College Study Tip #1: Do the Work (And Some Advice on How to Do It)
Learning isn't about memorizing sets of facts. It's about critically engaging with topics. But you can't get there without first doing the work.
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This week starts a 10-week series on study tips for college students. (Many of these tips work equally well for high school students!) Look for one top study tip delivered to your inbox weekly on Thursdays.
Many students quickly realize their study habits from high school won’t cut it in college, myself included. For example, I used to skim (or altogether skip) reading the assigned books in English class, most of which weren’t my cup of tea.
Yet, I still scored straight As in English and aced my AP English exam well enough to place out of one semester of first-year writing. (Aside: Now that I’m an English professor, I get to choose the reading material. Yay, for that!)
But it wasn’t nearly as easy to score As in college, even though I was a high school honor student. And it’s not just because the material is more advanced than in high school. Rather, it’s because college comes with a completely different set of expectations.
In high school, you can often get As by meeting expectations. In other words, show your teacher you read and understand the book, and you’re golden.
But in college, you must go further. You need to show insightful critical thinking in response to class topics and in your papers. In other words, you must develop your own voice and perspective. It’s part of engaging more substantially with learning — what higher education is all about.
It may seem obvious that doing well in college begins with doing the work, including any assigned reading and homework due before class. But it really does start there — because it’s only the beginning.
With that in mind, here are a few tips for doing the work.
Always do the assigned reading before class
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If a reading is assigned, it’s probably because you’ll be discussing it in class. And you can’t participate if you haven’t read the assignment.
But there’s even more to it. When you do the reading ahead of time, the information you get in class has context. That means you retain more because your brain knows how to “file” the new stuff.
Plus, doing the reading increases the chances you’ll understand what’s discussed in class.
And that means you’ll be able to identify knowledge gaps, take the right notes, and ask the right questions during class. And all of that, of course, leads to better comprehension of the material.
But if you wait until after class (or never) to do the assigned reading, you miss out on the chance to ensure you understand the material — ground that needs to be covered before you can critically engage with it.
There’s a reason why it’s step #1 in the study cycle, a method developed by Frank Christ and discussed in the book Teach Yourself How to Learn.
Go to class
I’ll be the first to admit I skipped out on many of my college classes. I thought it was brilliant to schedule all my courses in the morning — that way, I got them over with and had the rest of the day to myself.
But I never have been (and am still not) a morning person. Thus, when my alarm went off, I repeatedly hit snooze and ended up missing quite a few classes. It’s a miracle I passed any of them.
There is, of course, a lot that professors discuss in class that you won’t get from the homework. And getting notes from a classmate won’t make up for missing class because everyone takes notes in their own way, based on their own understanding of the material.
So you have to get to class to take notes in the most useful way for you. You also want to ensure you can ask questions, participate in learning activities, and generally be engaged in class lessons and discussions.
These are all things that help solidify learning.
Prioritize comprehension over memorization
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We all tend to think memorizing the textbook counts as studying. But memorization will only get you so far in college.
It’s true that many classes require (and even test you) on information retention — whether a math equation or an important date in history. But memorization is always in the service of comprehension.
For example, in my high school biology class, we learned that trees breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. Although we’d all memorized that information, a bonus short answer question on our exam asked us about the implication.
Thanks to my ability to comprehend the information, not just memorize it, I earned praise from my teacher for being the only one to correctly answer that this cycle meant trees put oxygen back into the air for humans to breathe.
So, be sure to prioritize comprehension over memorization. Even if you haven’t memorized every fact, if you understand the material, you may be able to reason out the answer.
To ensure comprehension, ask yourself questions while you’re reading. Also, try some of the questions in your textbook — even if they’re not assigned — to ensure you understand the material.
Active reading and taking notes using a method like Cornell notes can also help.
The bottom line
I’ve often heard it said: College isn’t about teaching you “what” to think, but rather “how” to think. Thus, it’s not enough to memorize the material. Learning a set of facts, or even a set of skills, is just the beginning — the foundation for higher learning.
Think of it this way: I teach writing courses. Writing is a skill; it requires consistent practice to develop writing proficiency. It also requires a process of drafting, receiving feedback, revising, and, often, revising again.
When a student doesn’t do the work — turns in a final draft without doing (and turning in) all the steps to get there, including planning, drafting, and editing — they miss out on receiving feedback along the way. Unfortunately, that means they also miss out on the chance to improve their writing.
It’s not enough to “learn” how to write a paper in class, or to do just enough to squeak by with a passing grade. That won’t enable you to master writing. Instead, you must practice writing, get feedback, and practice again.
On the surface, learning writing might seem unique. But all courses and subjects carry the same foundational principle for learning: You have to do the work.
And that’s because learning, especially mastery of a topic, happens in stages. And to get to a level that truly demonstrates learning, one where you can think deeply and critically about a topic, you first have to understand it.
In other words, you have to understand what a topic is before you can engage with what it means.
And you can’t get there without doing the work.
Want More?
Check out the book Teach Yourself How to Learn for a deeper dive into the learning process.
For a shorter primer on how to learn, read Brainscape Academy’s piece on “How We Learn.”
And for an even shorter take (hey, we all have limited time!) try Forbe’s “5 Essential Study Tips for College Students.”