Getting the Best out of College or University

[Hugo]

I thought it might be useful to have a thread that discusses what it is like to be at College or University and what it means to learn and learn well. Learning is wide ranging and will involve your rationality, your emotions, your motivation, your sense of values and for believers of whatever faith - spirituality.

So I will post some idea and tips and maybe you would like to do the same.

 

[Hugo]

Re: What kind of student are you?

This note is to try to help you to see the role of your tutor/University in progressing you through to your qualification. If I were your tutor I might think of you as a top class football team with me as the Coach. At the moment you are in the second team but I want to promote you if you are good enough to the first team (the next stage or final stage). So as you read this analogy of student life and learning ask yourself which profile best fits you?

As Coach I want to win all the time, never compromise on quality performances, and I pick my team to do that. I tell you as player what I want and I place my whole confidence in you to give your very best effort and I expect nothing less. Consider, the work you do for your tutor is like playing in a match and there is no point in playing a match unless you want to win so I need confidence in you to follow my instructions and you need to trust me as that I now what I am doing and have your very best interests at heart. In fact as a Coach I have several kinds of player available to me as follows: (so ask your self which one fits you?)

Reliable – I have some promising players with real talent. I can see their work is well prepared, they know the basics, they accept advice and criticism, they discuss things with me, they disagree with me; they are learning – they are not perfect but I see potential and with a little guidance from me and hard work (practice) from them they can get even better and promoted to the first team and play in the premier league.

Lazy – these are the players that don’t want to do any training, they don’t want to practice, they don’t care about my opinion, they have no awareness of how hard it in the premier division and they accept no responsibility for their own progress – if they don’t get in the team it’s the Coach’s fault or in fact any other reason that comes to mind. I notice with these players that its not that they are unaware of their needs as such but want some sort of short cut to glory in the team. I will never pick them because they cannot be trusted and they are not fit enough, will never be fit enough, to play in the big league.

Content - I have some promising players but they don’t want bother with the basics, they think they know it already and they are not very good at listening to advice or watching other players or team work. I feel real concern because I can see them wasting their talents by a kind on obstinate arrogance and I am not going to be able to use them in the first team as they don’t have even the basic skills. What shall I do with these players is my big problem – how can I get them to learn the basics, how can I get them to put in the practice, how can I make them see that unless they put in hard work now they will never reach their true potential and look back on it with regret, how can I make them aware of their own shortcomings?

Sometimes I take a chance and promote them on condition they show me what they can do but sadly often they never get to play in the first team because they cannot show their talents because they have not perfected them – they think because they are promoted to the first team I am bound to pick them to play in a match. But I am the Coach and I am not going to risk losing a match with some one who is not willing to give me 100% effort – I am putting in 100% and I expect the same from you. I am not going to pick you unless you have put in the training and learn all the skills needed – it’s a risk not worth taking and eventually I am going to exclude you altogether.

Self Satisfied - my last group are the saddest of all, they know everything and can do everything and have see everything. If you ask them to do a bit of training they say they don’t need it, if you offer them advice they ignore it because they know better, if you tell them to play in the centre they will move to the wing, if I take them off the field they throw a tantrum, if you try to work with them they say you are wrong and don’t understand what they are trying to do, if you put them back in the second team they accuse you of victimisation. spite or favouritism and so on. This group saddens me most simply because often they are indeed the most talented, the most gifted and with the most potential but they never see their fatal flaw and that is in life one needs just that bit of humility, self-awareness and effort so that you are ready to learn from anybody at all – yes anybody.​

The Coach – none of the above means the Coach is infallible but he does know a lot and has a good deal of experience and the team principals will hold him responsible for failure. Players come to him for help and advice; players come and argue with him about tactics, players prove themselves to him, players come with skills they want to improve and from all this activity the Coach learns more himself but underneath it all the coach is passionate for success and passionate that every player reaches his full potential.

Three Illustrations
Tiger Woods, one of the finest golfers ever; wining 13 majors but at the start of each season he goes to his coach saying “let’s starts from the basics again”. He is not too proud or arrogant to go right back to basics and learn it all again, practice, practice it all again. He does not say I am a champion, I have won 35 tournaments therefore I don’t need to practice, I have nothing to learn, I don’t need any one to give me advice, no one can teach me anything.

A confession – sadly we can all be Prima Donna's at heart - some years ago I had a research student working for me on problem solving strategies and whether they could be transferred to neural nets. I was expert in problem solving strategies, I had published several papers and there was no one who could tell me anything, my ideas were new and I was king. I used to see the student a couple of times a week and in his little office he had complicated diagrams stuck on the wall with algebraic like characters at the end of lines, arrows and circles. My problem was, I did not know what they were but thought I ought to but I could never bring myself to ask else I show myself up as being a bit ignorant in front of the student – after all I was the expert wasn’t I?

