Before we leave for college, we’re given all the usual inspirational advice — “Don’t screw up!” “Keep your damn room clean!” “Bring Pepto-Bismol!”. But what about useful academic advice? Turns out, we don’t really get a lot of it, so we thought we’d find the most precious gems and then narrow them down to the Big 3:
3) You think you know thinking? Think again! — In high school, many students become accustomed to the read-and-recall method where they read information and then spit it back out on a test. In college, this doesn’t fly at all. Let’s break down why. Students go to college so they can someday get a job. What sector of the population is taking over the job market? Robots. They are doing everything from producing cars to producing Tom Cruise’s offspring. If you want to make sure a robot doesn’t someday steal your job, you need to learn critical thinking. That means, instead of summarizing the content of articles or books, you evaluate the arguments and then draw your own conclusions. If you can master that, congratulations, you are one step closer to surviving the robot revolution!
2) Welcome to your new 24-hour day — Since the day you turned 5, you were handed a schedule that probably involved getting up somewhere around 7am, getting to school around 8am, leaving around 3pm, going to (insert after-school activity here), dinner around 7pm, then homework, then sleep, then watch 90210, then repeat. But in college, that schedule is gone, and 90210 was just cancelled because everybody realized it was a crappy show. When you get to college, you have the opportunity to manage your time however you want! You also have the opportunity to blow it bigtime and make your mom cry! Here’s the golden rule: if you think you have no work to do, there is definitely something you are not doing. Clue: it’s either homework or your laundry (Actually, it’s probably both).
1) Attack of the Twenty Page Papers! — It sounds like a title from a horror movie, but when you get to college, it’s all too real. AHHHH!!!! Not only do you have to write freakishly long papers, you’ve got to read tons of books and articles BEFORE you can even start writing! In high school, teachers normally follow the “Read One Book, Write a Five-Pager” approach, but in college, professors expect you to read as much as you possibly can and then somehow “condense” it down to about a teensy-weensy 10,000 words. What’s the secret? Start early and follow a plan.
We’ve compiled a page of some popular writing strategies. They’ll help you attack papers instead of getting attacked by them. By the way, If any of this scares you, look at the bright side — at least you know what you’re getting into!
Now go buy some Pepto-Bismol. Seriously, it comes in handy. Trust us.
Get Write On It. 