How to be a studious kid in college? Some tips on having your semester together. (for an average student)
1) Know your subjects.
Be able to give at least a five-minutes speech on each of the subjects you are studying this semester. You can do some preliminary research and take help by running through the syllabus every once in a while. Most students, including me, are unable to come up with reasons why a particular subject is being studied and what the syllabus contains. It is important you know the overall gist and contents of your courses. Once you know those things and can find the link between the subject with your overall degree, you are finally ready to take the study game on.
2) Know your teachers.
In college when your teachers have a fair share of power to either make or break your grades, it is important to maintain a good rapport with them. It surely does NOT mean that you have to kiss their ass or agree with everything they say. You can have your dissenting opinions and can argue your way through a discussion. However, it is unhealthy to hold a grudge or personal prejudice against any professor, and vice versa i.e. to let them have a personal prejudice against you. Be friends with your teachers, make them feel comfortable sharing stories and insightful ideas with you. Maybe not in the form of grades but you surely will learn a lot on life and the subject you are studying from them.
3) Attend and PAY ATTENTION in classes.
The only reason most of us attend classes is for the attendance. However, sitting in for lectures almost always does you more good than harm. If nothing, you hear one-two important things that might come into use when you are running blank during tests. If you can be attentive and listen to what the teacher is teaching, you will surely learn to enjoy the act of studying. We are young, energetic human beings after all. Learning new things is in our very nature. By asking you to pay attention in class, I am just encouraging you to channel that energy of yours into studying.
Here are a couple tips on how not to lose focus and stay attentive in lectures.
a) Ask questions to teachers - You will surely not ask the most brilliant questions at first but as you go on understanding the subject matter, you will develop the art of asking conceptual questions. Not questions that can be answered by a quick google search but questions of theoretical relevance. If you feel embarrassed then just think of all the money the teacher is receiving for the JOB OF ANSWERING your queries. Don’t keep the basic questions to the after-class. Only especially difficult or noncontextual questions should be asked after the lecture is done. Once you ask a question, chances of you falling back into a slumber or into your day-dreaming are reduced. It is easier to pay attention while asking queries and being answered in class.
b) Write notes- Even if everything your teacher teaches will be found on your class website, WRITE notes of the lecture. Anything the teacher says out of the slides or that sounds like it will appear in exams, should be penned down. It increases your chance of remembering it. You can draw relevant doodles, make instant poetry of the theories, mix two languages and write (if you are multi-lingual like me) and do anything and everything to copy down as much information as you can in a way that will help you understand and memorize the notes later.
4) Always go prepared for a class.
Doing extensive research on the topic of the day makes you stay ahead of all confusions and helps you grasp better what the teacher teaches. You can even hold intellectual discussions with him/her about the topic. However, I being a lazy-ass twenty-year-old smartphone addict can understand if you fail to manage the time for pre-class study. This does not give you the excuse to enter a class unprepared. Manage just five minutes and read at least a summary or basic introduction to the topic before the teacher starts the lecture.
5) Revise class notes/ slides each day.
It might be difficult to revise everything you’ve studied so far every day. But re-reading your notes of the past couple of days before calling it a day will reap heavy benefits while you are facing your exams. It develops into a kind of habit and gradually, you will master the art of just skimming through your daily notes in a matter of minutes before going to bed each night and still grasping everything you read.