Tag Archives: Higher Education

GradeUP! Challenge #22: The Gut Check

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©Jenn and Tony Bot on flickr
©Jenn and Tony Bot on flickr

The final series of GradeUP! posts are to get you ready for your final exams. I’m going to start with a way to test your understanding and readiness for any test, any subject, anywhere, anytime. I call it the “Gut Check” because it’s all about what you feel and not what you know. This may sound like an unusual  approach to test prep but trust me – there is no better way – the gut always knows, let me explain.When it’s time to be tested on what you know, you want to believe you’re ready, but how do you know? You’re probably thinking; study, take the test, get my grade, then I’ll know. Don’t rely on just want you think about your level of preparation, you need to know how you “feel” about it, that’s the Gut Check. Here’s how it works:

  • Once you think you have prepared well for a test, find a quiet place where you can sit comfortably and close your eyes.
  • See yourself in the moment of the test with the exam in front of you.
  • See your hand come down and write your name on the test.
  • Don’t think – just feel.
  • Does your heart start to race?
  • Do your palms get sweaty?
  • Does your butt pucker up a little?

All of these responses are triggered by the same emotion – fear.  Whether you want to know it or not, your heart and your gut are telling you the truth: you are not ready. You can’t think your way around fear. If you don’t work harder to get ready for your tests, you will go into your exams unprepared, nervous and unable to use what you do know. Be honest with yourself and use the Gut Check to know you’re ready for your finals and all tests in the future. If you want the truth, ask your heart and your gut because they will always be honest with you.

Look through the GradeUP! Challenges for information on how to prepare for a test if your Gut Check says you’re not ready. All previous GradeUP! Challenges are available on the GradeUP! Challenge Week-by-Week page.

GradeUP! Challenge #20: Take the Long View – For Now and the Future

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By Joshua Sortino
By Joshua Sortino

In GradeUP! Challenge #19: Plan For a Big Finish I gave some advice on planning for a strong finish this semester. However, unless your graduating this semester (if you are, congratulations), there’s more than a semester to plan for. So, I’m taking off my professor hat and putting on my academic advisor hat and we are shifting our focus to the long view.

It is time to preregister for next semester. Here’s a step-by-step checklist that takes the long view by planning for the upcoming semester and the rest of your time in college:

  • First, you need to know where you are right now so get whatever documents you need from the registrar or on-line system to see what you’ve taken, the grades you’ve earned and what courses you have left to take;
  • If there are any errors (what you have verses what’s on file with the registrar) or there’s something you don’t understand, deal with it right now – don’t assume it’s a “glitch” in the system, it’s not;
  • Use the information on file with the registrar to plan courses you’ll take next semester and every semester all the way to graduation;
  • Make sure that when you’re scheduling courses, you plan to take them when they’re offered and that you’ll have completed any prerequisite courses you need to take;
  • Take this plan to your advisor to confirm you did it correctly and then register for next semester – don’t put it off, classes fill up;
  • Update your plan anytime something requires rescheduling of courses and be sure to check on how a change in one semester effects your plans for later semesters – keep your plan current all the way to graduation.

Following these steps means you’ll never say, “I didn’t know I had to take that course,” or “I didn’t know this course wasn’t offered this semester. I need it go graduate!” Or, my favorite, “OMG the curriculum changed – didn’t it?!!”

By taking the long view of your college career, you’ll know where you’re going, how you’re going to get there and when you’ll arrive. You’ll also know:

  • When you’re graduating so you can let others know well ahead of time; and
  • How many courses you have left to take and how much money you’ll need to take them.

Don’t let things you do today based on poor planning or no planning come back to haunt you in future and, cost you time, effort and money. Plan for now and the future – that’s the long view, the smart way to finish your degree.

All previous GradeUP! Challenges are available on the GradeUP! Challenge Week-by-Week page.

You can learn more about planning your college career in Chapter 8 of College in Four Years; Making Every Semester Count.

