Not a Nerd

So I just finished my recent term at Mesa College, a community college here in San Diego. I originally graduated with my BS in Radiologic Science in June of 2002. I've been to college before, I worked full time for three of the five years I went to school and I graduated with a 3.3 cumulative grade point average. In 5 years of full time class work I only ever earned 4 C grades and actually finished one term in the hospital recovering from surgery. That I had no health insurance for. And with $37,000 in student loan debt that I used solely to pay my child support while in college.

I think I understand what it means to be a struggling college student. Having spent the last 10 weeks watching numerous people flail at being successful in college and listening to, to me very obvious, poor thought processes I thought I would share some characteristics of the successful college student. From my own experiences and from those struggling whom I just witnessed up close. Stop being your own worst enemy!!

-Make success a positive goal. Change from saying to yourself, "I hope I do good. Man, I wonder how I'm gonna do?" and such ilk to phrasing things in a positive. Always frame things in a positive statement. Whenever you catch yourself saying something negative about school, find a way to rephrase it as a positive statement.

-Get the right amount of sleep.Not too much, not too little. The biggest causes of lack of sleep I see in students? Partying and procrastination.

-Manage your time wisely. This is a key component of everything on this list. It's like carbon, it makes up everything. If I were ranking these in order of importance it would be one of the top three.

-CFL. Chronically faulty lifestyle. If you're continually getting bad results, it's probably "you". So you need to change some things about yourself. Stop getting drunk or high soo much. Stop waiting till the last second. Stop skipping. Look at what the people are doing who you think are the smart ones, do what they do if you're not already.

-Check the boxes. By this I mean do the stuff you're supposed to do, ALL THE TIME. Go to every class. Be on time, every time. Do every homework assignment. Read every page assigned. You need to be consistent and doing these little things, continually, daily.

-Know your learning style. I take in information poorly from reading. I do best when seeing something or hearing something. Followed by my writing it down. With reading a distant last place. Honestly self assess and see how you best learn and retain information. Then study in that style. If you look at my college notebooks, a whole 10 weeks of classes equals and most 4 pages of notes for me, across almost any subject. But I am super attentive in class, as I need to see the presentation and hear the lecture, that's the best way fro me to keep the information in my brain. I know my style.

Couple this with being well rested, in a positive frame of mind, having done all my homework and on time and you are giving yourself the best chance for a successful start.

Please don't be the person cheating, late, not having done the work, unable to concentrate 'cause you're tired and pissy about the whole thing. If so, the reasons you are doing poorly are really all your own.