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You are here: Student Success Skills » Preparing for College » Adjusting to College Teaching Styles

Student Success Skills

Adjusting to College Teaching Styles

by JoJo
August 16, 2012

You will find a vast difference between the style of teaching in college from high school.  It will take time to adjust to these differences.

Outlined below are some of the changes you can expect.

  1. Many of your classes will be lecture classes where the teacher gives a lecture for the entire class period.  There will be limited student-professor interaction.  Most of these classes will use Power Point to accompany the lecture.
  2. Tests tend to come from the lecture notes.  You will need a good system for taking notes as well as a way to stay focused in class.  See the topics:  Taking Notes in General Education Classes, Taking Notes in Math/Science Classes, and Learning in Class for guidance on how to take good notes.
  3. You are likely to encounter a number of faculty with an accent.  You may have a struggle understanding these faculty at first, but you will quickly get adjusted to the accents.
  4. Many faculty will provide you with copies of the Power Point presentation on their class website.  It’s really helpful to print out these slides and bring them to class.  Most students will take notes on the Power Point slides.
  5. When you have a class that is more discussion oriented, you will probably be graded in part on your contributions in class.  This can be a challenge for shy students, but shyness is something that you need to overcome.
  6. College courses will not tolerate the kind of behavior that is prevalent in many high school classes.  This includes texting in classes, passing notes, sleeping, or any other kind of disrespectful behavior.  You may find yourself getting kicked out of class for the behavior that was tolerated in high school.
  7. College courses will go much faster than high school classes.  It’s not uncommon to have a book chapter covered each class period.
  8. College faculty tend to be very passionate about the course material.  They may be a recognized expert in the subject.  As a result, the content in the course can go well beyond what’s covered in the book.

It will take you several weeks to adjust to the college teaching style.  By the time you have gone through your first round of tests, you will discover that you have to make serious adjustments to your approach to learning in class. .

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  • My biggest improvements this semester have been going to tutors, creating study groups in my dorm, and keeping a calendar of quizzes and tests.  Last semester I was reluctant to visit the tutors because I thought that no one in the tutoring center would be able to help me with high level math.  Being in Calc 3 it can be very hard to find tutors who can help.  Another thing that really has helped me is making a study group for my statistics class.  I found two other people in my dorm who were in my class, so we made a study group.  It has really helped me stay on top of my homework in the class.  Finally, making a calendar with all of my test and quiz dates has eliminated any chance of me being surprised by a test or quiz in any of my classes..

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