Habits of
Successful
Students…
Utilize office hours
Office hours are a great way to not only clarify
any questions you may have, but to deepen your
understanding of the material. Your professors
take time out of their day for office hours because
they want to help you!
Move quickly
The block plan moves much faster than classes in high school do! If
you don’t understand something after the first day, take action!
Use office hours to help clarify what you don’t understand. Review
the material to see if you can gain a better understanding. If you still
aren’t able to understand the material, consider finding a tutor.
http://tinyurl.com/cornelltutoring
Devote time to studying
The average student can expect to spend 4-6 hours
of time studying each day. If the course is an activity
course you may find most of your "study" time is
actually DOING the activity. If it is a lecture or labbased course you will more likely find yourself doing a
combination of reading, writing, and lab/project work.
Understand your reading
Many students make the mistake of reading 50 pages of their
textbook straight through and assuming they are done with
reading. These students will often struggle to participate in class and
may not do well on the tests.
Faculty members do not assign reading as busy work. They feel the
material is valuable. So, approach it with as much energy and
creativity as you can muster.
Take useful notes in class
Basic points to keep in mind regarding discussion notes…
1. If there are points the professor elaborates on, they probably
thought there was something important there.
2. Keep track of trends in the discussion. It might be indicating the
importance of a topic.
3. Make a mark in your notes beside those comments that come
from a professor vs. a peer.
4. Take time after class to reorganize your thoughts, write out more
complete sentences or look for a pattern in the flow of material.
Manage your time well
Try to break large papers, presentations or
assignments into smaller pieces so that it can fit into
this schedule and still get done on time. Weekends give
you extra time so you should use those extra hours to
work ahead and get some additional reading or writing
accomplished.
Use your resources
Even if you aren’t struggling there are many
resources available to help you take your work to
the next level! Consider visiting the Writing Studio,
Quantitative Reasoning Studio, the research
librarians, or taking advantage of the tutoring
program!