Success in Community College: Tips for Academic Success

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There are many ways that you can make your classroom experience rewarding and enjoyable, as well as easier. Some of them are simple, such as showing up for class; others might not be
obvious to you, especially if you're new to college. By following the tips below, you'll get more out of your studies and time on campus.

Be There!

Sure, it will ultimately be up to you whether or not you attend class. You should be aware that many professors consider attendance to be a critical part of the learning process. Whether or not they take attendance, they expect you to show up for class.

Victor B. Smith, Sr. says, "We've all been there. You might think it's more interesting to hang out with your friends or family, or it might be raining and you just don't feel like you want to go. My advice is: Get yourself to class. If you don't, one thing will lead to another. You'll find it's easy to miss a second and third class. You're already behind if you don't make it to class."

There are lots of excellent reasons to attend class.

• Good attendance impresses upon your professor that you take your coursework and your responsibilities as a student seriously.
• Because classroom lectures, assignment review, and discussions are an important part of the learning process, you have to be there to gain the best possible understanding of the subject matter.
• Assignments are reviewed and given out in class. If you miss class, you may miss an assignment or important information about an upcoming quiz or test.
• In many cases, professors will take attendance and even consider it as part of your grade!

Speak Up!

Make a contribution with a question or stimulate discussion about an issue or problem with your classmates. Exchanges of information among students and between the instructor and students are rich sources of learning.

You'll impress your professors with good questions and discussion points. They'll know that you're taking an active interest in the course and that you're a serious student.

You'll also get to know your fellow students by exchanging ideas with them. You'll find you'll enjoy the class more if you actively participate.

Know How to Write - as Well as to Speak -Your Piece

Sure, there will be multiple-choice, fill-in the blanks, and open-ended questions; the sorts of tests that you're used to taking. But in community college, you'll also be writing a lot. You'll need to know how to develop an argument and support that argument with facts, not just select the right answer from a choice of several. You'll be writing research papers, essays, journals, reports, presentations for class, and many other materials.

The writing requirement is also one reason students are given assessment and placement tests to determine basic reading and writing skills and are not allowed to progress to college-level courses until they are proficient in these areas. (See Chapter 5 for more information about assessment and placement tests.)

You can give yourself a head start by taking a writing course and brushing up on grammar, punctuation, spelling, and vocabulary before you enroll. You'll also be able to improve your writing skills at your college's writing center or other academic resource centers on campus.

In addition to good writing skills, you'll need good oral communications skills. You may be giving in-class presentations and may be working in teams on problems and papers. So a speech class might also be in order.

Avoid an End-of-the-Semester Pileup!

Expect to have assignments that you need to do every day. Professors understand that it is often difficult to keep up with the pace of class work, but assignments are an essential learning tool.

Each course you take will carry a certain number of credit hours. For example, a three-credit course usually means that you will spend three hours a week in class. Multiply that by four classes and you're at a full-time schedule of twelve credit hours.

This may not sound like much, but each class will likely have daily assignments, plus papers to write, quizzes, tests, problems to solve, and so on. You'll need time to review materials outside of class. The amount of work to be done adds up quickly.

You'll need to study and do your daily assignments, as well as work on your longer-term tasks throughout the semester. Don't let them pile up until the end of the semester when you'll be pressed for time and have other things to worry about like a final exam.

Many assignments, such as reading or practicing math problems, don't need to be handed in for grading. That doesn't mean you can or should skip over them. They're meant to help you learn the material, so do them whether or not they'll be graded.

Stephen Bassett, instructor of anatomy and physiology and chairperson of the science department at Southeast Community College (Nebraska), says, "You need to do the work for each course. It helps to try to prepare for each class by pretending that you have a test in that class the very next day."

Be a Neat Freak!

Most professors will expect your written assignments to be done on a computer, or, if done by hand, to be neat and easy to read. Written presentations should be well-organized. Be sure to review your work for spelling and grammatical errors. Even if you run the computer spell and grammar check, it doesn't catch everything. It helps sometimes to have someone else review your work for errors.

Follow the professor's instructions for presentation! If the instructions say staple all the pages together, staple them. If a cover sheet is required, put one on! Nothing annoys professors more than getting a document that looks as though you couldn't be bothered to follow their instructions.

If you have poor computer skills or lack access to a computer, you'll want to brush up on these skills before you enroll. Once in college, there will be a study center or academic computing center where you can continue to upgrade your skills. If you don't have a computer, you'll be able to access one there too. Off campus, computers are often available at your local public library.

Be aware that things can go wrong with computers, often at the worst possible time. Don't type for long periods without saving your work, and back up your work on disk frequently. Otherwise, you may be the unlucky one who loses your paper the night before it's due.

Make the Grade

Many factors will count in your grade, depending on what your instructors require in each course: attendance, completion of assignments, quizzes, midterm and final examinations, extra credit assignments, and so on.

Not all assignments will carry the same value. For example, your professor might consider a research paper to count for 15 percent of your grade, the midterm to count 25 percent of the grade, completed homework assignments to be 15 percent, attendance to be 10 percent, and the final to be worth 35 percent. Usually the grading scale is as follows (with "+" or "-"next to the letter grade):

         90-100 = A

         80-89 = B

         70-79 = C

         60-69 = D

           0-59 = F

Unlike high school, where you might be quizzed regularly on classroom material or have a series of mini-projects to boost your grade, some professors may only use a midterm and final examination for grades. So, if you either miss an exam or do poorly, you'll end up with a less-than-desirable grade.