Eventually curiosity got the better of me and I asked what they represented - they turned out to be diagrams on how to juggle with three coloured balls! You see there are no foolish questions and you only become a fool if you stop asking questions. We are all as ignorant as the next man or woman so don’t hold back, ask questions and never think you know it all – if you do you will live to regret it. Newton said “If I have seen further than other men it was only by standing on their shoulders” and the proverb “He who criticises a man will in the end find more favour than he who has a flattering tongue”. There is nothing to be ashamed of when you realise there is something you don’t know, there is everything to be ashamed of when you do nothing about it.

Al Ghazali, a brilliant conservative Islamic scholar, who you might expect to be certain about everything. Not so, for while he wrote about certainty he was perpetually on the edge of doubt, searching for truth by moving from one fit of scepticism to another. He said “no one believes until he has doubted”. Al Ghazali attributed his hunger for learning and how it was done to a chance observation made to him by an illiterate Bedouin – but that is another story.

 

[Hugo]

Re: Starting College or University.

Starting College or University is an exciting prospect and one you should look forward to but you also need to act responsibly and thoughtfully, particularly in your first few weeks remembering that your principal reason for being there is to study and learn.

1. Most universities run induction courses and these can be very busy affairs lasting several days where you are given lots of information orally and written as well as looking over the university, meeting staff and often they will also show you the town or city in which you are studying. My advice is try to keep track of this information (particularly information related to your timetable or book lists) but it is not possible to absorb it all in one go so look for key things that you need. Almost always there will be a course Handbook and that is the one document you need to read with care.

Take particular care to find out the noticeboard (which may be electronic) and administrative offices related to your course and that is where you will get up to date information for your course and the place you can go to get help with general course queries.

2. It is also very likely that your university has hundreds of clubs and societies ranging from car mechanics to butterfly collecting. Therefore it is certain you will be bombarded with literature of one kind or another and requests to join this or that society. My advice is to take the literature but don't sign up for anything until you've had a good chance to settle in to your new environment and course.

It is almost certain that your university will have an Islamic society, a Christian union, a Jewish society and many others of this type. I would encourage you to join one of these because there you will meet people from all over the world who have the same faith and values as you and that will help bring some stability to your life as you start your course.

3. Become familiar with the students union as they often contain shops, a cafe, travel agency and many other things but also have Union Officers who specialise in various aspects of student life and from time to time you may need to contact them for help or advice.

Student Unions always have a bar and often drinking seems to be main preoccupation of some students. However the union is for all students and although you do not want to use the bar do not let that put you off using the rest of the facilities.

 

[Hugo]

Re: Disappointed, did not get a University place?

In the UK this year many students even though they had the right entry qualifications have not managed to gain a place at any university. If this is your predicament don't despair but you might consider one or more of the following possibilities.

Don't regard it as a setback, but instead think of it as a challenge and an opportunity that way what is happening to you has a positive spin. Christians have a saying when things go wrong and it goes like this "disappointment His (meaning God or Allah) appointment". So if you have faith remember that through all this God has a plan for you and in a few weeks months or years time you will look back and see it not as a disappointment but as a God-given opportunity.

You may consider doing charity work or lots of part-time jobs of all kinds. You may find it enjoyable and it will certainly give you a lot of experience of working and life generally as well as meeting all sorts of people. For example, only this week I met two students who worked part time as vergers in their local church and week by week they helped to run the church during funeral services and so they felt they were doing something useful for the church and community as as well as receiving a small income. At the same time they learned about being on time, setting up the church, how to operate the sound systems, how to make digital recordings etc.

Others I know have become part time building caretakers, chefs, gardeners, window cleaners, tutors, sales persons, football instructors.... the list is endless and it is it will only be your own initiative and imagination that will hold you back. In all these roles you will learn if you want to valuable lessons.

It is also usual that a good number of students who have gained places will drop out of their chosen course. That means you should keep in touch with the University as you might find a place becomes available between now and Christmas. Also you should remember that many universities have an entry point in January/February so again keep track of what might be happening in your chosen university.​

 

[GuestFellow]

This is quite useful. Thanks!

 

[Banu_Hashim]

Thanks Hugo. This is useful.

 

[Hugo]

Re: you know what learning is?

As you approach your university course you may be wondering what kind of things you have to do. The idea of learning is a somewhat complicated idea and there is great misunderstanding as to what it involves. I hope that this note will help you gain an appreciation of what it is about.

1. The first thing to understand is that intelligence is not a fixed quantity because by effort and perseverance you can grow your intelligence and intellectual capacity. The fact that you are at university means you are at least good enough and if you work hard good enough can become excellent. If there is one central quality in learning it is about perseverance and pushing on even when things get difficult and you think you will never be able to understand what is going on.

Calvin Coolidge one said "nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated failures. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."
​

2. The second thing to understand is that all knowledge has to be put into practice. This in a very real sense is saying that unless you can use your knowledge you don't have it. For example, suppose I give you the following definition of primary data - Primary Data is data is new data in the sense that it will not exist as a set until I (you) define, collect and record it at a given point in time and usually it is collected by the researcher first hand. But it must be collected for a specific purpose in that the primary data set is representative of some aspect of the area under investigation and can be processed to get a defined Outcome that will resolve or partially resolve a stated problem theme when used by situation actors.

