Tuesday, September 13, 2011

10 Tips for College Students

One of y'all sent this article to me and I think it is worth posting because it is truly written from a student's view. This is significant because as an instructor there are certainly things about this article that make me cringe. After all, no instructor likes to think that their class may not be a students' number one priority, but c'mon we all have different interest, priorities, and demands in our lives. Here is the link:

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/05/10-tips-for-college-students/

Questions to consider (though you certainly can comment on anything that you got out of the article):
1. What in this article do you find particularly helpful and why?
2. What in this article do you find potentially unhelpful and why?
3. What does the college experience mean to you?

12 comments:

  1. This again shows how huge college is and its helpful to me in the fact of trying that you cant take it to easy in college or it will just messing you up in the future. The college experience to me is the beginning chapter of life on my own and showing the world who I am and what I will do.

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  2. I really enjoyed this article. All of my class this semester are prereqs and I find that most of them don't challenge me and that I should really be in my upper level classes for my degree. I have one class imparticular that is a waste of time for me to be in so like the article suggested, when I go to this class, I always take other homework to do or a book to read. That class is more of a study hall and is a waste of time and money. I'm taking 15 hours this semester and i still have quite a bit of free time so after reading this article, I will probably take 18-21 hours next semester.

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  3. Wow. I find this article to be extremely helpful and much of it I feel like its telling me everything I know I should do but I don't. Starting college this year was exciting yet a little nerve racking because I was worried about the course load and how I would end up doing in these classes. It turns out they weren't bad at all, kinda easy in fact. Because I felt like it wasn't difficult I made myself push studying off a bit because I just thought, I have plenty of time, even if I didn't get something small from the lecture, I'll get it later. The guy from the article made a big point on this and after reading that It's like "wow, I'M doing that" and I realized that I've got to change it. I see myself trying to relearn the lesson over again all the time and thats all because I'm not paying attention or really taking a class seriously and in the end when the exam rolls around, I'll regret it. I gotta start out strong and do what I have to do to get that "A" (:

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  4. This article is kind of right on the money. I've tried to figure out the best way to 'go about' college and i fell like this can really help me throughout my college career.

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  5. My favorite part about this article is when they talk about reclaiming wasted time during class. Throughout my college career I have used this to my advantage I can't tell you how many times I have used time during class to get work done or plan out the rest of my day. This really helps because it allows you to get at much work done as possible if you take advantage of the situation. The other part that I really liked was where it talkes about getting an earlyier start to your day. I also use this to my advantage because it gives me more hours in the day to get work done. Like they say early to bed early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. To me the college expierence simply about independence!

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  6. I really enjoyed this article simply because I wish that I had thought about those things before I made my college round one experience. I had this image of college in my head that really determined my experience during my first year of college. I went to my first university for the wrong reasons and ended up seriously having an awful time. I also didn't understand the concept of time management. I would decide at 10 pm to take trips from Abilene to College Station, you know, just because I could. This caused me to not do as well as I wanted to my first year.

    You always need a game plan. You always need to understand your dreams. Write them everywhere so that you remember why you are doing what you are doing. I personally have them written on my mirrors and in my planners. Doctor, DOCtor, DOCTOR!!! Where do I want to be in 5 years? 10 years? And what am I going to do TODAY to get THAT much closer to my dreams. College is simply a milestone in the long process.

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  7. As much as I liked the message of this article he kind of ignores some factors about getting through college. One of them being external stress(family/friends troubles) and how they affect one's ability to achieve any of the tasks he accomplished. He assumes that someone doesn't want to be in college for a certain amount of time. If he wants someone to enjoy their college experience then that might mean, for them, taking 4 classes and spending their time doing other things. Maybe someone doesn't want to get their degree so quickly. He doesn't even explain in his introductory paragraph that his goal was to make college go by quicker.

    His goal, essentially, was to offer an alternative attitude to college that makes it easier, less stressful, and more efficient, which he achieved. I like some of tips on time efficiency but will not be applying them in full. I will stick with taking 15 hours and not skipping a class so readily. I simply do not have the ability to tell how much time it will take me to finish a paper( he talks as if he knows what an A paper looks like, which I don't). In this respect I felt alienated, like he assumes everyone has the same ability as him. The man was obviously born with a significant level of intelligence and into an upper-class family; two factors that spell out opportunity and fortune. I was not lucky enough.

    Like I said earlier, I enjoyed his message and a good amount of the advice he had to give but if I had to take a seminar from this man I would leave because of how alienated I felt.

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  8. This article was as someone stated earlier right on the money. He laid it all out there, and was completely honest. Most of us think that as soon as you finish high school you go off to college, period. But, that might not be the right time for everyone. What is really important is when you do decide to go to college, that your heart is in it. The only thing I didn't agree with is when he said you have to know what you want to be. For some, knowing ahead of time is a good thing, but I also think that college is a good place to find yourself and really discover what it is you want to do with your life. The article was very enjoyable though and helpful!

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  9. I agree with trying to take more classes to challenge myself, but I'm honestly too afraid to take on another class. I just want to Ty to make it through the first semester in one piece. I was really freaked out that college was going to be the scariest place on earth. Now that I've finally gotten comfortable here, I rather not do anything to risk that. That's where I kind of agree to what he said about using your free time to make friends, but making friends with people that I don't see everyday is sort of difficult for me. I admit that I'm shy, but I deal with it better in high school than here.

    The tip about working on homework while the teacher is talking about class works for me, but I feel that would only work for lecture hall type classes, and most teachers penalize you for trying to work on other classes even though you know what they're talking about. I just feel that his tips mostly work people who have the same type of situation as him.

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  10. The most helpful piece of information that this article contains is that of becoming an early riser. While it may be true that one will rise early at the beginning of the year, as the semester progresses, I feel it becomes harder and harder to wake up on time. Therefore, keep a consistent rising pattern. One of the most unhelpful pieces of information is to reclaim wasted time during other classes, because while these classes might be uninteresting, every once in a while there could be important information that will be missed. All in all, the college experience to me is to learn all that you can, specialize in what you want to do, meet a lot of people, make connections, and hey, don't take it too seriously.

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  11. Honestly, I didn't really like this article. I think it's great that he took 31-39 hours a semester and woke up every day between 6-7 and started everyday off with a 25 minute run, but I really don't think that's for everyone. Especially me. Also, the part about choosing what assignments to participate in and what classes to go to was interesting, but I don't think many people would choose just not to write an essay worth 10% of his/her grade. And I think that going to class is important and that if the average person ditches 40% of his/her classes a week, they won't succeed. I'm paying to be here and learn, and I want to get my money's worth. And I feel the same way about "reclaiming wasted time during your class." I'm not going to lie, I did it all the time in high school. But I felt since I was forced to be there, I might as well do whatever I wanted. I chose to be at college, I chose to go to class and get the most out of my education. And additionally, I think it's disrespectful to the professor to not be listening during class. Anyway, I thought this article was very interesting to read, but Steve and I don't learn in the same way.

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  12. This fellow has a very interesting opinion and some good points, but I would agree with Suzanne that this isn't the way for everybody. There are lots of students that 12-15 hours are more than enough to occupy their time and challenge them.
    I also didn't agree with the "reclaiming wasted time." I'm not going to lie, there are some classes that I would LOVE to do this in, but I feel like it's disrespectful and most of my classes are small enough that my professor would probably call me out on it.
    I did like how goal oriented he was and that he went into it with a plan. That is a good idea for anyone!

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