Successful students

7-8

7. … understand that actions affect learning. Successful students know their personal behavior affect their feeling and emotions which in turn can affect learning.

If you can act in a certain way that normally produces particular feelings, you will begin to experience those feelings. Act like your bored, and you’ll become bored. Act like your distracted and you’ll become distracted. So the next time you have trouble concentrating in the classroom, act like an interested person: lean forward, put your feet flat on the floor, maintain eye contact with the person, nod occasionally, take notes, and ask questions. Not only will you benefit directly from your actions, your classmates and professor may also get more excited and enthusiastic.

8. … talk about what they are learning. Successful students get to know something well enough that they can put it into words. Talking about something, with friends and classmates, is not only good for checking whether or not you know something, it’s a proven learning tool. Transferring ideas into words provides the most direct path for moving knowledge from short term memory to long term memory. You really don’t know the material until you can put into words. So next time you study, don’t do it silently. Talk about notes, problems, reading, etc. with friends, recite to a chair, organize an oral study group, pretend you’re teaching your peers. Talk learning produces a whole host of memory traces that results into more learning.

Choose the right.