College Study Skills
What makes the difference between successful college students and average college students? How do top college students manage to cope with all papers and assignments they get from tutors? One of the reasons for their success lies in their college study skills.
What great study skills do you need? How can you hone them? Can you succeed in college without excellent study skills? The existence of essay writing services proves that it’s possible. Intrigued?
Keep reading to find out the answers to all these questions.
Skill #1 – Research Is the King
Basically, research is the foundation of everything you do in college. Any assignment that you get from your tutor requires detailed research. Never skip this crucial stage otherwise you will end up with a very mediocre essay that will bring no value to the readers.
The more assignments and essays you do the better your research skills become. Eventually, this will train you to be able to do research for your final paper when the time comes to create and defend it.
How do you do in-depth research? First of all, you need to find reliable sources that are suitable for your topic. Keep in mind that you want to use only scholarly resources in your paper. Sites ending in .edu and .gov can be a credible resource. Never use Wikipedia as a source in your papers. Don’t forget to use online scholarly search engines like Virtual LRC, Google Scholar, iSeek, Microsoft Academic Search.
Once you find scholarly sources suitable for your paper you need to read them all. Read as much as possible. You need to feed your brain with facts, numbers, arguments. Make notes of the most important info that you can use or cite in your essay. Spend at least 50% of all the time that you have for your assignment on doing research. It will pay you off multiple times.
Skill #2 – Essay Writing
Writing a well-researched essay free from plagiarism, errors, and convoluted language is a super important skill for all college students. That’s because an essay is probably the most common assignment that tutors give to students to check their level of knowledge on the topic.
However, the main goal of regular essay assignments is to get college students prepared for other types of papers, more complicated and skill-demanding like a term paper or a dissertation. While writing essays you develop your analytical thinking, ability to do in-depth research, hone your academic writing, and master the way you convey your thoughts on paper.
If to take it one step further, the ability to write good essays fast is even more important. Why? That’s because you know how many papers your tutors can assign to you every semester. Some of them can be urgent. So to cope with all of them on time, you need to be able to write them really fast without compromising on the quality of your writing.
Skill #3 – Format Your Essay Properly
As you may know, there are various styles. Their standards differ. That’s why you need to know them to be able to format your essay in the right way. Many students fall flat when it comes to making citations and reference lists. If you have any doubts about how to organize your citations correctly, feel free to check online guidelines on proven sources like Owl Purdue.
Take your time to read all the guidelines carefully. It will save you from making silly mistakes while tailoring your paper to the required format.
Skill #4 – Assiduity and Self-Discipline
In today’s world that is full of distractions, it’s very easy to lose your focus. You can do it one time, two times, three times. Then it becomes a habit. You don’t even notice it. The thing is that when the time comes and you need to sit down and focus on your assignment for 2-3 hours or more you are tempted to switch to something else. This is a real issue among students.
So develop assiduity and self-discipline. And don’t let them fade away.
Skills #5 – Ability to Prioritize and Do Most Important College Tasks First
With so many assignments and papers you that come from your tutors you need to learn how to prioritize things and do the most important tasks first. Sometimes you won’t have time to do everything. So make sure you at least do the most important assignments. This skill will be invaluable for you when you start your career as well. So take this opportunity to hone it.
