All throughout the internet you are going to find thousands of pages uncovering the infallible strategies to be successful in college. Well, stop looking. It’s actually a matter of 5 essential points.
If you develop them well, your success in college will be guaranteed and, as many say, these will be the best years of your life.
Table of Contents
1. Schedule everything!
Most of the articles suggest using your smartphone calendar, but sometimes that is not enough, as you can’t actually see the whole picture, and that’s exactly what you need: we are talking about having a clear vision of what you must achieve on daily, weekly, monthly and semester basis, and the phone is too small for that.
In order to build a sound strategy to succeed in college, some experts are recommending going creative and making a huge wall calendar in which you can see all you have to do and feel the momentum of each of your duties. You can either print it in a huge A6 or DIY.
In any case, make sure it’s visually appealing with markers of different colors, collages and even pictures that will add a sentimental value once you finish the term or college and you want to remember those sweet but tough years.
There are plenty of stickers to sign “To do”, “In progress” and “Done”, and once you get to glue one of the latter, make sure to congratulate yourself and treat you very well for the effort. Keeping your encouragement high is your responsibility!
2. Get Pro in Studying Techniques!
This is essential in your strategy to succeed at college. There are books and websites that will explain how we humans learn, the time we need to absorb any kind of info and to be resilient and in focus in long-term intellectual challenges.
For instance, It’s very important that you know the format of the exams and tests that you will take before you take them, and practice and rehearse them as much as you can until you internalize both the timing and the density of your intellectual effort.
Another key element is stress management, especially when you are young and all your hormones get high and uncontrolled without much of an excuse. Search for yoga tips and breathing techniques, so you can turn fear and anxiety into a mature sense of challenge and achievement.
And keep an eye on those kinds of tips that keep your laptop in good health in order to avoid unwanted surprises with technology.
3. Don’t be a stranger in class!
Make sure that your teachers, tutors and professors can match your face and your name in a pleasant manner: it is quite handy when they score your assessments and your performance hasn’t been great but they know about your effort and perseverance in class.
They do score your level of involvement: highlight and underline this in your brain. Get the most of Office Hours to ask whatever question or doubt you might have: they are always happy to help, as they’ve been where you are.
4. Go social and connected!
This strategic point to be successful in college is not about attending all the parties on a 10 miles radio, but quite the contrary, keeping it academic.
There’s more to college than just the classes: familiarize yourself with all your campus resources and activities; pay a visit to the career planning centre; find out about the different internship your university might have in offer; be in friendly terms with the academic advisor; do not underestimate making room for peer tutoring, as it can be advantageous to get to know the different voices of your generation, and to grow together.
Having fun with them is cool, and there’s nothing like being joyful whilst one is young. That can run along well with being aware that you’re shaping yourself as an adult, as if your psyche were made of clay.
It helps if you have a clear vision of what you want, and if you don’t, make sure you respect some basic and essential elements, thus keeping experimenting and improvising under control. If you do it well, your success at school will be a sure thing.
5. Keep it healthy!
Romans used to say Mens sana in corpore sano, which means “a healthy mind in a healthy body“, and it is so true that if you were not practicing this by now, it’s high time for you to give it a try.
Take into account that intellectual effort is ‘effort’ even if you don’t see the sweat, and as such, it needs to be balanced. Observe around, check it out, look into it: many intellectuals and thinkers were great at sports.
The focus you must maintain whilst deploying physical exercise stems from the very place that keeps you efficient while taking a two-hour test, for instance. The more you strengthen your will outside class, the easier it will be for you to keep your attention and expand your intellectual skills.
Needless to say that your brain will appreciate the extra oxygen that your physical effort will produce.
There’s a 6th hidden point in this strategy to be successful in college, and it permeates all the above: from time to time take a mental picture of yourself and feel the moment, seize it, touch the skin of the second you’re living.
All these invisible photographs will give you endless inner joy for the rest of your life, and will make of you an excellent professional and a unique human being.