It is obvious that anyone can memorise this definition and reproduce it if asked. However, because you know the definition does not mean that you can use it. We can only be certain that you know it if you can use it. Therefore, if you know it you should be able to decide with certainty whether the following research description is referring to primary data, if cannot decide or feel absolutely certain then you do not know what is meant by the term primary data because you are unable to use it reliably - Suppose I want to define all the various accounting functions so I pick up a manual for my in-house accounting system and then go though it looking for all the various accounting functions and listing them – is that primary data and is this a valid research purpose?

3. The final point today is to tell you that asking questions about what you are learning is essential otherwise, you're learning will come to a stop. It does not matter who is teaching you or what book or books are being used, you are a student and it is your duty to critically question as your learning develops. Here are some apposite quotes about what it means to learn - find one that really speaks to you.

Curiosity
John Ruskin - curiosity is a gift, a capacity for pleasure in knowing, which if you destroy, you make yourselves cold and dull.
Jacob Bronowski - it is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to hero-worship what is known but to question it.

What makes a Good Teacher?
Lily Tomlin - I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework
Edward Bulwer-Lytton said - the best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes and inspires the listener with the wish teach himself.

Tapping into Potential
Miguel de Cervantes - love not what you are but what you may become.
Gustavus F. Swift - don't let the best you have done do so far be the standard for the rest of your life.
Woodrow Wilson - I not only use all the brains I have but all I can borrow.

Imagination
Albert Einstein - knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the whole world.
George Bernard Shaw - some men see things as they are and say, 'why'? I dream of things that never were and say, "why not."
Charles Kettering - our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future.

Reflections on Education
Peter Brougham - education makes the people easy to lead but difficult to drive, easy to govern but impossible to enslave.
William Butler Yeats - education is not the filling of a pale but the lighting of a fire.
Sydney Harris - the whole purpose of education is to try to turn mirrors into windows.
James Garfield - next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom or justice can be permanently maintained.

The Power of the Mind
Victor Hugo - a stand can be made against the invasion of an army; no stand can be made against the invasion of an idea.
Kahlil Gilbran - knowledge and understanding are life's faithful companions who will never be untrue to you. For knowledge is your crown and understanding your staff; and when they are with you, you can possess no greater treasures.
Frank Herbert - the beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand.
Buddha - with our thoughts we make the world.

Failure isn't Permanent
Elbert Hubbard - there is no failure except in not trying.
George Bernard Shaw - when I was a young man I observed that 9 out of 10 things I did were failures. I didn't want to be a failure, so I did 10 times more work.
Marva Collins - if you never make a mistake, you can't make anything.

A Successful Career
Katherine Whitehorn - the best career advice to the young is: find out what you like doing best and get someone to pay you for it.
Julia Morgan - never turn down a job because you think it's too small; you don't know where it could lead.
Bill Gates - flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger-flipping. They called it opportunity.

A Lifetime of Learning
Henry Ford - anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80.
Will Durant - education is a progressive discovery of our ignorance.
Chinese proverb - learning is like rowing upstream: not to advance is to drop back.

Words to Ponder
Mark Twain - keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - what is success? Laugh often and much. To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children. To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends. To appreciate beauty. To find the best in others. To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or redeemed social condition. To know even one life breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.[/SIZE]

Note. All these quotations have been selected from a small book called " enduring words for the teacher" ISBN 1741249457

 

[Hugo]

Re: Terrified?

Just about to leave home for the first time to go to College or University? Often this can be a terrifying experience when you wonder:

What will I do if I get ill?
Will I make any friends?
How will I do my cooking and shopping?
Will I be able to manage my money?
Will I be able to cope with what I have to learn?
Will I get drawn into bad things?
etc.

Well the first thing to realise is that you are not alone, every other person you meet will be feeling the same things and some will feel much worse that you. Secondly, millions of others have trodden this road before and got through it more or less unscathed.

So what can you do?

1. Say hello to people, smile at people that will help you and them.

2. Try to make a little plan for your first few weeks, what you will do, where you will go, what food you will buy, register with a doctor, etc. You will find I think that doing this will settle your mind and put you at ease. You don't have to follow the plan rigidly but the very act of making it will add some structure to your new experiences.

3. Don't go mad and spend all you grant or money in one go on things that you do not need and don't fall into the trap of convincing yourself that that nice new Ipod or Stereo is essential - never buy on impulse or let some salesman convince you, take your time, if you rush things you will regret it. Make a budget and try to stick to it.

4. I have said this before but Christian Unions and Islamic societies, faith societies are good places to be so look out for these and it is certain you will make good friends there.

Look out also for the local Churches and Mosques because you will find a ready welcome there and so become part of the local community. I am not sure about Mosques (but I expect its the same) but most local Churches will have students schemes and will often link you if you wish with local families so you can get invited out to lunch frequently (that avoids your own cooking!)

