Rules for Academic Success

As you get ready for class, I have a few suggestions to help you in your academic career.

1. Sit close to the front. The back row is for people who arrive late or don't want to be there. When you sit close to the front, you see and hear better. Conversely, you are seen and heard better.

2. Never be scared to ask a question. If you have a question, odds are that at least two other people in the class had the same question, but not the nerve to ask.

3. After class (if you don't have to run for another), hang back, ask the instructor for more details or ask them to respond to your thoughts or concerns about the subject. Don't suck up to them, be sincere -people can spot fakes. Also, it is harder to flunk someone you know, and if a grade comes down to a judgement call, say for a borderline A or B, instructors give the benefit of the doubt to the student that they know - but not necessarily the student that is just a face in the crowd.

4. Type or rewrite your notes from class the same night as the day you take them. They are fresh and you can use the text to flesh them out. Also, it reinforces it in your mind to go over it again.

5. Keep your notes in a looseleaf notebook in your room. Carry a legal pad type of folder to class and transfer them plus any handouts to the looseleaf notebook. Spiral notebooks are easily lost and can be important before a major test. I lost one before a Chemistry final and had to copy (xerox) a friend's, who had bad handwriting - it made an impression on me!

6. Read all your assignments before you get to class - that way, you know what they are talking about. Later, when studying, read them again. Three times are better, but twice is ESSENTIAL!

7. If you ever get a chance to do anything for extra credit. Jump on it with both feet. You will learn something and get some credit for it.

8. If you dislike a subject - try harder. There is a reason for all of them, even if they seem stupid and unimportant to you at the time. Looking back from my viewpoint, I can see it now, but I certainly did not at the time. The grades from the subjects that you don't like count just the same as those from the courses that you do like.

9. Get and study from old tests. They are on file at the library and after you teach a course for a few years, there are only so many ways to ask the important questions.

10. Make friends with upperclassmen. They can share tests and notes from earlier classes and advise you about instructors to seek out and avoid better than your official advisor. But get to know and use your advisor.

    ---

    Back to Bruce Emmons Home Page

    This page (http://www4.ncsu.edu/~baemmons/success.html) created by Bruce A. Emmons on August 29, 2001.

    Last revised on October 14, 2005.