Tips for Academic Success

Tips for Academic Success

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• Manage your time. Take work, family, school, and free-time into consideration when making your schedule. Don’t overload yourself!
• Try to designate a quiet area for homework and studying. Find a place where you will not be distracted and schedule “quiet time” with family or roommates. Libraries or empty classrooms are a few examples.
• Study and work on home work in smaller amounts of time daily to avoid cramming. Don’t study up to the point of exhaustion.
• Ask for help if you need it. CASA offers free individual tutoring sessions, study groups, workshops and links to website's to help you with any subject. Ask your instructor if you are uncertain about your grade or any material you are discussing.
• Get organized. Write down important due dates and appointments. When your brain is crowded with all the information you’re getting from school, it makes it harder to remember all the things you need to get done.
• Stay energized. Stress, fatigue, eating habits, and not enough exercise affect your comprehension and memory.
• Go to class prepared and try not to miss days. It is critical to your understanding of the subject that you ATTEND CLASS, take good notes, pay attention, and ask questions! In the event that you are unable to attend class, find a study buddy who you can contact to get the information you missed.
• Keep up with your school work and reading. When you fall behind you are putting more pressure on yourself. It can also have a negative effect on your grades.
• Explore creative memorization techniques such as mnemonics, rhyming, keywords, visual cues and repetition.
• Practice. Review and repeat the information you have learned in class as soon as possible. You retain more information when you review it shortly after you have learned it.
• Before taking a test, make sure you have had a good night’s rest, eaten properly and arrive at least ten minutes early so you don’t feel rushed.
• Utilize your test taking time. Read your instructions carefully, do the easier questions first to build confidence, take deep breaths if you are getting anxious.

Additional  tutorials: 

• Dealing with Test Anxiety
• Test Taking Tips