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NPR Ed’s How to Succeed in College, Part 2
How To Do Well (And Be Happy!) In College
Elissa Nadworny
September 4, 2019
You've signed up for classes, you've learned your way around campus —
and now, you've got to make sure you survive all the way to graduation.
Explore Life Kit
Laptop or paper notes? Highlighter or flashcards? And does music help
while studying? Here's how to take better notes and study so that you
remember what you've learned — without getting crushed by college
stress. Plus: what to do if you do feel crushed.
1. Learn how to take notes.
There's no single magic way to take notes, but the act of writing down
our interpretation of what we've learned helps organize and consolidate
information in our brains.
What should you write down? Use clues from your professors to figure out what information is important and what is not.
Listen to their words: "This is going to be on the exam" or "This is important," for instance.
Watch them as they teach — they might get animated, repeat themselves, write things on the board.
Pay attention when they offer categories and numbered lists. "Be on the
lookout for the ways that professors will organize information," says
Natalie Murr, a psychologist at North Carolina State University. "You
know, 'Here are the categories of x. There's three categories: No. 1,
No. 2 and No. 3.' "
2. Get a planner and actually use it.
You'll have a lot going on in college, and managing your time is a
critical skill to master. Use your planner to control your schedule.
Write everything down: your classes, your work shifts, assignments and
meetings.Let your schedule help you find small windows of time to knock
out smaller tasks and keep track of bigger deadlines.
3. When studying, don't just put information into your brain. Draw it back out.
We know from research that the most common study strategies are
rereading textbooks, rereading notes, and highlighting. We also know
that those methods don't really work, because they only focus on the
input, not the retrieval, says Pooja Agarwal, a cognitive scientist at
Berklee School of Music.
Think of learning as a two-way street. When you re-read and highlight,
you're only focused on getting information in, not doing any retrieving.
"Research demonstrates that when we engage in that process of overtly
retrieving, we actually organize concepts and create a better structure
for what we're understanding," Agarwal says. "So through that process
of retrieval, we help make sense of what we're trying to learn."
Here's what Agarwal recommends to strengthen your retrieval skills.
The "Two-Things Rule": As soon as you finish a lecture or a reading, write down two things you remember.
Explain the information to a friend or classmate to test your understanding.
Use flashcards — but say the answer out loud (in other words, retrieve
it) before you turn it over to check yourself. Shuffle the flashcards
and do it again.
Set a timer to study for a certain time, take a break, then to get back
to work. "It's almost like an intentional forgetting or a purposeful
forgetting," Agarwal explains. "By taking that break, you're letting
things simmer a little bit."
Another tip — and you might not like this one: Don't listen to music
while you read. Research has shown that silence almost doubles reading
comprehension, compared to listening to music with lyrics, Agarwal says.
4. Failure is not the end.
An F on a test — or even for an entire class — doesn't mean you won't graduate.
"Anyone can do badly in a class," says Odette De Leon, an adviser at
Valencia College in Orlando. "We're not born knowing college material.
That's why we go to college. That's why we're college students. We're
trying to learn these things."
Sure, it's difficult to hear negative things about yourself — and bad
grades are no exception. But being hard on yourself can just make it
worse.
5. Take care of yourself — and get some sleep.
Students who are sleep-deprived show many of the same symptoms as
students diagnosed with attention disorders, says Natalie Murr, a
psychologist at North Carolina State University.
Emotional problems can also throw off a student's focus and interfere with academics.
"If you're really sleepy or if you're really struggling emotionally,
there's not a lot of motivation to get up and go to class or do your
work or put the effort in that needs to be done," Murr says. "They can
really kind of take up space in the brain that would otherwise be open
for learning."
6. Let go of the stigma around mental health problems.
Mental health issues are pervasive on college campuses. It's nothing to be ashamed of.
"One out of two Americans over their lifetime will have a diagnosable
mental health disorder," says B. Hibbs, psychologist and author of The
Stressed Years of Their Lives. "They're highly treatable. It's not
something to be scared about."
And parents, if your kid calls from college in distress, don't judge,
says Hibbs. Listen and be supportive so they'll continue to confide in
you, and take their anguish seriously.
7. Know when to reach out for help.
Stress is so common in college, it can be hard to recognize when it
becomes clinically treatable anxiety or depression, says Anthony
Rostain, a doctor and professor at the University of Pennsylvania and
Hibbs' co-author.
Here are warning signs to watch for:
Trouble sleeping.
Trouble waking up.
Trouble eating.
Feelings of hopelessness or worthlessness.
Drinking to the point of blacking out.
Having lots of random sexual partners.
Not being able to stop playing video games.
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