5. Your University and university city will have art galleries, cinemas, theatres and in general cultural activities of all sorts. Almost always you can get tickets at very good rates so take a little time to find out what is in your area. Just to give an example, I know Southampton quite well and even if we exclude the city then just on the campus there is an art gallery, a theatre and a concert hall. I would add that these are not minor entities but host concerts by internationally recognised artists in Jazz to Beethoven and everything in between.

6. Finally, look forward to this new phase of your life and believe that God is in it with you. Don't waste time and energy saying 'if only' or 'it is not as good as' - you are there so now make the most of that opportunity.

 

[Hugo]

Re: University Subjects

When you get to University or College you will get a timetable and a list of courses that you will be studying. It is very important that you get a description of each course. So the following might help you understand what these descriptions tell you.

1. Different universities and colleges use different names for each subject class you go to. So an individual class might be called a unit or a module or course. In what follows I will use the term module for a single class-based subject covering a semester. Your task, is to find out what term is use by your university or college for a subject-based class.

2. Commonly, the number of hours spent in studying each module will be about 24 hours of class time. However, you must check this yourself as there is no universal standard. Overall, each module will require you to put in about a hundred hours of study over a semester but again there is no standard. So what you must do is find out: Total class time from each module and total study time for each module. When we speak of total study time it includes class time, tutorials, library study, preparing and doing the assessment.

3. The module specification will be divided up into sections but this structure will vary from one university to another but in general one would expect to find.

Module name.

Short module description expressed in very general terms or you may find one or two aims.

List of learning outcomes or sometimes the word objectives is used. This section is very important because it is supposed to tell you what you will be able to do (as opposed to what you might know) after studying the module. The importance of learning outcomes is that the assessment is always supposed to be based upon them.

The syllabus which gives a list of the topics and subtopics you will learn about in this module.

In short, the syllabus tells you what you must know and the learning outcomes tells you what you must be able to do with the knowledge you have gained.

Indicative reading list which shows you which books might be important to you. In general, you are not expected to buy all the books on the list or indeed any of them although mostly one of the two books will be recommended purchases. Be careful here as module descriptions may not be really up to date and a good way to assess this is to look at the publication dates on the listed books and if its more than 5 or 6 years old check with your tutor and especially do this in fast moving subject areas like technology.

The assessment description. For obvious reasons, these descriptions are important to you because they tell you what you must do to pass the module. In most cases that should tell you what percentage of the marks is awarded (as there may be more than one assessment), the type of assessment (examination, essay, practical etc) and what is being assessed.

Several types of assessments are always involved as deemed appropriate, practical and always linked to the module Learning Outcome. In every case one or more of the following learning dimensions or aspects will be its focus: attitudes (including acquisition and perseverance), understanding, contextualization and application and it is accepted that these are all underpinned by development in critical thinking skills.

Normally, the class lecturer will give you a detailed description of each assessment and what you read here is just a guide but it does allow you to check that it matches. If you feel the description is not clear enough then ASK and such a description MUST be given to you very early in the term and preferably the first week.​

Here is a simple example which illustrates what you might find. I have chosen a very simple one so it will be easy for you to follow. BUT please be aware that there can be enormous variation between Universities on the way this is all set out.

Module: College English

Module Code: ENG-101 No of Credits: 15 (be careful here as UK credits and US credits mean different things)
Status: Compulsory. Type: General. Prerequisites: None

Module Description
This course introduces students to a wide variety of written texts to develop their basic reading, writing, speaking and indirectly their listening skills. The course will be practically oriented and use appropriate writing activities including letter writing, postcards, preparing lists, short reports and presentations. These practice elements help students to gain a useful vocabulary used to master basic sentence and paragraph structures.

Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this course, students should be able to:
1. Identify the required information from a simple text.
2. Convey simple, brief factual information in writing.
3. Convey simple, brief factual information in speaking.

Course Topics
The topics covered in the course will include:
1. Basic language structure: consideration of the use of words, basic grammar in sentence construction. Written and spoken modes and methods.

2. Reading and Writing: consideration of a variety of written texts and the development of basic informational reading and writing skills.

3. Presentational skills: modes of group communication, use of appropriate media, presentational formats, methods of persuasion, organization and planning, information delivery, dealing with participants’ comments and questions.

4. Common Written Structures: appropriate writing activities including letter writing, postcards, lists and procedures, descriptions and explanations, short reports, quotations for content which communicates information, instructions and ideas at a basic level.

5. Vocabulary: accessible language, types of words or phrase, word functions, word choice, spelling and degree of formality which is appropriate to the particular form of writing.

Indicative Reading
Homan, A. et al, (2006), Move Intermediate: Course book with CD-ROM (Paperback), Macmillan, ISBN-1405086165

Resources Required
Audio CDs and CD system

Assessment
The module will be assessed as follows and in accordance with the teaching plan shown below.

