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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

0 Comments/ 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 problem before this semester is class attendance.  I have developed a reward system for myself to motivate me to go to class.  Each week that I go to every class, on that Friday, I go to the vintage video gram store and buy a game.  I really do enjoy collecting old video games so I have a strong motivation to attend class each day.  I have also improved on getting my homework finished earlier than the day before it is due.  I try very hard to get the homework that is assigned to me finished on the day it is assigned.  I use all of my time between classes to work on homework and study for tests now.  I still have a couple different things that I am working on still.  Note taking being one.  Whenever I am in class, I tend to listen to the teachers lecture more than taking on it because I am afraid of missing something important.  I have begun to record each lecture now and try to go back and make notes.  I also have problems studying at home because of television and games.  This is going away slowly though because I have developed some self-discipline..

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