Consider the test-taking strategies discussed in the Week 4 Readings and the note-taking strategies discussed in the Week 5 materials. Which strategies have you implemented in the past?

College Success

College Success

[Authors removed at request of original publisher]

University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing edition, 2015. This edition adapted from a work originally produced in 2010 by a publisher who has requested that it not receive attribution.

Minneapolis, MN

College Success by [Authors removed at request of original publisher] is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Contents

Publisher Information vii About the Authors viii Acknowledgments x Preface xi

Chapter 1: You and Your College Experience 1.1 Who Are You, Really? 6 1.2 Different Worlds of Different Students 15 1.3 How You Learn 21 1.4 What Is College, Really? 31 1.5 Let’s Talk about Success 39 1.6 Chapter Activities 46

Chapter 2: Staying Motivated, Organized, and On Track 2.1 Setting and Reaching Goals 55 2.2 Organizing Your Space 66 2.3 Organizing Your Time 72 2.4 Chapter Activities 90

Chapter 3: Thinking about Thought 3.1 Types of Thinking 100 3.2 It’s Critical 104 3.3 Searching for “Aha!” 111 3.4 Problem Solving and Decision Making 117 3.5 Chapter Activities 121

Chapter 4: Listening, Taking Notes, and Remembering 4.1 Setting Yourself Up for Success 128 4.2 Are You Ready for Class? 130 4.3 Are You Really Listening? 132 4.4 Got Notes? 137 4.5 Remembering Course Materials 149 4.6 Chapter Activities 156

Chapter 5: Reading to Learn 5.1 Are You Ready for the Big Leagues? 164

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5.2 How Do You Read to Learn? 166 5.3 Dealing with Special Texts 174 5.4 Building Your Vocabulary 184 5.5 Chapter Activities 188

Chapter 6: Preparing for and Taking Tests 6.1 Test Anxiety and How to Control It 197 6.2 Studying to Learn (Not Just for Tests) 201 6.3 Taking Tests 207 6.4 The Secrets of the Q and A’s 212 6.5 The Honest Truth 217 6.6 Using Test Results 221 6.7 Chapter Activities 225

Chapter 7: Interacting with Instructors and Classes 7.1 Why Attend Classes at All? 233 7.2 Participating in Class 238 7.3 Communicating with Instructors 244 7.4 Public Speaking and Class Presentations 255 7.5 Chapter Activities 265

Chapter 8: Writing for Classes 8.1 What’s Different about College Writing? 273 8.2 How Can I Become a Better Writer? 277 8.3 Other Kinds of Writing in College Classes 287 8.4 Chapter Activities 290

Chapter 9: The Social World of College 9.1 Getting Along with Others 298 9.2 Living with Diversity 311 9.3 Campus Groups 323 9.4 Chapter Activities 328

Chapter 10: Taking Control of Your Health 10.1 Nutrition and Weight Control 338 10.2 Activity and Exercise 344 10.3 Sleep 348 10.4 Substance Use and Abuse 353 10.5 Stress 365 10.6 Emotional Health and Happiness 374 10.7 Sexual Health 383 10.8 Chapter Activities 393

Chapter 11: Taking Control of Your Finances 11.1 Financial Goals and Realities 401 11.2 Making Money 404 11.3 Spending Less 408 11.4 Credit Cards 422

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11.5 Financing College and Looking Ahead 429 11.6 Chapter Activities 435

Chapter 12: Taking Control of Your Future 12.1 The Dream of a Lifetime 443 12.2 Career Exploration 445 12.3 Choosing Your Major 451 12.4 Getting the Right Stuff 454 12.5 Career Development Starts Now 459 12.6 The Power of Networking 461 12.7 Résumés and Cover Letters 466 12.8 Interviewing for Success 471 12.9 Chapter Activities 476

vi

Publisher Information

College Success is adapted from a work produced and distributed under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-SA) in 2010 by a publisher who has requested that they and the original author not receive attribution. This adapted edition is produced by the University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing through the eLearning Support Initiative.

