What Students Need To Know To Thrive In College

Personal qualities that support academic success
Students who have the following personal qualities are much more likely to thrive in college. 

• Self-awareness and self-acceptance
• Proactivity as opposed to reactivity
• Perseverance
• Skill in setting short and long-range goals
• Use of effective support systems
• Strong emotional coping strategies

Understanding a student’s rights in college
Individuals with special learning needs are guaranteed special supports in elementary and high school by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.  However, in college, no such guaranteed protections exist.  Therefore, students need to work congenially with colleges to obtain reasonable accommodations that will facilitate their success.

It is best to have psychological and/or educational testing that was completed less than 3 years before applying to college because colleges usually demand recent testing to support a petition for accommodations.
Students will need to inform the college of their educational needs by registering with the office on campus that is in charge of reviewing and granting accommodations.  This office goes by names such as Disabled Student Support Services or Office of Special Services.
Typical “reasonable accommodations” that colleges may decide to grant include:

• Extra time to take tests
• Providing a note taker
• Taking tests in a separate room
• Test read orally to the student and/or the student’s answers transcribed or typed
• Use of tape recorder to record lectures
• Tutoring services (some colleges have tutoring geared for students with special needs, however, most colleges have tutoring available to all students—check both sources)
• Taking a reduced class load
• Requesting “full-time” status for purposes of qualifying for health insurance when taking a reduced course load

Instructors and professors have the power to make decisions that can help students be more successful.  The following are some modifications a student may be able to negotiate on a case-by-case basis:

• Obtaining the instructor’s permission to modify an assignment or getting extra time to complete the assignment
• Asking for advice about selecting classes or instructors
• Asking the instructor to award an incomplete rather than an “F”—but be aware of the college policy in regard to “clearing” the “I”

Action steps a student should take to build a solid college support network:

• Think through what kind of support you’d like to have from your parents and friends and express your needs before you go to college
• Think about the kind of academic support you’ll need (for example, will you need tutoring) and make plans to set this up
• Don’t suffer in silence—speak out, reach out when you need to
• Get professional, trained help when you need it:  tutors, doctors, etc.

Self-advocacy steps
Successful students understand themselves well.  They know their strengths and they have developed ways to minimize the effects of their weaknesses.  They also have a clear idea of their short-range and long-term goals, and are committed to meeting these goals.
These self-advocacy steps will help students obtain the supports they need, not only from others but from themselves as well!

• Have a clear plan to graduate in a certain time frame and set your schedule to realistically accomplish this plan
• Logically plan the kind of support you need to give to yourself!
• Meet with your teachers regularly
• Don’t wait until things get bad to see you need a different approach; if it isn’t working—try another approach
• Pause, think and reflect before diving in—avoid the “Opps! and regret”
• Remember:  resistance and avoidance stunt maturity; meet challenges had on and don’t be afraid to make mistakes
• Evaluate and think through setbacks—they are the teachers of success!
• Success is a consistent mindset that says “I can do this, I will do this!”
• Everything goes better when you get enough sleep and eat more healthy foods
• Plan ahead on how to manage stress, loneliness, and change
• Seek balance in all things—academics, relationships, pursuit of interests, career development, spiritual growth
• Seek out stabilizing forces (people, classes, work experiences, living arrangements, etc.)
• As soon as you identify a problem surfacing in a class, figure out how to remove it from your path
• Make better time estimates; after you figure out how long you think it will take you to do what you need to do, multiply that by as least 150%
• Keep your long-term, personal goals front and center in your mind, guiding you through the tough times!
• Reward yourself for meeting your deadlines and achieving your goals!

Study Skills
Students who master study skills and use their strengths to learn succeed in college.  Try these tips:

• Set up a realistic study schedule and keep to it!!!!  Don’t let spontaneity ruin your completion of college
• Frequently review and critique your study approaches to find what is working and emphasize that
• Don’t put off the “boring” or unpleasant tasks; doing so will leave you unprepared and can destroy your grade; find a way to see the value it brings to you as a person or as a professional
• Take frequent, short breaks when your attention fades
• Keep a calendar and an assignment book; record all due dates, test and quiz dates, etc. and schedule study/work sessions by backward planning
• Work with classmates who are strong students and stay on track
• While reading, stop frequently to retell the main idea and details in your own words
• As you read, take notes, jot down questions and related ideas, and make mental pictures of the material to increase your comprehension and retention
• Read the material before you go to the lecture; bring notes or an outline and fill in added material as you listen
• Ask for clarification in class if you miss details; increase your concentration during difficult listening situations

Times Tables – Causes of Difficulties

The next three causes of difficulties in mastering the multiplication tables are considered in this article: the times tables from 11 to 20, poor memory of pupils, and the use of calculators.

