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I was a terrible university student. In fact, I think I came close to getting kicked out of school.
After deciding that I wanted to pursue graduate studies and finally try my best, I experimented with a variety of techniques to promote my success and eventually came up with the rules below, many of which were directly based on the psychology I was studying. They proved to be highly effective.
Now, as a university professor, I’ve shared these rules with countless students over the years. I’ve also updated them to reflect contemporary university life. I hope you, or any students you know, find them helpful.
1. Stay Organized
Buy an agenda or an electronic organizer and plan out your semester. There is nothing worse than remembering that, oops… you have an exam next week and a project due on the same day. Avoid this and similar catastrophes by making a note of all your commitments/deadlines for the semester and scheduling your work accordingly. Work backward from your deadlines to schedule consistent, bite-size pieces of progress.
2. Go To Class and Show Up Prepared
Going to class sounds like an obvious key to success, but on any given day (except for exam days) I can assure you that at least 20 percent of the class will be absent. That’s a bad move.
Going to class, either in-person or virtual, allows you to clarify any questions you may have about course material and, perhaps more importantly, corrects you when you mistakenly think you understand important concepts. Also, your professor will likely present new information in class. You can’t do well on an exam if you’ve never been exposed to the material! Note that you can’t ask clarifying questions unless you have gone over the assigned material.
You may also have a difficult time following your professors’ elaborations unless you’ve built a foundation of knowledge by reading the assigned chapters or articles, watching the videos, etc. So, show up for class prepared. This is very important.
3. Visit Your Professors Often (In-Person or Online)
You might learn more during your professors’ office hours than in any classroom. During their office hours, your professors can give you personalized instruction and focus on your individual development.
Don’t be shy. Professors like it when you show interest in the material. Show up at your professor’s office hours with some specific questions or issues you want to discuss, then let the conversation flow as it may.
4. Overlearn the Material
This is a basic psychological process. Overlearning, or learning beyond the point of remembering, ensures that you will know your material come exam time.
Try this: For text-based material, read the material until you know it inside out, highlighting main points, important details, and supporting arguments as you go. Then go over your material twice more, reading around the highlighted sections to make sure you didn’t miss anything important. Instead of going over the highlighted material once or twice before an exam, go over it five or six times. In books, keep going over the material until you know what will be on the next page before you turn the page! Then watch what happens to your grades.
5. Don’t Focus on Simply Memorizing Facts
Your goal in your studies should be to understand and be able to apply the information you are learning. Too many students focus exclusively on memorizing isolated bits of information. In applied fields such as management, your ultimate objective is to not only understand the world of business but to conduct yourself in that world in such a way as to promote success. That doesn’t happen when you just memorize facts.
Think about how the material you are learning actually applies to your life and how you can use the material you are learning to foster effectiveness. Facts are often forgotten, but if you understand how ideas apply to your life, you may remember them forever.
6. Don’t Study During Exam Periods
What? Am I out of my mind?!? Am I really suggesting that you not study when exam time comes?
Yes, that’s what I’m suggesting. You should not try to learn new material during exam periods. Exam time is the time to review what you already know. Space your studies throughout the semester instead of cramming the week before your tests. This is called distributed versus massed practice. If you study for the same number of total hours (i.e., 10 hours in one shot, versus one hour a day over a 10-week period) you will remember more if you space out your studies. Try it. See for yourself.
7. Remember That Success = Intelligence x Discipline
You are smart. However, being smart isn’t enough to make you successful in university. The other half of the equation, the half most students don’t like hearing, is that success requires discipline.
You need to be organized. You need to plan out your semester and all projects. You must sometimes force yourself to study when you’d rather go to a club or just Netflix and chill. There is no way around this. Discipline is even more important in asynchronous online courses because without lectures you have one less touch point to help you stay on track.
8. Remember That Projects Always Take More Time Than You Think They Will
When I was an undergraduate (at least in my upper years after I’d learned these lessons) I always gave myself 20 percent more time than I anticipated a project would take to complete. This is because things rarely unfolded as I thought they would and I needed more time to complete my projects properly.
Try this: if a project has to be completed in one week and you think it will take three days to complete, don’t wait four days to begin. Start it immediately and then take four days off when you’re done.
9. Stay on Top of Your Work and Remain Stress-Free
It feels terrible to have the many pressures of a university-level education come crashing down upon you. University is not hard; it’s just a lot of work. Remember: It takes 10 times as much effort to get back on track than it does to stay on track. Don’t fall behind (see points #1, 2 and 7). Follow my rules and your stress level will be much lower. You may even find that you like—yes like—school.
10. Treat School as a Hobby, and Enjoy It
Enjoy your time at university. This period of your life will be over before you know it. At university, you have the opportunity to learn about many interesting and useful things. You should relish the chance you have to explore concepts that matter to you, play with ideas you’ve never thought of before, learn about the world in which you live, and grow as a person. Appreciate it and enjoy.
