MARK UP YOUR CALENDAR/SET UP REMINDERS

Do you have a calendar? I’m going to assume yes. 

(If the answer is no, make the answer yes right now. Google calendar is free. I like it because it sends me emails and banner notifications reminding me of things I have that are due. I actually keep a separate calendar with due dates. If you don’t want an online calendar, you can can use excel or word to create a template and print it out, or you can just draw a calendar on a sheet of paper. If you’d like a free template aimed at grad students and faculty, I’ve created a planner (“The Professor’s Planner”) (available here) that you can fill out or use as a basis to create your own Student’s Planner customized to your needs. But get yourself a calendar right now.)

At the start of each semester, for each class you are taking, add in the due dates for each test, essay, or other big and small assignment. (For students in my online classes: each Friday until the end of the semester, make a note to check that you’ve done the assignments for this class. These will usually be quizzes.) If you want to be really stellar, mark off two weeks before each test, or maybe just one week if that’s too much, a reminder that a test is coming up and you should start to study.

USE THE SYLLABUS

As faculty, we’re required to make a document, available on the first day of class, that is our contract for the semester. It’s what we expect of you and what you can expect of us. That’s the syllabus. 

A lot of it is boilerplate that we’re required to include—it will be in all the syllabi so you only have to read that stuff once, or just know the headings so you can check it out when you need to, like if you get sick and need to figure out what to do about missing class or an assignment. 

The most important part of a syllabus is the list of what’s due when. When you get the syllabus, you shouldn’t just read it. Instead, add any important dates to your calendar on day one (see above). As a student, I would also add in reminders a week or two or even a month in advance of big things like a midterm or a paper.

The other part is to review the professors’ individual policies–the ones unique to the professor and not set by the uni. These might include email etiquette, policies on late or missed work, and whether attendance is required. My syllabi often have really helpful policies designed to protect students when the shit hits the fan. But if students don’t read the syllabus (and zone out when I cover them in class), they can’t benefit from them. 

LEARN HOW TO SKIM

In most of my classes, I reserve a whole class to present a lecture on this topic and have students read my reading guide. I also include links to advice on this on my Resources page, but I’m reposting them here: Click here for a written guide on how to read academic, non-textbook books and articles that I prepared for my undergraduate students. While this document is intended for undergrads, graduate students might find it useful as well. Click here for a video explaining how to read academic, non-textbook books and articles that I prepared for one of my classes. (I recorded this when I had to cancel class one day because I was sick, so you can hear me getting stuffier over the course of the video (sorry!). There’s also a bit of stuff specific to my class, but it gives you a window into how I teach my classes. It picks up in between two other videos that set up the day and set up for next class.) Click here for the twitter thread version!

TAKE NOTES ON YOUR REQUIRED READINGS AND LECTURES

I say more about this in the above-mentioned video and reading guide, but here’s the big picture: In my experience, students tend to do one of two things: either they take no notes (they attend lecture or they do the reading, and that’s it, so then they don’t remember what we’ve covered) or they take way too many notes (which is inefficient and time consuming and makes it harder to study because there’s so much material to review). 

Students take notes in different ways. Ultimately, you should choose the way that you find most helpful. You might highlight a text and make notes in the margin, whether you’re using paper or your computer (many computer programs let you annotate the reading). You might keep an index card next to you while you read and take notes on it–making sure not to use more than one card per reading. You might do the same with a full page of paper, again, taking care not to go more than one page hopefully. You might use a drawing app on an iPad and draw your notes, which is a really cool skill I wish I had. You might text yourself notes while you are reading. You might record your notes into a dictation or recorder app. You don’t always have to use the same technique either–some techniques work better for some types of readings and under some circumstances.  

In lecture, you should also take notes. You don’t have to transcribe your prof’s lecture or take ten pages of notes on each reading. Instead, take down the highlights. Try to summarize. If it seems like the professor is really emphasizing something, defining something, etc. Additionally, if they write something on the board or if there is a phrase or diagram on the PP slide, it’s probably not fully fleshed out so your job is to write down what wasn’t written out. 

For example, I once had a latin phrase listed on a slide: stare decisis. A good student would not just have transcribed the phrase; they would have written down the context (I was discussing the origin of law schools in the US and the origin of what’s called the “case law” system, which is a style of teaching law using court cases) and then the translation of the term (“let the decision stand”) and what it actually means (essentially, judges should follow the rulings of prior cases, called precedent) and then why it matters (if stare decisis is the rule of our court system, it makes sense to learn law by studying cases; basically, stare decisis is not just the rule of our court system but a major reason why law schools are organized the way they are). If I was saying this in a talk and you were taking notes on what I just wrote (we’ll pretend I said it), you might be writing something like: “example of stare decisis; write down the context, the translation and meaning, and why it matters.” You wouldn’t actually need to record the details of my example, which is to illustrate the important/big picture stuff. 

