What? I need to learn how to study?

Jorge Castillo

"College is not the same as high school", we've all heard that too many times from our parents and people that have gone through it already. Still, many people keep their old study habits from high school thinking that they can work on college, and they are wrong. In high school most students study the day before or even the morning before a test. Doing this in college will only result in failure for you, so improving your study skills is a must if you want to do well.



The most common study skills mistakes that student in college make are: not attending class, poor note-taking skills, poor time management skills and last minute work, depending on other students, plagiarism, and failure to seek help. Hopefully, there is help to improve every aspect you are having trouble with.

Not attending class is the easiest mistake one can make, since it only requires that you stay asleep either in your room or class (so going to class and falling asleep doesn't count as attending class since you are still missing out on everything). Attend all your classes to make sure your on track, you don't miss any material, and if you're sick and can't attend class, send an e-mail, phone call the teacher, or send a note with one of your friends excusing yourself.

Haven't it happened to you that in the middle of a lecture you see everyone furiously taking notes and you just don't know what's important and what to write down? Well, that's one of the skills most college students need help on because most high schools don't prepare student to take notes on a college environment. During lectures, listen carefully for the main ideas and write these ones down, not the entire Power Point presentation. Learn to write quickly and use as much abbreviations as possible, not worry about writing neatly, as long as you understand.

Poor time management and leaving things for the last minute is common in high school but fatal in college. The most important tip here is to create a detailed calendar listing all your classes, your study time as well as leisure time. Organize yourself and have a clearer view of the things you have to do. Also, avoid distractions, commit to the calendar you prepared, prioritize what's really important, and don't let work accumulate. Most of the time, plagiarism results from poor time management and a panicked decision to get your work done.

Many college students depend too much on their friends' notes, for example, instead of taking their own. This is risky, since each person take notes in a whole different way so that he or she will understand them. Depending on your friends when you're sick is understandable, but during different conditions it is a bad practice. Also, copying others' work in study groups is the worst mistake in studying for a test. Even though your copying everything down and get perfect scores on the assignments, when test time comes, you will fail because you didn't learn the material.

So for every problem there is a solution so that you can excel in college. If you need any additional help make sure you know where to find it. Help is everywhere in college, from your professors, TA's, study groups, tutoring, and many other additional resources. So make sure you find them and get the help you need.

Plagiarism… Do you gain anything from it?

By: Gerardo Alfaro

Many college students plagiarize, they do it all the time, chances are you know people who plagiarize, in fact 80% of college students admit to plagiarizing. So does that make it ok? Does that mean that it’ll help you make your way through college?

First of you should be aware of what plagiarism is, it’s not borrowing or copying it’s actually stealing someone else’s work, and you might say that what that person doesn’t know wont hurt them, and that you are doing this to help yourself and not to hurt someone else but think about it is it really doing something for you?

In order to find out you must first decide what you are doing in college if you are here to just earn a degree no matter the cost then maybe you are able to rationalize plagiarizing but most students are actually here to learn; the diploma at the end of a career is just proof of this learning.

So is cheating really helping you? Think about it you are inhibiting your learning just so that you make your way around some work, and chances are you will get caught. Teachers in college have plenty of experience with plagiarism and cheating and chances are a previous student already tried to “pull off” what you are trying to do. So if you get caught you are jeopardizing your scholastic career just to save your self a couple hours work, so think about it again is it worth it?

Grade Inflation. Good or Bad?

Matt Martz

Grade inflation has certainly become an issue for Universities throughout the world. According to national trends, students are averaging about .2 higher in their GPA's at all school categories over the past 15 years. So the simple argument would be either students are getting smarter every year or the material and teaching methods are getting easier.

However, with the current economy, having the best credentials is very important to students. If having a higher GPA is what will get you hired over the other candidates, students are going to work to get the better grades. With some of the highest unemployment rates for the U.S. being seen over the past 2 years, getting a job has become a big issue for college students. No one wants to be dropped from an employer’s mind simply because their GPA wasn’t over a 3.0.