GradeUP! Challenge #18: There Are No Shortcuts to Success

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© Stephen Coles on flickr
© Stephen Coles on flickr

Every achievement in college isn’t academic. Throughout your college career you are also being evaluated on your success as a person and that evaluation is just as important as your academic performance. Every day you interact with people and in the process you are creating your personal reputation; how you manage yourself and your life establishes your level of integrity and forms a lasting impression of the person you are. You never know when someone’s opinion of you will help or hinder your success in college and in life. Once you show people who you are it is very difficult to change their minds so don’t put your integrity or honesty on the line by trying to cut corners, finesse or cheat your way to success. That behavior rarely, if ever, works to your advantage. Even when you think you’ve gamed the system, one way or the other, you lose.

Donna, a former student of mine, learned this important lesson in a computer programming class. Several of her classmates hired a developer to write a particularly difficult programming assignment for them and asked her if she wanted join them in purchasing the program and turning the solution in as her own. Even though she was having a difficult time with the assignment, she said no. When her classmates turned in the assignment, the instructor clearly identified the professional’s work and failed all of the students who turned it in as their work. Donna didn’t do all the programming correctly, but she was the only one who ended up passing the class!

Remember:

  • When you cut corners to get through college, you only hurt yourself.
  • You also miss gaining the knowledge you would have if you hadn’t cut corners. You can’t be sure when or if you’ll ever be presented with the opportunity to learn that critical information again.
  • Cutting corners sends a strong message to anyone who knows what you did. One seemingly small decision can make people assume that you will lie, cheat or steal to get what you want, in any situation. Trust me, someone will know  what you did and that incident will be the basis for what they believe about you and share with other people.

If anyone asks you to lie, cheat, steal or do anything you’re uncomfortable doing, don’t do it!  Don’t convince yourself that what you’re going to do isn’t really that bad. If it’s not okay then it’s not okay, okay?

All previous GradeUP! Challenges are available on the GradeUP! Challenge Week by Week page.
You can learn more about getting the help you need to do better in your classes in Chapter 6 of College in Four Years; Making Every Semester Count.

GradeUP! Challenge #15: How To Study With A Study Group (Hint: Not Together)

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College Study Group by Meesha-Ray Johnson (Flickr)
College Study Group by Meesha-Ray Johnson (Flickr)

Contrary to popular belief, the value of a study group is not to share notes and study together – it  is to test your knowledge of material you acquire for yourself. The best way to actually learn and assimilate information is to study alone – by taking your own notes in class, in discussions with your professors or reading assigned material. It is a fallacy to believe that you can use someone else’s notes and knowledge to assimilate knowledge for yourself. Information you seek to acquire from  actions taken by others – is proprietary; you can’t buy it, borrow it or steal it, here’s why:

* The person that took those notes learned and assimilated information, then made notes best suited to their learning style, not yours.

* Your learning process did not kick in, no matter how carefully you read their notes. Why? Because you didn’t put in the time on those notes; the person who created them did.

If all you need to do is memorize, then you can probably use someone else’s notes. If you need to understand the material at a deeper level and use it formulate answers to questions and/or solutions to problems, you must do more, you have to know it for yourself.

Let me tell you a story from my book, “College in Four Years,” to illustrate how studying together, might end in your failing alone. Seven students in a class I was teaching formed a study group. They divvied up taking notes and making outlines from class. They met regularly and exchanged notes and problem solutions to study for exams that covered all the material they were responsible for. They all ended up failing my class.

After talking extensively to  them as a group, as well as individually, I figured out that they had each mastered about 1/7th of the information in the class – equal to the notes and material that they had been responsible for in the study group. Some students knew more than others but none of them knew much more than they had studied for themselves. If you master just 14% of the class material, there is no legitimate way you’re going to pass.

