Making the transition academically from high school to college requires students to realize that there are greater academic expectations at the college level. Students in engineering often have to alter the amount of time they spend studying and the way they study in order to be academically successful. The key to academic success in college is to learn and select new study strategies appropriate for the academic task, monitor your academic progress, and evaluate your learning process.
General Academic Tips
- Everyone needs extra help. If you’re having difficulty in a class, seek out the support you need early.
- Get to know your professors—go to your faculty member’s office hours at least twice during the semester.
- Make an appointment to meet your advisor and get to know him or her.
- Form study groups. Working on a team is a critical part of being an engineer and study groups help you perform better as you create a network of support.
- Get involved—balance is key in engineering and one of the biggest predictors of success is who you choose to surround yourself with.
- Make sure that if you work, it’s no more than 15 hours per week.
- Repeated exposure to the material you are learning is essential to retaining. Review to remember and remember to review.
- For an online class, many of the tips below apply. Also see this helpful resource for additional tips for online learning!
How do you choose a strategy?
- Talk it out with a mentor, academic coach, advisor, or friend to process which methods may work for you.
- What do you know about the subject? (prior knowledge)
- How well must you understand and remember?
- How difficult is the textbook, manual, or article for you to read?
Additional Resources
- Click the following link for a PDF document written by David Dilaura for CU First-Year Engineering Students: Being Smart is Not Enough: Chautauquas for First-Year Engineering Students
- Engineering Your Future by Oakes, Leone and Gunn, Great Lakes Press – available at the CU Bookstore
- How We Learn by Benedict Carey
- Teach Students How to Learn by Dr. Sandra McGuire