1. Practical in Class Sessions (10%) – to enable students to appreciate the necessity of dedicated effort and perseverance as a necessary perquisite to acquisition of knowledge. In this particular case it is vital that students participate as language only make sense in the context of communication with others and attendance helps students in practice of such skills in concert with others and hence establishes positive attitudes and perceptions about the classroom, about learning and about themselves.

2. Quiz (10%) – there are three quiz sessions and they are designed to be progressive and deal with understanding in terms of with basic knowledge and comprehension and concentrate on selection of words and structures that can be used to differentiate and describe.

3. Mid-Term Examination (30%) – this assessment will bring together knowledge and comprehension and require students to demonstrate their competence and learning acquisition, principally in basic communications skills and simple selection and use of appropriate media for a particular communication style.

4. Final Examination (50%) – this assessment will bring together knowledge and comprehension and require students to apply constructs and articulate ideas and hence demonstrate their competence and learning acquisition in construction of common communication vehicles and use of language structures, word selection focusing on effective and specific use of the communication artifact.

Note - I have shown 4 assessments to illustrate the way these things are supposed to be written but I would be surprised if in general there were more than 2 assessment artifacts in any given module.

Week Topics/Activity
1 Basic language structure, consideration of the use of words.
2 Basic grammar in sentence construction.
3 Written and spoken modes and methods.
4 Quiz 1 (3%). Consideration of a variety of written texts.
etc

 

[Hugo]

Re: Gadgets or hard work?

Some thought on your first few weeks at College or University:

1. Often students think the first few weeks at University or College are not very important and you are busy anyway but conveniently forget this is where the foundations in each subject is laid. It is obvious that if you do not know the subject basics then you have nothing to build on and as you progress through the term things will become more and more difficult and you will begin to fall behind.

So my advice is to take some time to make sure you attend and listen in lectures with care, picking up any notes or other materials especially in those first few weeks and then work hard to make sure you understand the basics. Remember, if you build on sand your house will collapse. Someone has with some wit expressed this idea in saying that in the first weeks of a course "if you aim at nothing you will probably hit it."

3. Secondly it is all too easy to be deluded into thinking that if you have the right collection of gadgets (laptop, IPhone, software, etc) or books or websites all will be well but sadly it can make you feel hard work is really not necessarily any longer. To put it another way; learning cannot be done if we remove individual responsibility, active involvement and choices from the process because to do so would undermine the values of any successful education: personal discipline, independence of thought, worthwhile learning effort and simple curiosity coupled with an understanding that in learning persistence in the face of difficulties is omnipotent.

4. Now this is not saying you should not get whatever gadgets and software you can but it is saying they are never going to be a substitute for hard work. So some ideas.

There is a site called software4students and if you have a University or College email you can then get huge software bundles for very small amounts. Go and look there before spending a lot of money. Recent offers were on a FULL MS suite of 8 applications. Also on offer was Dragon Speech Recognition Software so you can just speak into your computer what you want to say - it is how I created this entry without any typing.

If you have a Iphone or a Itouch or something similar then I recommend the following to simple Apps.​

SaiSuke calendar/diary which can by in sync with any number of Google Calendars

WordWeb dictionary, this is in my view one of the best because it can not only look up a word but when you get to the definition you can touch ANY other word in the definition and it will define that one for you as well ad infinitum.
​

FINAL TIP

There is an App called TimeBook and put simply it is a kind of stop watch but of much more sophisticated and subtle design than a simple clock. However, what you do is tell the App all the areas of activity you are involved in: free time, playing the piano, lectures, using the library, private study, sport, daydreaming etc.

Then all you have to do it select the activity and press start and stop. It does not matter if you use other apps at the same time it will keep going. It can then be interrogated to see how much of your time you spent on every activity and it shows it with charts so it easy to read.​

Therefore my most important tip is for you in the first few weeks RECORD all your time usage. I think you will be shocked at just how much time you actually spend on study and overall how much time you waste.

There is no better indicator of success that measuring the way you spend your time.​

 

[Hugo]

Re: How do I use my time?

Following on from post no. 10 where my tip was to keep track of your time.

1. So at a minimum keep track of your learning time and it needs to be on average about 20 hours a week, every week.

2. Remember if you let this time slip one week it will have to be recovered asap otherwise you will fall behind.

3. DO NOT think of the 20 hours as if you were clocking in and out of a job. Here we are taking about a minimal standard. So do not fall into the trap of saying "done 20 hours so no need to do any more", instead grasp every learning opportunity you can. Learning insights and opportunities cannot be totally organised and you might get insight on the bus, talking to the garbage collector, reading a news paper and so on. The point is that ideas will just pop into your mind, a flash of insight can occur at any time any where - when they do WRITE them DOWN - do NOT rely on your memory, if you do they will be gone and often gone forever.

4. Learning time includes: going to lectures, tutorials, work in the library, discussing your subject with the tutor or other students, reading at home, working in the assessment etc.