I explained to them that the value of a study group is to test your understanding of what you already know. Needless to say, the students were skeptical of my theory. So I asked the students to bring me their group notes for the course, with each set identified by the student who made them. I asked the group questions; however, the student who took the related notes could not answer. For the most part, the students did not know or only partially knew answers from notes made by their counterparts. They were surprised.

“We read through every set of notes,” they said, “We were sure we knew the material.”

These students found out the hard way that group knowledge is not the same as individual knowledge. They took a shortcut and relied on the study group to split up the work so each person could do less. A better way would have been the two-step strategy for study groups:

1.Gather and learn information independently by taking your own notes which summarize study material in a meaningful way that you understand and can use.

2.Then, get together and ask one another questions to test everybody’s understanding of the material.

This is how your study group becomes a valuable resource. Your study partners can test your understanding of the material studied much better than you can on your own. The students who do less get less for it – when students do more, they get the most out of it.

All previous GradeUp! Challenges are available on the GradeUP! Challenge Week by Week page.
Click on the  hyperlink to learn more about College in Four Years; Making Every Semester Count.

Between Helicopter and Hands Off: When Your College Student Needs Help…

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Parent Wait OutsideSince most students are on Spring Break this week, it is a great time to talk to parents, stakeholders and mentors of college students about your role in your student’s success. So today’s GradeUP! Challenge (#13 in the series) is for anyone who is supporting a college student financially and/or with advice and counsel. If your student is struggling, and by midterms they know if they are, it’s not always easy to know how to help. As a professor and advisor I face that dilemma multiplied by 3 classes each semester and by 60 students as their academic advisor. After working with so many students I’ve been able to figure out the best way to motivate and keep my students on track. What works, every time, is to give them practical, proactive tools they can use to get, and keep, their grades up. I mentor my students by sharing specific tasks that any student can integrate into their study routine and that have proven successful in helping students get and keep their Grades Up.

In February, I launched The College in Four Years GradeUP! Challenge on my website. Over the first half of the Spring Semester I’ve posted a dozen of these “Challenges” as a way to virtually mentor any student who can benefit from the help and information I share with students as a professor and advisor. Each week I post two short, easy to accomplish and integrate suggestions to help students improve or maintain academic progress so they can graduate on time with great grades and job prospects. I’ll continue to add a Challenge each Tuesday and Thursday through April 30.

I invite and encourage you as parents, mentors and stakeholders to share the College in Four Years GradeUP! Challenge with your student. Mid-semester, after they’ve had some downtime during Spring Break, is a great time to assess their progress so far and to help your student figure out if they’re on track using some of the tools I share in Challenge #10 and Challenge #11. It is not too late to get back on track using the GradeUP! Challenges I’ve posted previously and the ones I’ll post on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the coming weeks.

The tips and tactics from the GradeUP! Challenge are a great way to talk to your student about how they’re doing – the perfect balance between being a Helicopter Parent and too Hands-Off. You’ll find more information on the College in Four Years GradeUP! Challenge on my website and I even have a special page for parents, mentors and stakeholders to help you with the conversation.

For you and your student, remember the goal is graduation.

GradeUP! Challenge #10: Never Give Up on a Class!

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by RSM
by RSM

Never give up in a class because you “think” there’s no chance to get the grade you want. With a few simple calculations, I’ve been able to show many students that they still have a realistic chance to get the grade they want – even when they were convinced otherwise. With hope for success, my students were willing to work with me because I offered them a chance for a better grade that they weren’t aware was an option. And, more times than not, they ended the class with the grade they wanted. These students upped their grades by improving a few aspects of their study strategies and preparation methods for tests using the very same strategies I’m sharing throughout the GradeUP! Challenge and, more comprehensively, in my book, College In Four Years.  Don’t assume what your final grade is going to be in a class until you:

  • Know where you stand in the class ; it can be inspiration and motivation to strive a little harder.
  • Calculate what grades you need going forward to get the final grade you want by using the How Am I Doing Worksheet I developed to help my students. Use the link above to go to the Resources page on this blog, click on the title of the Worksheet to bring up the form, read the instructions, then add your specific information to the blank Worksheet on page 2. It will automatically calculate your potential grade. Use the link above or access the Worksheet through my Resources page at www.GranvilleSawyer.com/resources/
  • Periodically assess where you are in a class by checking your grades and talk with your professor so you have time to make any needed adjustments.