STUDY FOR YOUR TESTS

Studying isn’t just about making sure you get a decent or even good grade on the test. Studying for tests is often when things click. But we don’t often teach what it means to study and students usually understudy (sometimes they just don’t have time, but a lot of times, it’s because they haven’t been taught effective study tools). Here’s what it means to study, in my view:

Create a study guide. Making your own study guide itself is studying. By a study guide, I mean a document that contains what you see as the important concepts, key terms, theories, and examples from the class, as well as short summaries of the required readings. Sometimes, faculty might provide you a skeleton study guide with a list of the key terms and maybe some other stuff. But even if they don’t, it’s a really good exercise to go through your lecture notes and your reading notes and see what seem to be the important terms and examples. 

How can you tell what is important? Does it come up several times? Was it defined in the reading and/or lecture? Did you get an example or two of it? Basically, did the prof spend a fair bit of time going over this thing, or did the author of one of your readings spend a fair bit of time doing so? Those are some easy ways to tell if something is important. 

Another way to do it is to think about what were the 1-3 main points of each reading and each lecture. You might start with the topic and then ask what the prof or author was saying about that topic. You can usually boil this down to several questions: what is it, what’s an example of it, and why does it matter. Or sometimes, you might use the version of what is it, what causes it, what evidence do we have for that, and why does it matter. 

Particularly if your professor provides a study guide with key terms (or if you go through your notes and come up with key terms on your own by looking for terms that come up a lot, that the professor spent time defining and giving examples of, etc.), I like to follow the “identification” model (when I was in college, we were given “identifications” for our tests). This model works for all sorts of things, whether it’s a jargon/vocab term, a concept, an event, a theory, etc. The identification model is a three-part system where you (1) identify, define, or describe whatever the term is; (2) give an example or illustration; (3) and then explain why it matters. The last one is really hard, or at least I always found it really hard. It basically means figuring out why the term matters within the context of the course, the readings you read and discussed, or generally in society (although usually this will have been discussed explicitly rather than trying to come up with this on your own) or how it relates to other things you have discussed in the course. The idea is to see that you understand, on multiple levels, the key term: you know what it is, you can give an example, and you know its significance.

The significance part of the identification model is related to another general study strategy that is really good, but a bit harder, especially if you are new to college classes. It’s to think about how the course material fits together. 

Some courses have a general thesis for the course, which the professor usually lays out in the first lecture or the first week of class; the thesis helps structure the class. For example, my criminal justice organizations class has the thesis that it’s helpful to think of criminal justice agencies like prisons and courts as organizations. The class is then organized around that argument. In the process, we learn about organizational theory that helps us make sense of criminal justice agencies. We see what we would have missed if we didn’t think about prisons or courts as organizations. But even if the course doesn’t have a central thesis, usually there’s a method to the madness that is the syllabus. When you are studying, it helps to go back to the course description (especially the one the professor wrote, rather than whatever is in the course catalogue that they probably didn’t write and will be sort of generic) and also to the notes you took in the first or second lectures and see if that gives you any tips as you read through the whole semester/quarter’s notes.

Rereading your notes is a start, but it’s not enough. Keep in mind that even just going back through your lecture and reading notes is useful and will refresh your memory before the test. But often it’s not enough. You still have to take notes on your notes—make the study guide. And then study (repeatedly reread and perhaps quiz yourself on) those notes or, hopefully, your study guide.

Pro tip: Start early! Studying is less stressful, and more efficient, if you start early. Maybe you spend 15 minutes after each class or reading thinking about the key points or how that lecture/reading fit with other lectures and readings. Maybe 2-3 weeks before the test, you start rereading your notes and constructing a study guide. Studying effectively for a test usually takes many hours; you won’t have time to do that in the week before your test unless you’re cutting into your sleep, your other coursework, and your other professional and personal obligations. Importantly, many students don’t have hours upon hours available to study; but you might be able to spend 30 extra minutes each day (say, 15 minutes each on two of your classes). This will cut down on your stress and anxiety (which means fewer sick days!), help you do do better on your tests, and help you to get more out of your courses because you’re taking the space to really think about what you are learning.

IF YOU ARE STRUGGLING (AND EVEN IF NOT), GO TO OFFICE HOURS!

