Back to School: The First Day of Classes

Most college students tend to share similar feelings of anxiety mixed with hope towards their first day of class. Everyone... even the worst of students... tends to enter "back to school" mode with a genuine sense of motivation. Many of us become ironically eager to purchase new textbooks, to see new teachers, and to adjust to a new schedule. We even convince ourselves that we are going to excel this semester... that we are going to live up to our "full potential" and score perfect marks even if we've never come close to doing so in the past! What could possibly go wrong?

What usually goes wrong is poor planning. Overly-creative, highly intelligent students begin each semester with genuine hope and personal promise but typically end the semester with a sense of underachievement and dissolution that had begun to set in even before mid-terms. How can a student avoid this? Break each semester down into little, sub-goals first. You wouldn't leap up an entire flight of stairs...you'd walk them each one at a time. The same principle applies here: Don't even look at the first quiz or test yet... it's probably still a long way off in the grand scheme of the academic term. Look at the FIRST lesson to be taught. Worry about how to excel at THAT lesson and ONLY at that lesson. Don't think of the mid-term or any other assessment yet to come. Concentrate only on what is to be expected of you in the very next class and focus all of your time and energy on achieving a mastery over that one subtopic. Do this for each class and when it finally does become time for an examination-- you'll hardly need to study... you'll only need to "review." The secret is truly in the psychology and it's far easier said than done... We challenge you to make it happen this year!!!