In graduate school, you need all the help you can get when it comes to furthering your education. You need your professors’ insights and your colleagues’ ideas to help improve your academic aptitude. One effective way to enrich your knowledge is to join a well-organized study group.
Limit active members
In a study group session, it is important that each member is given the chance to voice out his or her thoughts. The only way to do that is to limit your study group only to a few people. It is, after all, a study group and not a lecture class.
Avoid unproductive members
The main purpose of holding study group sessions is to learn together. It is about discussing points and sharing ideas, not tutoring other members. Having unproductive members in the study group not only slows the process of enriching academic knowledge, but it also beats the purpose of holding study group sessions.
Choose good leaders
To ensure organization in the study group, you must choose a good leader. A good leader is the one responsible for overseeing sessions, organizing meetings, and designating topics.
Schedule regular meetings
Every study group session must be scheduled accordingly. Make sure that your meetings are set on dates when everyone is free. To do this, you must coordinate schedules with the other members of the study group.
Organize regular agenda
Organization is very important in study group sessions. Time is of essence in graduate school and you have to take advantage of your free time. It is best to have a set agenda every session so everybody can anticipate the topics to be discussed.
Form study groups
If you haven’t received any invitations yet, then form your own study group. It is not that hard to form a study group – you just need to find other students who are still waiting for study group invites.
Photo Credit : David Boyle in DC
If being an “A” student is what you’re after, there are lots of ways to that, and there are tons of books and articles that can give these tips to you. But before you set off to the path that these articles and books will lay out for you, take this as a head start. There’s one effective way to get to that longed for academic hall of fame: eradicate and avoid bad study habits and attitudes. Here are some of them.
* Settling for mediocre outputs
If you’re aiming for an A, why settle for anything less? You will be surprised to find out that in the academe, mediocrity is “the ordinary.” It is the norm, and sometimes even the trend. But what’s keeping you from stepping out of the box? Shine! Make it a habit to make the best output out of anything you do, especially in school. Papers that are just a few points above the passing score? Drop them. You can always do better than “just that.” So why not do a “bit more?”
* Acting on impulse
Spontaneity and careful decision making are two things that have to be prioritized in different circumstances. In some cases, acting on instinct can lead you to places. However, in the academe, most of the decisions and actions that you will have to make often require a lot of thinking, like thesis topic proposals, research works, and reaction papers. Stop cramming. You might have gotten high grades in some of your crammed school outputs but don’t have the impression that it will always go that way. It’s still worth really working hard on and pondering over your school work.
* Procrastinating too much
If you’re not in the mood or if your brain’s just not yet willing to do some hardcore mind exercise, do something else that’s still productive. For example, you may arrange your school papers, file them according to dates or subjects, look for potential resources for your research paper, or plan a study schedule.
* Dwelling on negativity
Stop counting the exams, papers, reports, and projects that you have to work on and get started. There’s no use ranting over them. It just adds to your stress and subtracts your time to actually work on your school must-do’s. Also, avoid taking harsh feedback and perceived incompetence negatively. If you get a low grade in an exam or in a paper, think about how your next grade has no other way but up. So set that goal of getting an “A” next time and work on achieving it.
* Ignoring the bigger picture
Always keep yourself reminded of the real reason why you’re in school. Don’t lose sight of your long-term goals. Exams and papers are not just requirements to get passing grades in a particular course. These are tests of what you have learned so that you will be well-equipped when you set off to the real world.
Photo Credit : emdot
