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The views expressed on this page are soley
those of the author and do not
necessarily represent the views of County
News Online
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Tips to Being a
Successful Student
By Carl Brown
Assistant Principal, Greenville High School
Over the years I have occasion to have conversations with friends that
are parents (many of them educators themselves) discussing what makes a
child a successful student. Throughout those conversations we
have had, I believe we have identified a few key factors that make
students successful.
We were able to look back at our study habits and practices were when
we were in grade school, junior high, high school and college and
discuss similarities and differences. Some of the methods we used
were taught to us by teachers and some by our parents or
siblings. Much of our methods or strategies were/are profoundly
simple. Our experiences led to the following:
First the student must work hard. It is just a fact in
reality—you must work hard. However, you cannot only focus on
working hard, you must work hard doing things right and doing the right
things. Many times I have had conversations with students and one
of the first things s/he will say is, “This year I’m going to really
work hard… I will do my homework and turn it in on time and I’m going
to study for tests…” Well they start off doing just that and then
they realize their grades aren’t getting better. They are
basically doing the same thing they were doing before, just more of it
and getting the same results. You can’t take inadequate study
skills, do them more often and expect improved results. The cycle
of disengagement and frustration begins and they think, “Well, I have
done all that I’ve could… I’ve worked hard”—and they simply give
up. I remember my junior high social studies teacher, Mr.
Maltinsky, telling a few of us that we should write out questions to
accompany our notes to help us remember and understand the
information. He even “jump started” us by giving a few examples
of questions that would help us link cause and effect. Sly man he
was—effectively engaging students in learning and taking ownership of
the learning process. Later in college I developed that skill to
make and take pretests to help focus and identify what I needed to
learn. By using practice tests the student can develop higher
level thinking skills that allows them to analyze, evaluate and create
arguments—elements of critical and independent thinking. We
discovered that studying for tests was much more than memory-based
activities. An exam is not a test of memory for you to show how
much you can remember, but how you use what you remember.
Another factor is the ability to be resilient and persistent. The
reality is that you will not be able to score 100% on every assignment,
quiz or test. You have to be able to pick yourself up after a
poor performance and go at it again. You have to be able to take
a few hard lessons and learn to punch through difficult material and
concepts. Learning the habit of grit was a common thread that my
friends and I acquired first through our parents and then reinforced
throughout our education by our teachers, tutors, professors and other
mentors we’ve met along the way. You have to realize that
not everything will come easy to you the first time. Reflect,
take time, realize and be prepared for the consequence and work that is
ahead of you to get back on track.
Part of working hard is being self-motivated and
self-disciplined. This is the ability to sit down and work
consistently and eliminate (or avoid) distractions like watching three
hours of TV and “blooper videos” on YouTube and excessive time on
social media. Part of self-discipline is learning to manage or
budget your time. The goal behind this is to create balance of
your responsibilities. Some mistakes that we made growing up and
what I see in some students today are unrealistic time table schedules
in the week. Most of the time this is done because the student
first blocked out unrealistic study time and then filled in the
schedule with social activities, sports, chores, and their job (if
applicable). The result inevitably was a schedule that they could
not hold and thus failed to provide what is needed. The more
successful strategy is to schedule your responsibilities first and then
honestly list your habits and evaluate what you need to adjust to
create time to study. Next, schedule time for study and be honest
with yourself because the result you want is to have something in every
day that you like to do. Usually the result is being happy and
being happy helps tremendously in being balanced. The sense of
being balanced helps lay the foundation for being consistent throughout
the year.
In summary, you not only have to work hard, you need to work hard at
doing the right things. Learning is more than memorizing
facts—learning is demonstrating how you use what you remember. To
be successful and happy you need to realistically budget your time with
work and play.
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