This adaptation has reformatted the original text, and replaced some images and figures to make the resulting whole more shareable. This adaptation has not significantly altered or updated the original 2010 text. This work is made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

vii

About the Authors

College Success is adapted from a work produced by a publisher who has requested that they and the original author not receive attribution. This adapted edition is produced by the University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing through the eLearning Support Initiative. Though the publisher has requested that they and the original author not receive attribution, this adapted edition reproduces all original text and sections of the book, except for publisher and author name attribution.

Unnamed Author

Unnamed Author (PhD, UCLA) has served as director of the UCLA Writing Programs since 2001. He regularly teaches developmental writing classes that serve students who arrive at the university without the preparation or skills they will need to succeed. This teaching role links him to broad efforts from across the campus, particularly the library and the College Learning Center. In this respect, he works with colleagues in English as a Second Language, Library Science, Athletics, and Counseling. In addition, Unnamed Author’s role as a faculty mentor to student athletes in the University’s “Community of Learners” program connects directly to his work identifying, placing, and instructing at-risk students. Unnamed Author has also overseen and taught in UCLA’s Transfer Intensive Program built upon the notion that the crucial part of a successful transfer is the ability to write. For his work with nontraditional students seeking admission (or readmission) to the university through UC extension courses he received a UCLA Teaching Award.

While Unnamed Author has spent most of his professional life as a writing teacher and administrator, his PhD is in English literature, and his first publications focused on nineteenth-century fiction. His book, Power and Punishment in Scott’s Novels, was nominated for a McVities Prize. Unnamed Author was also guest editor of a special edition of European Romantic Review that was devoted to essays on Walter Scott. In addition, he is the coauthor of the widely used literature anthology The Literary Experience (coauthored with Jeff Wheeler and published by Wadsworth).

Unnamed Author’s teaching interests along with his concern for undergraduate education have moved him outside this fairly narrow scholarly world. He has taught a wide range of literature and composition courses in the past twenty years—everything from courses on Faulkner to business writing workshops. He has been involved in administrative work (e.g., student placement, curriculum development). And he has consulted in the development of teaching materials for use in business settings.

Unnamed Auhtor

Unnamed Author (MS, Minnesota State University, Mankato) has been an educator for over two decades, first as a high school English teacher in Hong Kong and currently at Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC). Since 1997, Unnamed Author has been working as a counselor on college campuses, initially at four-year comprehensive universities before finding her passion working with the student body at MCTC, where 43 percent of the students are non-Caucasian and more than eighty different languages are spoken on campus. New immigrants for whom English is a second language, first-generation college students, nontraditional students, single parents, and students living below the poverty line make up the majority of the college’s student population.

Born to refugee parents in Hong Kong, Unnamed Author came to the United States on a student visa with the help of a scholarship. Her personal struggle together with her professional training have enabled her to relate readily to underrepresented and underserved students who aspire to higher education in the face of adversity and disadvantage. In this regard, she provides academic, career, and personal counseling, while teaching classes in

viii • COLLEGE SUCCESS

viii

Career Development and Life Planning, and College Success Strategies. In addition to her academic responsibilities, Unnamed Author works professionally with dislocated workers and people with disabilities.

Unnamed Author

Unnamed Author is a teacher, a writer, an editor, and a consultant. He received his MFA in writing from the University of Arizona and is ABD in English at Washington University. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Unnamed Author has taught at the University of Arizona, Pima Community College, Otterbein College, Washington University, Saint Louis Community College, and UCLA. His teaching focus has been on freshman courses with an emphasis on reading, writing, and study and communication skills. Unnamed Author’s special interests are in working with unprepared students and recent immigrants.

