{"id":228,"date":"2017-10-18T16:47:03","date_gmt":"2017-10-18T23:47:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/jawaters\/?page_id=228"},"modified":"2017-10-18T16:47:03","modified_gmt":"2017-10-18T23:47:03","slug":"what-do-high-gpa-students-do-study-tips-and-strategies","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/jawaters\/what-do-high-gpa-students-do-study-tips-and-strategies\/","title":{"rendered":"What do High GPA Students Do: Study Tips and Strategies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Following on Schneider and Preckel&#8217;s (2017) <em>systematic review<\/em> of empirical research on university and college academic achievement, I&#8217;ve pulled together some success tips based on their research and on cognitive-behavioural theory in psychology.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000\"><strong>Using\u00a0Schneider and Preckel&#8217;s research findings to improve your GPA:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Some tips from this research and from cognitive-behavioural theory. \u00a0<\/strong>Schneider and Preckel (2017) concluded that your study strategies are more directly related to your academic achievement than your personality or life situation is. Study strategies are a learned skill and thus possible to change. Applying Bandura\u2019s cognitive behavioural theory (Engler, 2014), here are some suggestions for changing your behaviour and thinking patterns. What do high GPA students do?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000\"><strong>Go to class!<\/strong> <\/span>Class attendance has a very high correlation with GPA. This isn\u2019t causal, as other factors, such as goals or conscientiousness, influence both class attendance and GPA, so it isn\u2019t a guarantee. But it is something you can easily do and certainly learning in the class is more effective than reading the text on your own.<\/li>\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #008000\">Be confident!<\/span> <\/strong>Do what you can to increase your confidence (thus your feeling of self-efficacy \u2013 that is your perception of your ability to be successful in an academic task). For an exam, attend class, study the test material until you know it, test yourself with the study questions, ask for help from peers and the instructor \u2013 do all that, and there\u2019s no reason you can\u2019t be successful. Cognitive-behavioural theory says to be aware of how you think about the academic task. Your anxiety and low self-efficacy are often unrealistic, catastrophic and pessimistic thinking is usually wrong and can be your worst enemy. It\u2019s ok to be a little nervous, but limit it. If you&#8217;ve studied and tested yourself, and know the material, remind yourself of that, and be confident!<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000\"><strong>Set realistic grade goals.<\/strong> <\/span>Grade goals have a very high <em>effect size<\/em> in Schneider and Preckel&#8217;s study, ranked <strong>5<\/strong> in the list of 105 factors associated with academic achievement. Set SMART goals \u2013 Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic &amp; Time limited.\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000\"><strong>Specific and measurable goals<\/strong> <\/span>are best: rather than \u201cdo well on the exam\u201d, a specific goal of \u201ccomplete chapter 1 and 2 review and notes. Achieve an A on the self-test\u201d. Now you know what to aim for in your study plan.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000\"><strong>Achievable and realistic goals<\/strong> <\/span>are crucial. If you set too high a goal because you are too over-confident, thinking you know it all, you might not study enough. That will sabotage your performance. Or if you set your goal much higher than your usual performance level, you might become too anxious to learn or to perform well in the exam. If you set your goal too low, you are likely to perform to that low self-standard. So goal setting is very effective, if you make your minimum grade goals realistic. (By the way, a slight \u201cstretch\u201d goal is a good challenge for students with high achievement motive).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #008000\">Don&#8217;t give up!<\/span> <\/strong>Persist when challenged by a hard assignment, use your effective cognitive-behavioural strategies to accomplish a challenging academic task.\n<ol>\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #008000\">Change your behaviour:<\/span> <\/strong>What do persistent high-achievers do? They don\u2019t give up! That will never accomplish your goals.\n<ol>\n<li>This relates to the personality characteristics of conscientiousness. Conscientiousness is to some degree part of your nature, but it is also changeable with maturity and situation. Longitudinal studies of adults find a general tendency for adults to increase in conscientiousness over time (Engler, 2015), as they face work and family situations that demand responsibility and conscientious task completion, such as keeping your job or taking care of a baby. So conscientious can be learned.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #008000\">Change your thinking<\/span>: <\/strong>It isn\u2019t that other students don\u2019t face the same challenges \u2013 but some give up and others stay with it. Don\u2019t fall into a \u201chelplessness orientation\u201d (Krause et al., 2018) in your thinking that says \u201cI just can\u2019t do this \u2026.\u201d Your instructor has not set you an assignment that is impossible for students to accomplish, and if other students in your program or course level can complete it, so can you. Choose a <span style=\"color: #008000\">\u201cmastery orientation\u201d<\/span> in your thinking. That is: \u201cI can do this. It might take more practice and more work, and maybe some help from the instructor, but I can do it if I keep at it\u201d.