By St. Mary’s University (TX)

What is academic success? While attending high school, academic success means achieving a high GPA, making the honor roll, participation in organizations, and achieving good SAT or ACT scores. All of the activities you engage in are in preparation for your university life. Gaining practice in fine-tuning your academic skills by seeking out academic help like tutoring, mentoring, and peer coaching is essential to succeeding. 

Let's gaze into the future and imagine you are a first-year college student. As a first-year college student, the definition of academic success changes to include a new variety of activities; while a good GPA is still important, how you attain success is different.

First-year college students must grow exponentially in a short period, and academic support is a critical element of success. Every college or university has a learning center where students can seek assistance in understanding how to prepare for class, improve their writing skills, and gain an in-depth comprehension of course material. Learning centers in universities are similar to high school tutoring centers but focus on improving your overall skills. You might be a great student, but a learning/tutoring center can make you a better one.

College students must quickly develop note-taking strategies, reading, time management, academic writing, and study skills. These skills are essential to understanding course work and developing tactics that will help you in and out of the classroom. Take, for instance, note-taking; students have to adapt their note-taking skills to address each course. Note-taking is a different set of practices and varies in each class. A chemistry course requires one technique, while note-taking in a psychology or political science course utilizes other techniques. Tutors for these courses can help adapt and develop your note-taking to incorporate smart habits to reduce your time and take better notes for your class.

Most first-year students make the mistake of thinking they can strategize their academic skills and techniques alone, but quickly learn that growing their skills involves interacting with their professors and tutors. This is especially true of our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) students. Students who plan to continue to graduate or professional school must excel in their course work. Growing and deepening knowledge require interacting with others. Suppose your high school or future university participates in a peer team-led learning or supplemental instruction. In that case, you should also take advantage of these supports to increase your course work's comprehension and knowledge. Peer tutors who lead these types of groups help students review and deepen the understanding of concepts for their courses.

Remember, it is essential to understand that your academic success is linked to more than attending class. Attending class is the bare minimum a student can participate in. Successful students self-advocate their learning. Locating your resources on a high school or college campus is your first strategy in understanding how you can improve your academic skills. Working with a peer tutor or teacher helps students adapt their learning methods and styles. You will find that working with tutors and teachers can also help you increase your comprehension. Developing your academic skills and interacting with tutors is your road map to academic success.