5. Get into a learning community, people who want to learn. People who are like that are not boring and they are not boring because they are interested in everything around them and will want to help you and if you have real interest in learning you will want to help them. Remember what Abraham Lincoln said "I do not think much of a person who is NOT wiser today than they were yesterday" and "Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other". One might also not what George Washington said "Associate yourself with men/women of good quality if you esteem your own reputation. It is better to be alone than in bad company"

6. So note all your study time - do NOT make a list in advance, record the time when it happens. So go to a lecture and the learning time starts when the lecture starts and when it ends and believe me that will not always be the same time as the class scheduled start and end times.

7. FINALLY - you MUST take regular breaks. You MUST give your brain a chance to process all the information that has gone into it. So for example, take a break every hour, go for a walk, listen to music, daydream, it does not matter what you do to take a break. In fact according to the latest research the brain when it is daydreaming uses considerably more energy that when it is focusing. So you might be daydreaming but you are giving your brain a chance to sort things out.

A concomitant here is that it is impossible to CRAM so if you think you can squeeze it all in at the end or make up loads of lost time just before the examinations or assessments are due then face up to the fact NOW that you are deluded, lazy and foolish.

NOTE - there may be exceptional circumstances which interfere with your studies such as significant illness or family problems that you could have done nothing about. I will talk about these in a later post and how to deal with them
​

​

 

[Hugo]

Re: When things go Wrong

I expect by now you are getting into your first weeks at University and going through the registration process. So now is the time to find out things that may be important to you later on; particularly if you become unwell, have family issues or personal problems that put a break on your studies and cause you to get behind. These kinds of thing can occur at any time to any one and the University knows this and has provided systems and staffed units to help you through - so find out now what these units do and where they are located so when and if you need them there will be no struggle to access them.

Almost always if things unexpectedly get in the way of your progress the University will have a form of some kind which allows you to formally tell the University you are in difficulty. The reason this is important is because if you fail to submit an assignment or you fail an assignment then you will usually be given a chance to do it again but with the MAXIMUM mark capped at just the pass mark and capped marks my ruin your chances of getting high overall grades and degree classification. However, if the University accepts your reasons for lack of progress then you will get anther chance to do the assignment as if it was a first attempt so nothing is capped or they may give you extra time.

Evidence
Normally, you must provide evidence that your studies have been significantly disrupted and through no fault of your own. So if you are unwell you will need Doctors note or certificate for example but normally the guidance notes provided by the University will make it clear what sort of evidence it requires and will accept. Acceptance is not automatic and you will have to wait to see what the outcome is.

WARNING
These days we all have computers so we must look after our data. The point here is that it will be totally futile to go to the University and say things such as "my computer has been stolen", "my data has become corrupted", "my hard disc has crashed" and so on - such excuses will NEVER be accepted because it means you have not looked after your data so it is your fault and yours alone.

Backing up Data
I urge you to read with care the next section as it can save you a lot of trouble. Back up needs to be easy to do and ideally automatic.

1. Back up to a CD - this is easy but if you then lose the CD or it becomes unreadable or it gets stolen along with your computer then you are dead.

2. Back up by email - a cheap and easy solution is to email all important documents to yourself every time you change them - in Googlemail for example you have about 2GB free storage.

3. University Systems - you will all have a University account and an allocation of disc storage so you can use that to keep your data safe. It depends on the system but you may be able to copy your data to the University systems from home and that would make it easy and convenient

4. Online Back I recommend that you use one of these so that your data is 100% safe but there are some things you need to be sure about when selecting a system.

a. Make sure that it is an automatic system that runs in the background all the time your home system is on, that way YOU do not have to worry that something has been done or not.

b. Be aware that some of these online system can take several weeks to back up your data if you have a lot of it. Usually you can mark what to back up so mark the important stuff first and then add to it when that is secure.

c. Choose a system that gives you a trial period so you can then check it before serious commitment.

d. Most online backup companies allow you to join free but limit your size of backup and this can be anything from 2GB to 50GB.

e. VITAL VITAL - you MUST choose a system that allows you to recover any lost file via a web site and that will mean you can recover data from anywhere you happen to be. The serious point here is that there are some systems where you can only recover data from the machine on which is was originally stored - therefore if that machine breaks down or gets stolen your data is more or less lost.

You may wonder why data is lost and the reason is simple, the backup data is almost always encrypted to make it safe but it does mean that even if the back company could see your file on their system they cannot read it because they don't have the encryption key so sending you the file that to you would be useless.​

Here are some suggestions.

Idrive so visit www at idrive.com (2GB free)
Adrive so visit www at adrive.com (they say they give 50Gb free)
SkyDrive so visit www at skydrive.live.com (25Gb free)
Carbonite so visit www at carbonite.com
KeepVault so visit www keepVault.com
etc

 

[Hugo]

Re: Getting a good email service

Now you are at University or College it is essential you have a good email service so you might find the advice below helpful. Normally, you will be given an email account but you may have accounts of your own so want to do as I do and re-direct mail from my University account into a gmail account - that way although I have two or more accounts I only need to read one to see all my mail.

