Hello everyone:

Sometimes I come across students who think they don’t need to study. Ever. Folks, that is a bad assumption.

Let’s say that you managed to get by in high school without ever cracking a book. Maintaining that same attitude in college could get you…kicked out for academic failure. The classes are harder and sometimes you only have a final exam. One of the speech classes I have taught only has the final, which covers the entire book.

Please don’t be of the opinion that you can memorize everything a teacher says by simply looking at her, without taking notes, and cough that up on the final. It’s just not going to happen. Your odds of learning everything from simply listening and never opening the book are slim to none. I had a student a few years back who said he could do it and tried to prove it. The first exam went well. The following exams did not turnout as he had hoped.

So what do you do? Read the chapter before class so that you aren’t seeing the material for the first time.  Take a lot of notes in class. When you get home (or wherever you’re studying), go over the notes with your textbook and correct anything you wrote down wrong. Review your notes once a week, so that by the time you reach the exam, you can make an educated guess on anything you aren’t sure about. As an instructor, I am not trying to fail you. Some of you will do just fine on that, yourself.

Should you study? Absolutely!

Best,

Dr. Sheri