Credits: Google Images
You could be Bill Gates or Steve Jobs without dropping out of your college life, if you know how to make best use of your college life and its resources. If not, you would end up being Hamlet, thinking -to be or not to be.
Therefore, based on valuable insights from Prof PV Dhamija, a well acclaimed academician and English Professor with more than 40 years of experience in the field of teaching, and my own experiences in the academic field, I have tried to explore 5 questions and answers that you must know about your academic life to make best use of it.
So here starts those Q& A’s :
1. How can we define academic life?
“Academic life, for students, is a time of commitment to learning about life and its social obligations through information (books, journals, classroom learning etc.) and its practical applications,” says Prof Dhamija.
And here are some of the tips that you could follow to make best use of your college days.
- From your Orientation day, decide be a proactive learner. Make a commitment to yourself that you will spend most of your time at college in learning skills, gaining practical knowledge of different subjects, building relationships and gaining hands-on experiences. And having lots and loads of fun!
- Make your entire learning process a great fun and not a boring stuff. So be open to making mistakes and learn better and faster from them.
- Set your academic goals. Work on building right habits at the onset. Learn the art of Putting First Things First. Enjoy the worst that the college has to offer. This becomes part of your memory forever.
- Make sure to attend all your classes and bunk only a few. Since true learning takes place outside the class room so leave scope for that as well. Experiences waiting out side the class room have much to offer you.
- College life is nothing but beautiful collage of memories. So, make such collages often.
2. What are the main challenges that students face in their academic life keeping the current context in mind? (Gen Y )
“Among many challenges that students face are access to right academic resources (competent teachers, suitable books, etc.) competition, peer pressure, procrastination and lethargy just to name a few,” says Prof PV Dhamija.
To face these challenges, you could strategically follow these tips:
- Accept that there will be challenges and roadblocks and know that these challenges will make you smarter and will allow you to grow faster.
- Don’t be under peer pressure. Work on your unique strengths and focus on honing your skills set.
- Engage in meaningful discussions rather than wasting your time in trivial talks. Your time is too precious. Know how to make best use of it.
- Make study groups. Do projects together. Write papers. Do your assignments sincerely and honestly. Participate enthusiastically in events of your great interest. Do all these things with your group and your college life will become great fun.
- Be competitive. But remember to compete against your own self and not with others because when you compete with yourself, you always win. And competing with others, you may either win or lose. So, why not to win always?
- Be in constant touch with your teachers, mentors and parents. They are your best resource persons and guides. Look for their support when needed. They will help you to be on your right academic track.
Credits: Google Images
3. How can students draw maximum knowledge form the classes when they have other available sources to get information from?
“The best way to co-ordinate the classroom learning with out-of-the classroom study is to develop a strategy of making the two seriously and judiciously interact with each other, ” advises Prof Dhamija.
- With the deluge of information available on internet today and smart phones devices, learning has become quite easier and challenging in both ways. So make judicious use of all your resources.
- Your teachers spend hours in preparing lectures and based on their experiences, they make the lectures more palatable and digestible as per the needs of their students, so sit in their classes and learn to absorb those valuable nuggets from them.
- Make a routine to visit your Library. Devote study hours there. Read course books, reference books and try your hands at reading journals and other sources of great value. Any yes, make sure to read good literature books , biographies and books on wisdom literature. I know the advice is too much!
- Combine your class room notes with the other references and internet material that will make your assignments and answers the best.
4. How should students focus and prepare for their end term exams?
“They need to be systematic and regular.” Prof Dhamija
- Set your own timetable and work daily. Be lazy with the bad habits and not with the good ones.
- Be strict with yourself rather than your teacher and life being strict with you.
- Beat procrastinate and learn the habit of eating the ugliest frog first everyday.
- There is no short cut to get good scores at the end term exam until students know the importance of regular, systematic and strategic learning. So know that. And follow that.
- If you study for knowledge, your knowledge will take care of your scores.
5. What are the most important lessons that the academic life has to teach to students?
“Among a slew of lessons that academic life teaches are hard work, commitment and perseverance, which form the bedrock upon which the future life is built.”
- Learn the lessons of hard work, commitment and perseverance.
- Invest in your relationship. Don’t make too many friends too fast. Be slow and take your time in understanding the person and relationship. Build relationships, not for the college days only but for the future life as well.
- With focus, work on honing your ‘Q’s like : Intelligent Quotient, Emotional Quotient, Smartness Quotient, Communication Quotient, Financial Quotient and Spiritual Quotient. These Q’s will be of great help in your present life and will take your forward in your future life as well.
Since it is YOUR college life, so you need to define it and colour it the way you want. Watch movies, go on trips, join NGO’s, do internships, participate in events, be in college sports team, volunteer for a cause in which you believe, do service, go out for parties, organize fund raising , do all crazy things and perform all daring stunts that you want. Do all what you want to do and leave the rest for others to perform. And do I still need to remind you, it is your college life and do what matters most to you and explore what you want?
Suggested Readings :
Engage in meaningful discussions rather than wasting your time in trivial talks.
Most sensible & meaningful thought to live n to lead a sensible life… 🙂
These excellent efforts of brilliancy shows the glittering ACADEMIC life of the writer here..
Cheerrrrrsssss!!!!
Many Thanks Devanshu!
I too have been part of many such talks and have enjoyed them too. But then it is important for us to know, how long and for what purpose we need to engage in such tasks.
I know some of these points may be sounding too ambitious and pushing at the moment but based on my experience and observation, I think, if we could follow some of the tips, not only our learning at college accelerates but our fun element as well. We just need to mix both the elements in a smarter and judicious way. After all, we must not forget to ask from our own selves at the end of our college life, are we prepared enough for our next life -be it professional, personal or higher studies life ahead? Do our studies and education, empower and equip us enough to succeed in any future endeavour that we undertake? If yes, then great! If no, then you know, what’s next?
Cheers to all of us!
From the human development perspective, the academic period is pivotal as it brings many personal changes in fields of knowledge, values and beliefs about individual and collective life.
Ma’am your suggestions are extremely beneficial and one should keep them in mind. But at the same time cultivating these habits is very challenging task for young minds in this age which is full of distractions. I think the solution is to have role models who can inspire to act. Teachers and mentors have a greater responsibility to be a role model for their students.
We are lucky to have such a wonderful mentor like you ma’am.
Your are absolutely right Shatrughna.
This academic span of our life is very crucial for our learning. We can make best out of it or we can regret for missing out most valuable lessons from it. The choice is all ours. The biggest challenge that I have observed among students is that they miss their purpose and objective. I have observed many of the students not making best use of their college days because they get engaged or succumb to many distraction and trifling affairs. As a result, while they should have been spending their time working on honing and building their skill sets, and gaining practical experiences, they end up being messed up and wasting their time. Lack of clarity and what to expect out of their college life are what they miss out. And therefore, at this time, role of parents, teachers and mentors become too crucial.
But I must say that you are one of those who always has the clarity of thought and purpose in your mind and thus I strongly believe that you have a long way to go. Keep up your spirits high and be blessed always 🙂