Cause #6. Some educators suppose that pupils must learn the times tables up to 20 by 20. But several results (16 by 17, 19 by 18, etc.) are too difficult for kids to remember for a long time.

A few months ago I had written that I could not even imagine some explanation to justify this immoderate demand. Recently I have found one reason - the 12 times and 16 times tables are needed to help with inches and ounces. If so, I can not be a referee, because I have never dealt with inches and ounces at school.
If a math curriculum provides for wide use of inches and ounces, then, maybe, the demand for knowing by heart the 12 times and 16 times tables is justified. But what about the13 times tables or the 19 times tables, etc.? Even if a pupil has learnt them by heart, he/she will forget them soon because of the lack of use, and the time spent on the learning will turn out to be wasted in vain.

Cause #7. Many pupils have poor memory in view of the fact that the methods of teaching mathematics which are used at school do not encourage the development of their memorizing abilities.

Teachers and parents notice often that many children have weak memory now. They can not memorize simple math facts totally; they do not remember the rules which have been learnt a month or even a week ago; they can not recall the methods of solving tasks used recently, and so on. I suppose, the cause is connected with our methods of teaching math, and not only math, but other school subjects too. Now there is decreased emphasis on memorizing at school. We do not develop pupils' memory duly; we do not use proper exercises to drill their memorizing abilities. At the same time, most researchers agree that memorizing abilities play a significant role when kids think with numbers.
Learning multiplication affects different parts of the brain. Drilling the times tables uses one area, while learning multiplying methods uses others. According to Brian Butterworth, Professor of Cognitive Neuropsychology at University College London, anything that is memorized is consigned to the back (memory) part of the brain, freeing the front of the brain (the learning area) for more learning. So the practice of learning the times tables by rote (which is named unfashionable very often) turns out to be not as ineffective as it is considered. It looks like kids are "born with a start-up kit for numbers," Butterworth said, and have to practice, just as musicians do. “Processing is done at the rear as you become more experienced,” he explains. In other words, if pupils have memorized the times tables by heart (the back part of the brain), they become more experienced, and the front parts of the brains become more receptive for advanced learning.
I think that multi-digit operations, for instance, are important not only as a drill in calculations. During implementation of such operations pupil's memory is continuously working. The pupil recalls and uses simple math facts (the results of the times tables, for example), memorizes the intermediate results, performs simple mental computations, and, hereupon, his/her memory gets a good training.

Cause #8. Pupils are allowed to use calculators too early, and, instead of development of their independent computational abilities, their brains get a cripple wheel-chair for moving in the world of numbers.

The debates on the use of calculators at school have been lasting thirty years or even more. The main claim of the proponents is that calculators allow students to spend less time on calculations and more time on understanding and solving problems. They believe that the use of calculators helps students develop better number sense. Moreover, some of modern curriculums can tell you that basic arithmetical skills are not necessary now, because pupils can use calculators.
The opponents say that calculators produce students who can't perform basic tasks without calculator. One of their mantras is "Calculators were invented by vampires to suck your brains out."
I am not an opponent or a proponent of calculators. My opinion is closer to standpoint of those educators who consider calculators as useful devices only, but not as a mean of teaching math. Calculators can not be used to excuse pupils from learning the fundamentals. If pupils do not master mental arithmetic, they will also be poor users of calculators. To use a calculator effectively, a kid should learn to monitor and control the obtained results. This requires good developed skills in mental calculations.
I agree, there are many problems which are too difficult to be solved without the use of calculators, but we can postpone these problems until our pupils master mental computational skills totally, and only then the use of calculators may be begun. In the hands of an inexperienced kid a calculator ceases to be a useful device – it becomes a useless toy. Regrettably, we can often observe pupils who implement the same calculations with the use of calculator several times and, herewith, each time they receive different results. It seems that only one part of their brains is acting at that moment - the part which has charge of moving hands, and, if they need to add 15 and 10, their fingers stretch to the keys again, press them mechanically, and, without slightest delay, write in the copy-books a ridiculous result: 150 (or, maybe, 5 or 1.5).