\n<ol>\n<li>A few hints about challenging academic tasks: Break it down. First accomplish what you can do or know. Make a note as you go along of your questions and confusions for later discussion with your instructor or peers. Check out your resources, your textbook or handouts or on-line resources \u2013 they might be able to help you. As you work through the assignment, you will gain skills and knowledge to tackle the harder aspects.<\/li>\n<li>And often taking a break will help a lot! Take a walk outside for 20 minutes, or for really challenging tasks, sleep on it. Fatigue limits your concentration and working memory span. Come back to it when you are fresh and energetic. Also, sleep helps to sort out and consolidate memory, so irrelevant information can be expunged and the answer to the problem or insight can come through in the morning.<\/li>\n<li>Finally, there are \u201cbrick wall\u201d situations where you might have to realistically assess and accept your limitations. <strong>After<\/strong> you\u2019ve tried all your strategies, practiced, gotten help and advice, made sure you are being realistic and not pessimistic, if you still find a task is currently beyond you, you might want to decide to take a different path. An example might be your English language skills &#8211; you might need some ESL courses at the right level to improve before tackling second year or upper level courses. As Schneider and Preckel (2017) note, \u201cworking as hard as possible all of the time is not the best student strategy for high achievement\u2026it\u2019s important to choose deliberately when and where to invest time and mental resources\u201d (p. 595).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000\"><strong>Know how, when, where, to study different kinds of material: <\/strong><\/span>Another high effect size is associated with study strategies.\n<ol>\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #008000\">Use the university support resources<\/span>: <\/strong>Resources to help student with specific tasks and skills include: the writing centre, library research skills workshops, study skills workshops, ESL courses, or other courses that might help students gain needed competencies. Schneider and Preckel (2017) note, \u201cworking as hard as possible all of the time is not the best student strategy for high achievement\u2026it\u2019s important to choose deliberately when and where to invest time and mental resources\u201d (p. 595).<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000\"><strong>Surface vs deep learning strategies: <\/strong><\/span>using learning strategies that were task dependent. Using a surface approach (with shallow information processing and a focus on external rewards) was negatively related to achievement. A good strategy is to focus on the key material, rather than the less relevant info such as examples and stories.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000\"><strong>Manage your mental resources! <\/strong><\/span>Attention is limited, especially sustained attention, and learning is certainly not as effective when the student is tired. This applies to both the classroom and the study session at home. Study when you are fresh and able to concentrate.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000\"><strong>Manage your test anxiety: <\/strong><\/span>Test anxiety is negatively associated with academic achievement. The counselling department puts on workshops to help students deal with test anxiety, and Ergene\u2019s meta-analysis of 77 studies (as cited in Schneider &amp; Preckel, 2017), across a total of 2,482 students suggests that cognitive-behavioural programs as brief as 4 to 6 hours long, teaching test-taking skills and changing maladaptive cognitions, can significantly reduce test anxiety.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000\"><strong>Manage your management: <\/strong><\/span>Definitely a learned skill, that improves with practice.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000\"><strong>Improve your concentration:<\/strong><\/span> and sustained attention. This can improve with mental technologies such as mindfulness training (also offered by the Counselling department) which has empirically supported cognitive benefits in increasing focus and sustained attention, ability to ignore distractions, as well as increasing working memory and reducing stress (Davis &amp; Hayes, 2011). Other meditation techniques are also effective in attention and memory (Rutschman, 2004).<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000\"><strong>Ask for help! <\/strong><\/span>From your peers \u2013 get a study group going. And don\u2019t hesitate to ask your instructors (your peers could be mistaken). That\u2019s what all those office hours are for.<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following on Schneider and Preckel&#8217;s (2017) systematic review of empirical research on university and college academic achievement, I&#8217;ve pulled together some success tips based on their research and on cognitive-behavioural theory in psychology. Using\u00a0Schneider and Preckel&#8217;s research findings to improve&#8230; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/jawaters\/what-do-high-gpa-students-do-study-tips-and-strategies\/\">Continue Reading &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-228","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/jawaters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/jawaters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/jawaters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/jawaters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/85"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/jawaters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/jawaters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230,"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/jawaters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/228\/revisions\/230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/jawaters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}