Remember, you haven’t earned a grade until the class is over. Never give up. Stay informed, keep calm and carry on.

In my next GradeUP! post on Tuesday, March 10 – we’ll talk GPA.

Grade UP! Challenge #7: To Be Good With Numbers, You’ve Got to Get to Know Them First

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black and white numbers

In GradeUP Challenge #6, I showed you how to create your own outlines to help you learn in a way that best suits you. Another reason to create personalized outlines is so that you read about and understand the underlying concepts before trying to use them to answer questions and solve problems. This applies to all classes and all levels of study.

A student I’m advising came to my office thoroughly frustrated because she was failing economics for the third time. She said she was able to answer questions on tests but couldn’t do the problems – even after doing the homework assignments. I asked her how she did the problems assigned. Here is her process:

  • Look over her class notes for understanding;
  • Try to do the homework problems;
  • If she couldn’t, she’d go to the part of the textbook that seemed relevant and read that for the first time;
  • Try the problem again;
  • Keep doing this until she got the problem right or gave up on it and asked the teacher to show her how to solve the problem.

After all this effort, she couldn’t even figure out how to get started with problems on tests. I told her she needed to use the outlining techniques that I shared with you in Challenge #6  to understand the concepts that the problems are based on before trying to solve them.  Here’s a the process:

  • Create your own outline;
  • Study sample problems in the chapter to understand how the concepts were used to identify and solve the problems before trying your homework;
  • Use this information to know what kind of problems you have and what you need to do to solve them before you start working on them – in other words, have a strategy for solving the problem before trying to solve it;
  • Use your strategy to solve the problem.

There is more in-depth information on creating your problem solving strategies in Chapter 19 of College In Four Years.

GradeUP! Challenge #6: You Can’t Study Your Textbook!

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  • studying-studentIn the last post, I talked about how to use your textbook to prepare for and get the most out of your classes. You’re a few weeks into the semester so you’re probably preparing for a test on the material you’ve covered so far – let’s talk about how you prep for that.

First, don’t use your textbook to study for your test – it was never meant for that. The textbook is a reference source of all information about certain topics and concepts – you can’t remember all of what is in there. That’s why there are study guides that go with textbooks. However, you need to create your own custom study guide, one that works for you, not a generic one written by someone else. The best way to fully grasp the information that you’ll need to retain for an exam and use as a foundation for more learning is to process what’s in the text – not memorize the text. Here’s how you do that:

  • Get organized. Gather together everything you need to know and understand for the test – text, notes, handouts, your syllabus;
  • Using the textbook do the following;
    • Read a portion of the material you are responsible for on the test;
    • Close your book and summarize what you read in your own words – don’t look back at the book and don’t use or copy what the author wrote;
    • Read the section in the book again to see if your summary includes all of the important points;
    • If you missed some of the material, it means either you didn’t remember or you didn’t understand so go over that material again, summarize it;
    • Repeat the process for the next section of the text and repeat until you have created your own outline for all the material you are responsible for knowing for the exam;
  • Use this same technique for any additional resource material you need to know for the exam. Use the syllabus to make sure you’ve covered all the material you’re responsible for;
  • Don’t use anyone else’s study guide – you must do your own. This process creates a study guide specifically tailored to the way you process and learn material;
  • Now, use your study guide to prepare for the test. Don’t study the book or that stack of class notes – you’ve covered that in creating your guide so everything you need to know is in it.

