One of the most important classes you can take BEFORE going to school is a study skills class. However, since most of you are currently enrolled in the
most important class of your life, Financial Literacy, I want to provide a list of important study skills.
- Make Each Class Your Priority: Whatever class your in, act like its your favorite subject in the whole-wide world. This has two purposes, one, mental blocks that you have will be eliminated, which will make it easier to learn the subject. Second, the class is probably your teachers favorite subject. Treating their favorite subject like its your favorite subject will encourage the instructor to be more helpful with your struggles in the class. (How to Win Friends and Influence People)
- The "Magic T": this is a seating choice (were provided or requested) that has you sitting on the front two rows and/or the middle two columns of a class room. The "T" shape of seats that is created tend to have higher scores than the students in the back two corners of the room.
- Learning Takes Effort: You know that kid in class who seams to know everything already and the A comes easily. Well, every class is going to have a few. But its not going to be the same kid in every class and its probably not going to be you. While some kids are simply "smarter," nothing is better than simple, honest to goodness, hard work. You will have to read, re-read, and highlight the information. It will take time and effort, but, in this case brawn can beat brains, you just have to beat the course into submission.
- Ask your teacher to explain how the course is organized: When are assignments due, how to turn them in, how the tests factor into your grade, tips on studying for tests, and the best resources for vocabulary lists that will be on the tests. Understand the "mechanics" of how the course is designed.
- Your cell phone? You know, that little black box of failure. TURN IT OFF!!! Distractions have always been a part of school. Playing with sticks, passing notes, beepers, cell phones, texting, smart phones. Guess what else has always been a part of school, Failing. Maybe their is a correlation here?
- Preview the material before coming to class: Know what your are going to learn before you learn it.
- Participate in class discussions and activities: This reinforces the first concept of treating each class as your favorite.
- Come to school to be at school: One company famously stated on a sign above the employee entrance "welcome to work, leave your issues at the door." While this is a rather callous statement the underlying concept is true. Life can be hard, we often make choices that make it harder. Welcome to school, leave your outside worries at the door and enjoy the time afforded to you to learn.
- Outside of Class: Plan time each evening for homework/study: Make it a dedicated part of your day. Don't overload your study time with eight different classes. Complete homework/study a little bit every day. Try and complete work during the week so you can take the weekends off. You need this time to recharge and prepare to hit it hard the next week. (Remember: school is prep for real-life. Do you really intend to work on work during the weekends? You will be working some late-nights, putting in 60 hours a week, but try to keep your weekends free.)