As a college instructor, Unnamed Author has always focused on what students actually need—not necessarily what professors might think they need—to succeed in their studies, regardless of the particular topic. In an academic world where many students do not read their textbooks at all, or have difficulty understanding them when they do, it is critical to be realistic about how today’s students learn and how best to reach them. “A weighty traditional tome might look like the best classic student success textbook to some instructors,” Unnamed Author says, “but such a text fails if students can’t or won’t read it. Students quickly become frustrated by reading materials not useful to them as students or appropriate for their needs.” His expertise in how to shape an effective textbook is part of what he brings to this authorship team.

As a professional college textbook editor and writer, Unnamed Author specializes in making textbooks accessible for students in many curriculum areas, including communications, software and technical manuals, and public health information. In his work with public organizations such as the American Red Cross and the National Safety Council, he has brought an expertise in language and reading level to ensure that a wide range of publications are appropriate for their intended audiences. He has written or ghostwritten several dozen textbooks and other books.

Unnamed Author

Unnamed Author (MA, Tufts University) is an educational advocate, consultant, and marketing professional. As founder and president of the Vision 21 Education Group, he is working to support schools seeking to transform into twenty-first-century learning environments that help students master core subjects, connect subjects to real-world needs, think critically, communicate clearly, and practice collaboration and innovation.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS • ix

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the following reviewers whose comprehensive feedback and suggestions for improving the material helped make this a better text:

• Henry F. Algera, Seattle Pacific University • Lenore Arlee, University of Oklahoma, Norman Campus • Katie Cerrone Arnold, The University of Akron, Summit College • Steven R. Boyd, University of Texas at San Antonio • Mark Brennaman, University of Central Oklahoma • Kathryn Burk, Jackson Community College • Christi Duque, Tarrant County College • Debby Espinor, George Fox University • Lameteria D. Hall, The Community College of Baltimore County • Sheryl Hartman, Miami Dade College • Ann Iseda, Jackson Community College Extension Centers • Dan Issler, University of Pennsylvania • Timothy J. Jones, University of Oklahoma • Lucas Keefer, University of Kansas • Sharon Kousaleos, Ohio University • Carla Kulinsky, Salt Lake Community College • Patricia McGee, University of Texas at San Antonio • Ted Miller, Jackson Community College • Penny Pasque, University of Oklahoma • Said Sewell, The Fort Valley State University • Melissa Thomas, University of Texas at San Antonio • John Timmons, Winthrop University • Patrick Raphael Toney, Bowie State University

x • COLLEGE SUCCESS

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Preface

Our primary goal in writing College Success is to help you succeed in college. According to Department of Education data, 30 percent of college freshmen leave school in their first year and

as many as 50 percent never graduate. College Success is designed to help change that. College Success has a student-friendly format arranged to help you develop the essential skills and provide the

information you need to succeed in college. This is not a textbook full of theory and extensive detail that merely discusses student success; rather, this is a how-to manual for succeeding in college. The book provides realistic, practical guidance ranging from study skills to personal health, from test taking to managing time and money. Furthermore, College Success is accessible—information is presented concisely and as simply as possible.

College Success has the following features to help you achieve your goals: Each chapter asks you to evaluate yourself because success starts with recognizing your strengths and weaknesses, your hopes and desires, and your own personal, individual realities. You’ll develop your own goals based on these self-assessments, determining what success in college really means for you as an individual. Throughout the book, you will find numerous interactive activities created to help you improve your skills. To assist you with this, the material is presented in easily digestible “chunks” of information so you can begin applying it immediately in your own life—and get the most out of your college education.

College Success was developed in partnership with Career Management, LLC, whose cofounders developed SuccessHawk® (http://www.successhawk.com)—interactive online job search software, designed to help you achieve your ultimate goal of landing a great job.

Welcome aboard!

xi

Chapter 1: You and Your College Experience

Figure 1.1

CollegeDegrees360 – College Student – CC BY-SA 2.0.

Where Are You Now?

Assess your present knowledge and attitudes.

