The first skill necessary for a productive semester lies in organization, both physical and mental. Good organization of your physical surroundings helps to keep you mentally organized as well.

The study center at your home should include a desk or table and comfortable chair. This area should be free of clutter and provide good lighting to keep you alert. Never lie down to study or read. This tends to relax the body and the mind and can lead to untimely sleep. Your study space should be equipped with extra supplies such as pens, pencils, calculators, folders, paper and any other items you anticipate needing for the semester.

When preparing for classes in the library, try to locate a spot as free of distractions as possible to help you focus on the task at hand. Sometimes just sitting near a door or busy hallway can tug away at your concentration.

As a new semester begins, purchase some inexpensive organizational supplies such as: pocket folders (one per class), index cards and file box, an assignment book or daily planner, and a monthly calendar. Place any handouts distributed in class in the designated folder. This practice helps you to avoid misplacing important course materials. The daily planner should be with you at all times as you move from class to class. With all of the academic and social activities taking place on campus, it is easy to forget upcoming assignments that are not written in your planner. Check your planner nightly to get an overview of the next day’s activities.

Another important skill necessary for a successful semester is good time management. Although you spend less time in the college classroom than you did in high school, the hours spent outside of class can make or break your college career. Students can rapidly fall behind in course requirements without the ability to manage their time. Cutting classes can become a serious problem and even lead to failure in a course. As soon as the semester begins, set up a daily, weekly, and monthly schedule for yourself and stick to it throughout the semester. Scheduling your time does not take a lot of effort and will help to take the pressure off of you during those hectic times.

To prepare a daily schedule, write the days of the week across the top of your page. Down the left side, write the hours of the day, beginning with the time you usually awaken until the hour you usually go to sleep. Separate into columns and rows and fill in all of the activities you are engaged in at that hour. It is surprising to see how many slots of time you actually have available to work on assignments.

Weekly and monthly schedules help you to plan long-range activities. Purchase a calendar with blocks large enough to write in upcoming assignments, work hours, social events, etc. Calendars enable you to balance your work and leisure time. For example, if there are mid-term exams, meetings, and important social happenings occurring within the same week, you would need to set up a study schedule earlier than usual to avoid being pressed for time. Successful people plan ahead!

Setting priorities for yourself will help to make the semester run more smoothly. Make a "To Do" list at the beginning of each week and write, in order of importance, those activities that need to be completed. Check off the task as you complete each one. It can be very gratifying to look back at your list and see how much you have accomplished over the past week. Set goals for yourself for one week at a time. They should be realistic and attainable. Put those goals in writing and place where they can been seen every day.

It also helps to jot down strategies for reaching each goal. For example, if your goal is to make a grade of B on the next statistics test, a good strategy might include going for extra help between classes. Asking a teacher for some suggestions on how to reach your goal may make a difference in your study habits. Many colleges have graduate students available to assist students in course work. Make use of all the study aids available on your campus. Finally, reward yourself when you reach a goal, no matter how small.

Survival in the classroom is also affected by your note-taking skills. Many professors teach exclusively by lecture and class notes are the only record of what was said in class. Sitting in the front of the room near the lecturer enables you to focus better and avoid distractions within the room.

Strong listening abilities can help you to assimilate important information from lectures. Notice the emphasis and tone of the teacher’s voice to pick up on what is being stressed. A good listener makes eye contact with the speaker and rephrases what is said in his or her own mind. It also helps to form a mental picture of the events being discussed. Ask questions to assure you are understanding what is being taught.

As notes are being given, repeat to yourself what you have just heard! In your notebook, fold a small margin on the side of your page to use for examples or more detailed explanations that you want to stand out. Abbreviations and symbols should be used as much as possible. The first time a long name or term is used, write it down, but use abbreviations thereafter. For instance, analysis of variance, could be shortened to a.v. or George Washington Carver could be abbreviated GWC. When notes are to be learned in a sequence, use numbers or draw a ladder to label the steps in their order from bottom to top.

When taking notes from a lecture that includes cause and effect, try a technique that makes your notes easy to understand. Draw a large circle and fill in the main topic or cause. From this large circle, draw smaller circles branching off to indicate effects or results.

Outlines are another good method for note taking. In an outline, the main ideas are noted by using numerals, while supporting ideas are listed with letters. Always space notes well to make them easier to read.

After class, an easy aid to putting notes into your memory is to sketch or illustrate what you have recorded. You do not have to be an artist to do this. So-called stick people can represent generals, presidents, or scientists performing a special event. The reason this seemingly simple exercise helps is because your brain remembers pictures more easily than it remembers words. Try to see in your mind and on your paper the people or events that you are trying to remember.

A necessity to storing notes in your long-term memory is to read them once each day. The brain learns biology notes the same way it learns the words of your favorite song or poem through frequent repetition and review. Daily 20-minute reviews make learning much easier than trying to cram large amounts of new material.

While reviewing notes, write down questions that might be on the test. Save these in an extra folder and try answering them when preparing for the test. These practice tests are beneficial because they enable you to know beforehand if you have mastery of the material.