Personally I feel the reason for such an increase in grades is because of the methods of teaching that so many professors use in high school and college. They make the entire class focus on preparing you for their final tests instead of actually teaching you the subject matter. Since the class is all based on the passing the final test, students know what to study and can fully prepare themselves to get an A on the test ( Whether they actually learned the material or not).

From previous experience in high school, the goal of AP classes was to prepare you for the AP tests so you could obtain college credit. As my first few weeks of college have come to an end, I see some of the same ideas in my core classes. Personally, I hope to focus more on learning in college rather than cramming for tests just to get my GPA “above average”.

"The Freshman 15"

Abhinav Sawhney

The transition from high school to college brings with it a lot of challenges. One of which is to remain fit and avoid the “freshman 15.” For those that may not be aware of this phrase, the “freshman 15” is used to describe the weight gained by freshman students in their first semester of college.

On moving to college most freshman students are witnessing dramatic changes in their lives. The biggest change for most of them is moving away from their parents. Which means you have to make all your decisions on your own, including what you should eat and what you shouldn’t. Since this choice is now on the students, more often than not they tend to eat what tastes good as opposed to what is healthy and nutritionally balanced.

Another reason which doesn’t help the cause too much is the inconsistent meal timings. Due to a different schedule of morning and afternoon classes every day, it becomes very hard for students to eat at a certain time consistently. This also leads to unwanted weight gain. On a certain day a student may have a schedule packed with morning classes, and hence his or her first meal maybe at 1 in the afternoon. A lot of the time students tend to eat junk food in the small intervals between their classes. All these factors collectively lead to the “freshman 15.” Studies show that freshman gain an average of 4.2 pounds the first 3 months of college.

So how can the “freshman 15” be avoided? One of the most important things to remain fit is to eat at consistent timings. Although this might be tough for college students due to their busy schedules, it must be done to remain healthy. One must also avoid munching on things constantly throughout the day. What this does is, makes your body develop the habit of being fed all the time hence increasing the food intake.

It is also very important for freshman to make a working out routine. Even if it’s just thirty minutes day,one must visit the gym and burn the calories that have been consumed throughout the day. At the end of the day it would not be wrong to conclude by saying the “freshman 15” can indeed be avoided, but only if the freshmen put in an effort to avoid it.

College and Alcohol...Is it worth it?

Seth Reeves

It was around the beginning of August, and I was so excited that I was about to head off to college until I found out I had to do a mandatory Alcohol Education class online for Georgia Tech. It was supposed to take about two hours to do, and I wasn't going to drink in college anyways, so why did I have to do it?

Well, after finishing it, I found that I learned a lot. My perspective on college and alcohol changed, or so I thought. The course explained that only a small group of people in college actually drink heavily, and cause the problems that people hear about. But, it said that most college students just like to drink a little bit. Also, it mentioned that college students were actually in favor of stricter drinking laws. Finally, the course said that as long as you are old enough to drink, and do so wisely, it's alright.

I must say that I agree mostly with the Alcohol Education course. It had many interesting facts and statistics, and I learned a lot about what to do in certain situations. I believe that most people would agree that as long as you are careful, drinking a few beers won't affect you academically. But, after doing some research, I found some interesting statistics done by Ball State University that might change some people's minds...
- 25 percent of college students report that their drinking caused them to fall behind in classes and receive lower grades overall.
- 34 percent of college students say they've missed at least one class because of their alcohol or drug use.
- Nearly 34 percent of college students admitted to failing a test or project because of the aftereffects of drinking or drug use.
- One night of heavy drinking can impair your ability to think abstractly for up to 30 days, hampering your ability to understand complex concepts or think through a basic math problem.
(For more interesting stats, click here.) Here is a graph about how many college students drink:



So, the question remains, is it worth drinking in college to have fun, and possibly let your grades drop?

For myself, I believe that it is not even worth drinking in college. Christopher J. Lucas wrote that more people drop out of college now than ever before, so I wonder if alcohol is at all related to that? Also, I think that people don't realize that alcohol is still considered a drug. So many people believe that alcohol doesn't affect them that much when it really does. Click here for more information.

I know where I stand, but what about you? Post a comment!