I get it. Professors are kind of scary (or just boring and un-relatable). But we are actually just human and we’re not special, or any more special than anyone else. Some professors are dicks. I get it. I had my share in college and grad school (and I still deal with them from time to time in the world). But our job is to help you if you are stuck or struggling. Please talk to us. Most students who have talked to me after failing a midterm do a lot better on the final. A lot of folks haven’t been taught things that we professors (sometimes I) assume you know–that’s not on you, it’s on us. Having students in office hours is therefore helpful to me/us professors because it lets us professors know what’s going on with you all and where/why you are getting confused.  

What are office hours? Your professors are required to be available to you outside of class for about 1-2 hours each week. Sometimes these are pre-scheduled (e.g., 1-3 on Tuesday) and sometimes they are by appointment; some profs offer both options. These days, some faculty hold office hours in person, some via zoom, and some use a mixture. 

Office hours are supposed to be a time when you ask a professor questions about the course material or more generally to discuss the material. In practice, many professors are happy to have students come to office hours to discuss grad school, law school, life after college, research (we love to talk about research), how we got interested in our subject matter, or other topics. I once discussed cheese and tea with a student, because that’s what they wanted to discuss. That was a bit extreme, but I want my students to feel comfortable coming to office hours, so I’ll talk about whatever. We eventually circle back to something related to the class, but even if not, the student gets facetime with a professor, which is important for them, and I get to know more about my students, which is important for me. 

In general, professors aren’t as scary in office hours. It helps to remember that a lot of us are shy and awkward in real life. It’s easier for us to lecture, and harder sometimes to carry on a conversation. That’s not because we don’t like you, it’s just that many of us are kind of big nerds who didn’t get enough socializing when we were younger and we’re still catching up with that lack of development.

If you ever need a LOR, it’s much easier to ask for one and your prof can write a better letter if they have seen you in office hours!

IF YOU ARE STRUGGLING, SEEK OUT YOUR CAMPUS’S LEARNING CENTER AND DISABILITY RESOURCES

If you are struggling academically, it’s worth talking with the folks on your campus who handle accommodations for mental and physical health issues as well as learning disabilities (at UHM, it’s the Kokua office). Neurodiversity is awesome, but it can also make things challenging because you might learn in a different way than other people. If that’s the case, it can really help to get diagnosed so you can learn strategies or get accommodations to help you navigate school. Likewise, many universities’ disabilities center count mental health challenges (from substance dependence to depression to anxiety) and can help with accommodations. In my experience with students, accommodations don’t usually make a world of difference (these are really a bandaid); if the center is useful, they will also provide educational resources about how to navigate whatever issue you are dealing with (help you to figure out how to heal or how to live with whatever is holding you back so that it doesn’t hold you back anymore). More generally, getting officially diagnosed helps you figure out the mechanisms that have been making life harder than it needs to be; once you have that information, you can then look into how to navigate those mechanisms and you can also help other people figure out how to navigate and understand them.

READ SOME BOOKS THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE

I know you’re probably going to feel inundated with reading (especially if you are taking one of my classes). But there are three books that I can’t strongly recommend enough that I think everyone who wants to get their shit together (and keep their shit together) should read. They really helped me. These are Arden’s Rewire Your Brain, Elrod’s The Miracle Morning, and Allen’s Getting Things Done. These are books that I reread every few years (or more often) and that really helped me to get my shit together at various times when I needed it. I had my shit together in college, but I really wish I had read these books, especially Arden’s book on neuroplasticity back then. So if you’re looking for something to help give you the edge, work through some mental health difficulties (because, you know, the never-ending everything is so fucking broken), or look for some ways to improve your life, read these books (in that order and one at a time—take your time to digest them). If you can read all of them over the course of the semester, and start to implement some of their suggestions, I’m pretty sure your semester will continuously improve and you’ll hit the ground running next semester or whatever you do next. (All of them are available as kindle books, which tend to be cheaper than hard copies. You can also probably find these at your local library. You can also get them as audiobooks and listen to them while you commute, clean up, exercise, or whatever.) 

GET INVOLVED IN FACULTY-SPONSORED RESEARCH

If you attend a “research university,” and even if not, chances are many of your professors do research. You can ask them if you can be their research assistant (RA) to help out with their research. Even better, you can do your own research under a professor’s supervision. While some majors offer or require a thesis or capstone project, many universities also offer funding or course credit for conducting your own research under a professor’s supervision (usually called something like an Undergraduate Research Opportunity or Apprenticeship Program, aka UROP or URAP, or something similar). Sometimes there are other pots of money around campus you can apply for.