In fact that would be my tip of the week - go ahead and have multiple accounts but set redirection in all of them to one account and do all your reading and mailing from there. If the system you have does not allow redirection get rid of it if you can. There are many reasons to have multiple accounts but commonly because people have a work based account or want to be anonymous in some systems.

Mails System – there are many different email systems but commonly these days people have Internet based email service so that they can get mail almost anywhere.

Limits – depending on the mail service there may be limit on how many mails you can send in any one 24 hour period. This is not usually a problem as long as you don’t want several full mailings a day.

Multiple Accounts – many people have multiple accounts and this is not helpful because as it often means people say they have not got your mail because for that week or period they are using another account or they give you several accounts and ask you to mail to all of them.

Service – there are good and bad mail services so try to make sure you have all or most of these features in your email account listed below.

Provides a virtually unlimited storage capacity for mail (essential if attachments are involved)
Guaranteed to work from almost any location: hotels, airport, etc
Provide quality SPAM filtering, virus checking and is not on the SPEWS blacklist otherwise you will definitely not get email from the University.
Provide virus checking of attachments
Has an https:// internet address starter (also shown with a yellow lock at the bottom of the screen)
Allows POP redirection (so you can use Outlook and send from databases etc)
Use aliases address if needed
Allows you to set an automatic email forwarding address. Many services do not allow this so check this with care
Allow inclusion of your other accounts (so you can get mail automatically from your other accounts but also send from them without actually opening up that mail system)
​

BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) Addresses – this must be used for mass mailing else you tell everyone everybody’s address (including the Spammers) and that is unprofessional and unethical.

NDR (Non Delivery Report) and Auto-Replies – if a mail is not delivered or delayed you can get a message back. Also people set auto responders and what this can mean is you end up with a large number of unwanted replies in your account.

Groups – you must be able easily to create and select groups for mailing. In addition is advisable to be able to sometimes omit some people from the group in a given mailing.

Disclaimers – it will be necessary to compose some kind of disclaimer on all messages and also indicate what to do if for some reason the mailing goes to the wrong person.

Forwarding – you have to be aware that any mail you send out can be mailed on to any one else and this may be hundreds of people.

Sensitivity – one might need to be sensitive to what is being sent out to particular people. To be simplistic it might not be a good idea to send out a note about the joy of life to someone who has just had bereavement.

Updates – It is also necessary to be careful to remove people from your mailing list under particular circumstance – for example when someone dies. You have to be aware that people change email addresses and may not tell you or they may tell you their new address but you forget to delete their old one or they expect you to keep it.

Attachment Format – one has to use some format but ones that are able to be read by anyone are usually primitive. It will be a hopeless task to try to send one version to one group and another to someone else. One way round this is to publish it on the web so those who want to see it just click on the link. This would also help those who don’t have broadband as there would then be nothing to download in the mail.

 

[Hugo]

Re: Reading - It's good for you!

A tip for those at College or University, particularly if part of your course means doing a project or dissertation, is about asking questions and how important that activity is for the opening of ones mind and intellectual development. Some people are afraid of doubt, particularly people of a religious persuasion, preferring absolute certainty; but God has not made us like that. Doubt can be creative because it forces us to ask questions and seek the truth. Just think what the world would be like if no one had persisted and overcame their doubts and doggedly pursued them through questions; no penicillin, no electricity, no Internet and so on.

I preface all these remarks by the best advice I ever got as a student from Prof Jacob Bronowski who said "it is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to hero worship what is known but to question it". This advice is essentially about the joy of finding out it's not about you being ignorant and insulting your teachers or just arguing for arguments sake.

Gregory Neal said said - I love questions. I love asking them and I love being asked ... if nothing else, they keep the brain juices flowing! No one should ever be afraid of questions; God certainly isn’t afraid of questions, and neither should we be afraid of them. If the beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord – and it is – then the next step on the path to wisdom is being willing and able to say: "I don’t know." Only God is omniscient, and until we are willing to admit that we don’t know something, we’ll never be able to learn anything new. Think about that!

I love being asked questions that stump me. Why? Because those kinds of questions make me dig, study, and learn something I didn’t know before. Even if I don’t find a satisfactory answer, it’s not a loss; I’ve opened my mind and learned something new. And that’s the essence of wisdom: being open to learning something new. The instant one closes their mind and refuses to learn something new – or thinks they already know "it" all – is the instant when they begin to die.

Lloyd Alexander said - we learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.

Charles Steinmetz said - there are no foolish questions, and no one becomes a fool until you stop asking questions.

Albert Einstein - said the important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reasons of existing. One cannot help but be in awe when one contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvellous structures of reality.​

One final point, asking questions means seeking the answers yourself from books, from experimentation, from research and asking other people, but don't start by asking other people begin this study by being persistent yourself. Often you will ask other people and they may give you an answer and some will become very annoyed if you do not accept it or want to explore it more deeply. Don't be put off by this and at the same time don't deliberately upset people who are trying to help you.