Effective reading strategies are powerful skills that can make studying more productive. When beginning a new chapter look over the title, headings, charts, maps, and illustrations. This gives an overview of what is to be covered. The rate at which you read a textbook is different from that of recreational reading. It should be done more carefully and summarized more often. Before you move onto a new section, say to yourself what has just been read. Underline or highlight important facts as you read. Turn the chapter’s title, headings, and subheadings into test questions and try to answer those. For example, if a section in your psychology text is titled Operant Conditioning, turn that into the question: What is operant conditioning?

After you have finished reading a section or an entire chapter, ask a friend for a few minutes of their time to teach them the information. If no one is available, use a cassette recorder and listen to your recorded lecture. Did you cover the important facts? This is a great re-enforcer.

After taking comprehensive notes in class, completing assignments, and reading the material, you are now ready to put this information into your long-term memory. This part of your memory retains information for extensive time spans, in some cases, even a lifetime! Information that is not needed for any considerable length of time stays in the short-term memory. When students wait until the day before a test to cram, the new information they are placing it in is the short-term memory, making recall difficult. Procrastination can be a real enemy to college students.

Frequent reviews of notes and reading material is the best way to put information into the memory on a more permanent basis. The more often a new skill is practiced, the more proficient you become in that skill. Taking in smaller bits of new information each day provides better retention. Associate what you already know to the new material to create mental cues.

Your senses take in knowledge about the world continuously. Integrate as many of your senses into learning as possible. Try to assess your strongest sense for remembering. If you learn best by sight, use pictures, colors, diagrams, and charts to help. For instance, make a copy of the map you have to remember for the exam in a few weeks. Place it somewhere where you will see it often during that time. The more your eyes see the details on the map, the more readily it can be learned.

If your strength is in your listening ability, use as many auditory aids as possible. Cassette recorders are a tremendous help. Record yourself reviewing notes or reading and then listen to your tape while preparing dinner or getting dressed. Another hint for auditory learners is to study or read aloud when possible. Many music stores promote classical music, especially Mozart, as an aid to studying. If this type of music is appealing to you, it might be worth a try.

For those who need to do, touch, or experience in order to learn best, kinesthetic tools are beneficial. These types of learners should write, build models, or do experiments in preparing for tests. While studying, try walking around and take short breaks after 45-50 minutes. If you are a kinesthetic learner, you remember best what you actually experience rather than what you see or hear.

Information stays in the long-term memory better when mental associations are incorporated. To learn a listing, make a word or sentence using the first letter of each word in the list. For example, the levels of biological classification such as kingdom, phylum, subphylum, class, order, family, genus, and species can be remembered by King Paul sent Charles over for green stamps.

Index cards are an easy way to remember facts for a test. Write the word, formula, or notes on one side and the explanation on the other side. You can quiz yourself while waiting in a line or eating lunch. They can be categorized in a file box to be used throughout the semester.

Incorporating new test-taking strategies can also lead to greater success. The brain needs proper rest and nutrition just as every organ in your body does in order to perform optimally. Eat a well-balanced breakfast before taking tests.

Relaxation is also a factor in test performance. Students who suffer from test anxiety often do not score as well as their more relaxed classmates. Begin your relaxation exercises at home by taking deep breaths and letting the air out slowly. Tighten and relax each muscle from your toes up to your face as you breathe slowly and purposefully. Imagine yourself in the testing session feeling calm and confident. If you suddenly become anxious during the test, turn your paper over and begin the deep breathing exercises. Jot down information that you do remember, connecting the mental association you have made. Arrive for the test early enough to settle in and avoid feeling rushed.

A study schedule can help to prevent the anxiety of last-minute preparation. Look over the course syllabus and plan the number of days you will need to learn the material. If the test covers four chapters and you have two weeks, plan on learning one half of each chapter every three to four days.

There are a number of techniques that can help when answering objective test questions. For true/false questions, read the entire statement before making a decision. Remember that all parts of the statement must be true or it cannot be considered a true statement. Often words such as always, no, none, every, and never signal a false question. Words that are more general such as some, few, often, and usually may indicate a true response.

In multiple choice questions, try not to look at the selection of answers while reading the question. Cover up the choices and think of the word or phrase that will complete the question. If that answer is one of those given, it is probably correct.

Essay questions should be well thought out before beginning. Think of how you want to answer and the sequence you will use. Reword the question into a statement to begin your answer. For example, "What were the causes of the War of 1812?" could begin: "The causes of the War of 1812 were. . . "

Essay tests require complete sentences and accurate punctuation marks. Remember to write in complete statements and watch out for spelling errors. When answering more than one essay question, budget your time so that you can get to every answer before time runs out. If a question asks you to compare, show the similarities. Contrast means to show differences. Always conclude the essay question by rephrasing the topic sentence of your answer.

It is important to remember that there is not just one skill needed for academic success. Rather, it is the utilization of a number of skills that you already are using in other areas of your life that leads to a more successful and relaxed semester.