Yes Unsure No

1. I understand all the benefits of a college education for my future life.

2. I have clear-cut career interests and have already planned my college program to prepare me best for my future work.

3. I am aware of how my previous educational background has prepared me for college work.

4. I have all the personal traits of a successful college student.

5. I know how the learning process functions and make an effort to maximize my learning at each step in this process.

6. I know my personal learning style and use it to my advantage when learning new things.

7. I know how to pay attention to gain the most from my classes.

8. I am aware of my college’s policies for academic honesty and behavior on campus.

9. I know where to find all the resources of my college that can help me succeed both academically and personally.

10. I am confident I can earn the grades I need to achieve success in my college courses.

11. I know the first year of college will be the most difficult, but I am fully prepared and take responsibility for my own success.

12. I am taking steps every day to ensure I am successful in every aspect of the college experience.

Where Do You Want to Go?

Think about how you answered the questions above. Be honest with yourself. On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your present skills for succeeding in college?

Not very strong Very strong

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

In the following list, circle the three most important areas in which you think you can improve:

• Relating my personal values to education • Choosing a program or degree major • Finding the best career for my interests and skills • Being prepared for college-level work

• Developing a positive attitude for college • Successfully using each step of the learning process • Adapting and broadening my personal learning style • Getting the most out of classes large and small • Following all college policies • Taking advantage of all college resources • Getting the best grades I can get • Successfully transitioning to college and completing the first year • Doing everything I can every day to ensure I succeed in college

Are there other areas or skills that need more attention in order for you to succeed in college? Write down other things you feel you need to work on.

__________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________

How to Get There

Here’s what we’ll work on in this chapter:

• Viewing college in terms of your personal values • Recognizing the importance of making a commitment to succeed in the first year of college • Discovering what career and college major best match your interests and skills • Understanding the obstacles students like you may have to overcome when transitioning into

college • Figuring out how to learn best in each step of the learning process • Using your personal learning style effectively while also expanding to include other forms of

learning • Staying motivated and succeeding in large lecture classes as well as small discussion classes • Working with your academic advisor to select courses and plan your program • Discovering what resources your college offers students to succeed not only in classes but also in

their personal and social lives • Understanding why grades matter • Understanding why the first year of college is so critical and how to ensure you make it through • Knowing what steps you can take starting today and every day to ensure your success in college

Welcome to College!

Congratulations on your decision to attend college! For the great majority of college students, it really was your

decision—not just an automatic thing to do. If you happen to be one of the few who just sort of ended up in college for want of anything better to do, the benefits of college will soon become obvious.

The reason for this book, and for almost all college courses, is that college does require commitment and effort. Like everything else in life that leads to meaningful results, success in college is not automatic. But when you apply yourself to your studies using the skills you’ll learn in this book, you’ll find you can succeed.

When asked, most students say they’re in college primarily for the job or career they expect to follow after college. And they are correct that college pays off enormously in terms of future earnings, job security and stability, and job satisfaction. Every statistic shows that people with a college education will make much more in their lifetime (much, much more than the cost of college itself) and be much happier with the work they do.

But job and career issues are only a part of the big picture. A college education results in many other personal benefits, and these also should be part of your motivation for doing well and continuing with your college plans. Here are a few additional, less tangible benefits of a college education:

• You will have a fuller life and a better understanding of the world around you. • You will gain decision-making and problem-solving skills. • You will meet many interesting and diverse people and have a richer social life. • You will gain self-confidence. • You will gain learning skills that can continue for a lifetime. • You will make wiser decisions about lifestyle issues and live healthier. • You will make wiser economic decisions the rest of your life. • You will be better equipped to deal with other people, organizations, governmental agencies, and all the

hassles of daily life. • You will feel more fully a part of your community, the larger culture, and history.

A college education is correlated with greater success in all those areas, even though most students are usually more concerned with making it through the next class or test than the rest of their lives. But sometimes it helps to recall what a truly great step forward you are taking!

Sadly, however, it’s important to recognize that some students do not succeed in college and drop out within the first year. Sometimes it’s due to an unsolvable financial problem or a personal or family crisis, but most of the time students drop out because they’re having problems passing their courses. The two biggest causes of this problem are a lack of motivation and not having learned the skills needed to succeed in college.