One final warning is to be careful about using the Internet as all sorts of people with all sorts of motives post all sorts of things and usually there is no way for you to check the sources are reliable. There are also a large number of discussion boards like this one and often you will see answers to what are complex questions but again in general you cannot be certain of the reliability - that means of course you have to question and consider what I have said here not blindly accept it.

 

[Hugo]

Re: Some Flash News

Do you want a complete set of 8 MS programs for £35 - as long as you are a student in the UK or NI you can get it and to prove you are a student you usually only need to have a university or college email account.

Official Microsoft Office 2007 - Buy Microsoft Office Software

The site represents a federation of almost every school, college and University in the UK and focuses on any software that works on a PC so its not just MS products. But there is no set stock everything comes and goes as special offers lasting a few weeks. If you register you get e-mails when an offer appears. Be aware the site also offers Microsoft software that works on the Mac so for example you can get Microsoft 2008 office suite for £35 in the current offer.

 

[Hugo]

Is is important that every student knows what mindset they have - it might be a good one or it might not. If you don't know then you cannot change can you and that will definitely limit your potential? What would be your level of agreement with the following statements?

Students who are seen to have high ability relish a challenge.
Success Energises students.
Praise, particularly praising intelligence is hugely encouraging.
A students’ confidence in their own intelligence is the key to success.​

Here is a self-completion questionnaire to allow you to assess your 'mindset', nothing sinister, it just so can assess how you think and learn. We are all a bit arrogant about our own powers of thinking and ways of learning but it’s as well to really find out if you really know and can honestly face up to how YOU think and learn; why? because your way might be deficient or defective. To try this send a private email to me by clicking on my board name (that way anonymity is preserved) and include a string of Y/N answers, one for each question. I will then send you a key so you can interpret your own responses. I am doing it this way so that the questionnaire is not spoiled for later readers - that is, if you know the key before you start then the questionnaire is worthless. Just answer Yes or No as you go through

01. When you do a multi-choice test is your first concern to know if you were right or wrong?
02. If you and others posted answers to a question on a discussion board for tutor comments. Would you mostly only look at just your own entries?
03. It is a positive outlook on life never to attempt anything unless you know you can succeed?
04. The saying “if at first you don’t succeed try, try again” is wishful thinking, it wastes time?
05. There is a saying that “practice makes perfect” so if you get stuck when learning it is best to seek help rather than struggle with it?

06. Success is the key incentives for learning?
07. Is it a sign of weakness to admit in a meeting of colleagues that you made a mistake?
08. Think back to the times things went wrong for you, was your first reaction to make an excuse or blame someone or something?
09. Is success essential to the way you think about yourself, your self esteem?
10. Is it important that others have a high opinion of you?

11. Are you ready to give praise and encourage others?
12. Do you ever say “I was never good at mathematics”, “I cannot spell” or there are subject or skills beyond you, you will never be able to do them?
13. Are your choices often conditioned by what others have, say or do?
14. Do you think you are not really very bright and that is just the way it is?
15. Do you have a learning strategy that always works for you?

16. Positive feedback is important in producing better work?
17. Negative feedback is too discouraging to be really helpful?
18. Is it important to you that tutors make it easy to learn?
19. The tutor’s job is to ensure that I learn well?
20. Would you be willing to accept the blame for some mishap, even when it is not entirely your fault so that time is not wasted?

21. Is it true that the more intelligent you are the more successful you are likely to be?
22. I am motivated when I get praised for my work?
23. Is it true that “all work and no play make Jack a dull boy”?​

 

[tango92]

thx dude, very good stuff - especially all the quotes

 

[Hugo]

Re: Is there a right way to Learn?

I have just be reading some posts in other threads and one struck me particularly - the person said "my way of learning is..." and it seemed to me it was said in a way that implied it was a good way and indeed for him the best way.

Do you feel like this, you have a way of learning and it is a good way? If you do think like that you are a fool to yourself because there are many many learning strategies and sometimes or perhaps often one has to change what you do or you will not make progress and if there is no progress you are going backwards.

You may for example, say to yourself, I like to study in quiet with a cup of coffee and music but if you do think like that you are putting LIMITS on what is possible.

Any comments? I also posted a questionnaire to asses your mindset in post 16 but so far no one has taken it up so are you afraid to find out or don't want to know, is your ego getting in the way of you getting to the best?

Before I post some possible strategies let me ask you a question - how many ways do you know of solving problem, any problem at all and can you name them (hint there is more that one way but not as many as 10)

 

[cat eyes]

the stuff on here is useful. cool thread

 

[Salahudeen]

Thanks alot hugo, great tactics, I'm working on being the managers best player, today he left his fone behind in the class room and I grabbed it and chased him and said to him

"your gonna wanna give me top grades after this and handed him his fone he got soo happy"

Fink I'm in his top 11 now lol.