Yes, this will take time – a lot longer than just reading the material but it is the best way to actually understand and be able to use what you learned when test time comes because doing your study guide well requires that you understand everything you outlined. You can’t finesse this – you’ve either got it or you need to go back to your resources and get it. Getting that understanding and creating your study guide is when learning takes place. When you’re finished, you will know and understand everything in it because that is the only way you could have done the guide well. A bonus, you’ve already started your comprehensive study guide for finals!

In Chapter 11 of College In Four Years, “How to Use Your Textbook the Right Way,” you’ll find more information on how to outline different types of study material to maximize understanding and ensure it works well for you.

Next GradeUp! Challenge, Tuesday, February 24.

GradeUP! Challenge #4: Go To The Source – See The Decision Maker

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Exit from labyrinthYou are going to need help to complete college successfully. Everyone does. If you’re in college to earn a degree and graduate with great job prospects, you’ll need some help along the way. Be it academic, career planning, social or emotional issues – stuff comes up during the semester and there are resources on campus to get you the help you need. To access the right advice at the right time the following rules always apply:

Never hesitate to ask for assistance. If you think you need help, ask. If you think you’ve got this, ask anyway. In college you are surrounded by a wealth of information; access as much of it as you can, whenever you can. At no other time in life will you be in a place where the primary goal and objective of everyone there is to help you succeed.

Go to the source. When you need information that’s important to your success always go to the source of that information and, when you can, go to more than one source to verify what you have been told. Don’t go the source that is convenient or that will give you the information you want to hear – like your roommate, Facebook, the Internet or people who can only tell you what they’ve “heard.” Remember, an opinion spoken and repeated twice becomes fact. The first time it’s “I think” the second time it’s “I heard” and the third time it’s a fact! Don’t be misled this way. Go to the person who is responsible for creating and disseminating the information you need. You’ve been to see your advisor – (Challenge #1) and you should have talked to your professors (Challenge #3). Visit the registrar to confirm you’re on track to graduate on time. Register with the career office to get information on the job market. If you didn’t get the information you seek directly from the source – it’s all just hearsay.

Go to the decision maker. Make sure you are always dealing with the decision maker and that they are empowered with the authority to make a decision and stand by it. No one else can give you the definitive answers you need. Others can tell you about decisions that have been made in the past or what they think about the decision; but if they are not the decision maker, they can’t ensure your outcome and the only one with something at risk is you. Don’t take chances with your college success. Always go to the person with the authority to make a decision you can count on – preferably in writing.

Knowing when, where and who to ask for advice is key to success in college and in life.

Next GradeUP! Challenge post on Tuesday, February 17.

GradeUP Challenge #1: Talk To Your Advisor

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Academic advisor - croppedOne of your most valuable and probably most under-utilized resources is your academic advisor. They do more than sign your advisement form. Your adviser actually has the best view of your academic future  – no crystal ball needed. With access to your academic past (what courses you’ve already taken), present (what courses you’re taking now) and future (what you’ll need to graduate) and the experience they’ve gained from successfully shepherding other students through the college experience – they have some valuable skills.

Meet with your advisor as early in the semester as possible – before the drop/add date in case you need to make changes to your schedule. When you see your advisor do the following:

  • Talk to them about your performance last semester. Discuss why you got the grades you did and how to keep doing what you did right or how to fix what didn’t work. They actually have the answers to these questions.
  • Ask them to review with you what your curriculum is going forward and what if any changes you need to make or accommodate.
  • Look at your present course load – are they aware of any particular challenges? Should you arrange or rearrange what you’re taking this semester?
  • Talk to your advisor about scheduling classes so you’re not trying to take a spring course in the fall or a fall course in the spring.
  • Talk to you advisor about when you should take your courses to ensure you meet all the prerequisites when you want to take a course that requires them.

Get more information and advice on working with your advisor in Chapter 9 of College In Four Years.

Grade Up Logo - jpeg-rev

Let me know what you think about this post and the Challenge.  Please leave a comment below.

The next Challenge posts on Thursday, 2/5/15. Learn more about the GradeUP! Challenge here.