A book like this one can help you stay motivated when things get tough, but it can’t necessarily give you motivation to start with. That’s part of what you yourself have to bring to college. What we can promise you is that you can learn the skills for succeeding in college.

Special skills are needed because college isn’t the same as high school. Throughout this book, we’ll be looking at the many ways college is different from high school. To name just a few, college is different in study skills needed, in personal skills related to being independent, in social skills for getting along with instructors and others on campus, in financial realities, in matters of personal health, and more.

Remember, you can learn whatever you need in order to succeed. That’s what this book is all about. You’ll learn how to get the most out of going to class. You’ll learn how to study in ways that use your time efficiently and help you pass tests. You’ll even learn how to remember what you read in your college textbooks. You’ll learn how to manage your time more effectively than you might have in the past, so that studying is less a burden and more a simple routine. You’ll even learn how things like eating well and getting enough sleep and exercise make it easier to do well in your classes.

One warning: you might not at first see an immediate payoff for everything you read in this book. When it comes to certain things, such as tips for how to take good notes in class to help you study later on for a test, you will get specific, practical advice you can put to use immediately to get a better grade. But not everything is as

obvious or immediately beneficial. Some of the things you’ll read about here involve ideas you’ll need to think about. Some things will help you get to know yourself better and understand more clearly what you really want from your education and how to go about attaining them.

But we promise you this: if you care enough to want to succeed in college and care enough to read these chapters and try to use the information, suggestions, and tips presented here, you will succeed in college.

1.1 Who Are You, Really?

Learning Objectives

1. List your most important personal values and relate them to a college education. 2. Begin thinking about what kind of career will best match your interests, skills, and personality. 3. Understand how college is different from high school in many ways. 4. Develop a positive attitude about yourself as a college student. 5. Accept responsibility for your college experience and your life.

Succeeding in college is rather like succeeding in life. It’s really much more about you than it is about college. So the most important place to start is to consider why you’re here, what matters to you, and what you expect to get out it. Even if you have already thought about these questions, it’s good to reaffirm your commitment to your plan as we begin to consider what’s really involved in being a college student.

What’s Your Plan?

Take a few minutes and write down short answers to the questions in Activity 1. Be honest with yourself, and write down what you really feel. You are not writing for an instructor here—not what you think someone expects to hear—and you are not being graded on your answers!

Activity 1: Your College Plan

How long do you anticipate being in college? ________________________________________________________ How many courses will you need to take per term to finish college in your planned time period? ________________________________________________________ What do you anticipate will be the most difficult part of completing college? ________________________________________________________ Are you confident you will be able to overcome any possible difficulties in completing college? ________________________________________________________

Were you able to easily answer the questions in Activity 1? How confident do you feel about your plan? These are important questions to think about for the simple reason that students who have a clear plan and

who are prepared to overcome possible obstacles that may arise along the way are much more likely to succeed in college. In other words, just thinking in a positive way about your future can help that future come true!

6

What Matters to You?

The word values refers to things that matter to a person. What makes you feel good? What things would you be doing if you had all the time, money, and opportunities in the world? Questions like these help us define our own values. Every individual has his or her own values.

Thinking about your own values can help you know what you want from life and from college. Take a moment and consider the list of things in Activity 2 that are valued by some people. For each value, rate how important that thing is to you.

Activity 2: Your Values

Following is a list of things that different people say they value. For each item on this list, indicate how important it is to you yourself by ranking it as very important (5), not important (0), or somewhere in between.

7 • COLLEGE SUCCESS

Value Not important Very important

Making a good income 0 1 2 3 4 5

Having good friends 0 1 2 3 4 5

Learning new things about your interests 0 1 2 3 4 5

Having a nice car 0 1 2 3 4 5

Having intelligent conversations 0 1 2 3 4 5

Staying current with the news 0 1 2 3 4 5

Playing sports 0 1 2 3 4 5

Hanging out with friends 0 1 2 3 4 5

Playin

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