stick to the goals you’ve set.
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Focus On Actually Learning Not Just On Your Grades
When you prioritize gaining deep knowledge, retaining what you learn, and mastering valuable skills, the grades tend to take care of themselves. So don’t obsess over trying to avoid bad grades. If you get them, simply learn from them and use the experience to improve your habits. Grades are only one measurement of your progress. They never tell the whole story. Only you know whether or not you are really learning something. Never forget that employers expect you to back up your paper degree with actual knowledge and abilities.
Find Ways To Socialize And Turn To Your Classmates In Online Courses
Online classes may feel isolating when youre used to sitting in a classroom with your peers. That means its even more important to make the effort to socialize with your classmates. Join a study group or start your own. Get involved in virtual extracurricular activities or start a group chat on Teams or Facebook. Youll get help with your schoolwork and make friends at the same time.
Posting to online discussions in the student portal can help connect you with your peers, and exchanging email addresses with other members of your courses can create relationships with students who are on a similar path. Learning from your teachers and your peers can be a great component to being successful in online learningif youre willing to reach out and make it happen.
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How To Be Successful In College In 12 Easy Steps
During college, students develop and change personally, professionally, socially and, of course, academically. Thats why weve put together this guide to student success in college, so each and every college student can know how to lay the groundwork for success while attending university.
Though success may look different to everyone, these 12 steps will help anyone stay on the right track throughout their college career. From knowing how to communicate effectively to trying new things, read on to learn how to be the most successful student possible.
12. Try New Things
Do The Easy Questions First
Managing your time well during an exam is essential. Part of doing that involves consciously choosing your plan of attack. Think about it: Diving straight into the hardest questions will suck away a lot of the time you have for answering the ones that are no problem for you. And it can set a tone of frustration. Instead, ignore the order in which the questions are presented on the exam. Unless told otherwise, you don’t have to adhere to it. You’re more likely to succeed by answering the questions that are easiest for you first, followed by progressively more difficult ones. It maximizes your time and gives your brain a chance to work on the hard stuff in the background.
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How To Take Your Study And Test
Students who have spent their formative educational years in a classroom may be wondering how to best adjust to the rigors of online learning without sacrificing academic performance. Online students are given a unique experience to learn at their own pace and with less constraints than campus-based students, but that also means they must be vigilant about maintaining good study habits.
10 Study Habits of Successful Online Students
Taking Online Tests: Everything You Need to Know
Although the format may be different, advances in technology have made online testing very similar to what a classroom-based student expects. Lots of schools now use software allowing either a virtual proctor to observe them via webcam or technologies that assess a students behavior on their computer to ensure ethical standards are followed. Regardless of the format, the tips and strategies given below help students do their best before, during, and after the exam.
Before
- Find out when to log in, time limits, and if you need a proctor.
- Think about format Will there be an essay or is it all short answer and multiple choice?
- Use practice tests If available, find time to test yourself before the real thing.
- Find a good test-taking spot Whether your room, office, or elsewhere, find a quiet place to focus.
During
After
- Reflect on the questions, review areas of uncertainty, and consider why some questions were challenging.
- Review grades
Create A Regular Study Space And Stay Organized
Set up a dedicated learning environment for studying. By completing your work there repeatedly, youll begin to establish a routine. Whether your workspace is your kitchen table, a library, or the corner booth in a local coffee shop, its important to determine what type of environment will work best for you. Experiment to discover which type of setting boosts your productivity. Wherever you choose, make sure theres high-speed internet access so youre not trying to take an online course over a lagging connection.Setting up a regular workspace or office will also help you to stay organized. Knowing exactly where important dates, files, forms, syllabi, books, and assignments live will help keep you on track towards hitting your goals. When setting up your study space, make sure you:
- Have a high-speed internet connection
- Have the required books, materials, and software for the course
- Have headphones for listening to lectures or discussions
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Seek A Tutor Or Academic Advisor For Online Classes
If you continue to struggle with a course or you have ongoing questions, it might be time to get a tutor. Many schools offer academic advisors and tutors as part of your tuition, so be sure to ask. Remember, youre not the first person to struggle in classes, ask your peers and instructors if they also have recommendations for additional resources and/or tutoring. If school-provided tutoring is not an option for you, you may have to hire your own tutor. Keep in mind that there are services that offer online tutoring.
At Charter College, well help you find success in our real and virtual classrooms. We offer online courses and blended learning that combine on-campus learning with online studies. We offer career-focused programs in accounting, business, healthcare, information technology, paralegal studies, veterinary assistance, and the trades.