As well as being a freelance journalist, I also teach journalism and communications to university students at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. The term just wrapped up and I am brimming over with advice for students who want to succeed at university. The only other news is COVID, so I’m going to divert my attention and do something different for this week’s column.
The most crucial element of a successful university education is that you have to care. Students who want to do well generally will succeed. Caring about your education is the first step. If you care, you will attend your classes. If you care, you will do your readings – yes, all of them – and hand in your assignments on time. If you care, you aren’t going to plagiarize; you will make sure all of your work is your own. So number one, if you’re going to university and you want to succeed, you have to care.
Don’t procrastinate! University courses usually have a set amount of work designed to be done over a three-month period. The work often builds upon itself, so that what you’re doing at the end of the course relies on the work done at the beginning. The learning a student is doing develops and is enriched by the readings done throughout the course and lectures provided by the instructor. If a student tries to leave everything to the end, there will be no chance for the learning to take root and the final projects are unlikely to be successful.
It always pays to talk to your instructor and try to build a relationship. This advice is true whether you’re an A-plus student or you’ve fallen behind. Instructors are there to teach you – they want you to be successful. You will be more successful if you ask them for advice and then follow it when they give advice or feedback. It may feel like the scariest thing possible to speak out in class, or ask a question after class, or make an appointment for office hours. But instructors are just human beings and they like it when students are paying attention and trying to do better.
The more involved you are in your university, the better your experience will be. You may not think getting involved in clubs or student politics or athletics is important to academic success, but academic success is related to engagement. The more engaged you are in your life, the better your academic results will be. Not only that, but you just might find yourself having the time of your life and developing extremely useful skills for life after university.
When you’re doing an assignment, as in life, it pays to be thoughtful. Rather than powering through your readings and pounding out an essay that covers the basics, take a pause and think about what is being taught in the class. Is it a class about the history of the Second World War? Rather than just reciting the facts and quoting the experts, try to add a little extra that gets to the heart of what your instructor has taught you. Make links to class readings and lectures. That will show you’ve spent some intellectual energy tying together the learning material and it will elevate your essay to the next level.
I will never forget when I was in Arts One, a sort of mini-school at the University of British Columbia, when a classmate wrote an essay about Socrates. In that program, we had to critique our classmates’ essays, which is a great way for students to learn from each other. My essay about Socrates was just the standard introduction, three or four paragraphs of explanation, conclusion. Her essay was written as a dialogue between herself and Socrates. It knocked my socks off and showed me how taking that extra time and effort to really think about the topic and make connections outside of the norm can deepen and extend learning.
Now that I think of it, these pieces of advice are pretty much applicable to success in life, not just university. You have to show up, give a damn, get your work done, play nicely with others, and get involved. If you allow yourself extra time to be thoughtful, considerate and deliberate in your actions, you will likely succeed. There is no shortcut, no lazy way out, for success in life. It’s hard work, but the rewards are tremendous.
Tracy Sherlock is a freelance journalist who writes about education and social issues. Read her blog or email her tracy.sherlock@gmail.com.
