Goal Setting: Succeeding in College
Almost everyone growing up has been asked the same question: What do you want to be when you grow up? Who honestly would not want to live the American Dream: a big house, with a white picket fence. Unfortunately, in today’s diverse and ever-changing world that dream is nearly impossible without some form of postsecondary education. For those who choose college as the road to success, the challenge is immense. Students new to college must learn to propagate through different barriers on that road in order to succeed. Freshmen, soon learn that college is vastly different from high school. Frankly, just being intelligent will not cut it anymore. Passing or failing depends on the individual’s work ethic and …show more content…
Once the information is presented in the instructor’s lecture, it is time to begin the studying process. George Armitage Miller, one of the founders of what is known as “Cognitive Psychology” conducted studies on the limits of our capacity for human processing. His findings were published in 1956 in his paper The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on our Capacity for Processing Information. Miller found the average human learns in “chunks.” When we first hear information, it is stored in our short-term memory. Short-term memory capacity is low. In order to retain information effectively, it must be stored in long-term memory. In order for this to occur, information must be …show more content…
Controlling interferences from schoolwork is vital for academic success. Distractions may manifest in a multitude of ways. Cellphones, television and even friends may become a distraction to the learning process. Creating an effective learning environment will help in obtaining good grades. To control interferences, one must set their priorities to school work before friends. Making a calendar for the month or using a planner will help the student visualize and separate the work into reasonable amounts per day.
The eighth goal on the list is improving time management. In high school, time management is less of an importance because there is less of a coursework load. In college, the workload is a lot greater, so improving time management skills is important. Having good time management skills could involve making sacrifices. As mentioned earlier, planning and breaking the work down into reasonable bits per night makes college much easier. Learning to plan ahead and making sacrifices in one’s social life are the most important variables in improving time management
Almost everyone growing up has been asked the same question: What do you want to be when you grow up? Who honestly would not want to live the American Dream: a big house, with a white picket fence. Unfortunately, in today’s diverse and ever-changing world that dream is nearly impossible without some form of postsecondary education. For those who choose college as the road to success, the challenge is immense. Students new to college must learn to propagate through different barriers on that road in order to succeed. Freshmen, soon learn that college is vastly different from high school. Frankly, just being intelligent will not cut it anymore. Passing or failing depends on the individual’s work ethic and …show more content…
Once the information is presented in the instructor’s lecture, it is time to begin the studying process. George Armitage Miller, one of the founders of what is known as “Cognitive Psychology” conducted studies on the limits of our capacity for human processing. His findings were published in 1956 in his paper The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on our Capacity for Processing Information. Miller found the average human learns in “chunks.” When we first hear information, it is stored in our short-term memory. Short-term memory capacity is low. In order to retain information effectively, it must be stored in long-term memory. In order for this to occur, information must be …show more content…
Controlling interferences from schoolwork is vital for academic success. Distractions may manifest in a multitude of ways. Cellphones, television and even friends may become a distraction to the learning process. Creating an effective learning environment will help in obtaining good grades. To control interferences, one must set their priorities to school work before friends. Making a calendar for the month or using a planner will help the student visualize and separate the work into reasonable amounts per day.
The eighth goal on the list is improving time management. In high school, time management is less of an importance because there is less of a coursework load. In college, the workload is a lot greater, so improving time management skills is important. Having good time management skills could involve making sacrifices. As mentioned earlier, planning and breaking the work down into reasonable bits per night makes college much easier. Learning to plan ahead and making sacrifices in one’s social life are the most important variables in improving time management