Tips for Succeeding in Class

These practical tips are based on interviews with actual returning adult students.

1. Set realistic expectations and pacing for yourself. Try not to compare yourself to your younger peers, whose study skills might be fresher than your own. Perfectionism can get you into trouble; “less is more” might be your motto. “Seek balance in your life by placing school as a means to an end, not an end in itself,” says one student. Choose your courses carefully, so that you have time to sustain important relationships and time for your self. Take one day off a week without study.
2. Decide on your motives for being in college. If you understand your motives, you will able to keep them in mind. Review them often, especially if you feel overwhelmed.
3. Don’t assume you know more or less than the eighteen-year-old sitting beside you. Be respectful and listen. So much of your learning develops through listening and talking with classmates in and out of class. 
4. Learn from the less-stressed students.  Younger peers are often more pragmatic and realistic than older students. They allow themselves time for relaxation and still get A’s. You might even learn some shortcuts from them. One adult student put it this way: “It’s good to build alliances with bright younger students.” 
5. Be willing to build on your own strengths, in particular on your life experiences that give you a deeper understanding of what you are studying.
6. Set up a productive professor-student relationship with professors who are your own age or younger. Don’t become too critical or resistant right off the bat.  Expect that the professor may give very specific directions for assignments, paper formats and topics, etc. If you recognize that the professor has designed the whole course and knows how the pieces of learning fit together, you may be more willing to accept directions. If you persist in being dissatisfied, make an appointment and talk it over with the professor. Most faculty members are sensitive to the idea that you have your own opinions and ideas springing from your work in that field or in a related field.
7. Ask questions in class; this is always a good thing. You learn by formulating the question, by listening to the answer, and by responding to the answer. If you’re shy, make a deal with yourself that you’ll ask one question a week for the first week, two for the second, etc. Work yourself up to this important task.
8. Work together in a small group.  This is a researched and proven method for improving your performance. Learn the material by teaching it to one another. Speaking the ideas aloud is an important part of the process.
9. Find a person close to your age and life situation to talk with. You will feel less isolated.
10. Ask a classmate for computer help if the professor assumes you know how to use computers and other new technology and you’re the least bit intimidated.  Most people are flattered when they become the experts; you might even find you have other things in common! Knowing how to word-process and to do research on the Internet are survival skills.
11. Set up an effective study system in order to integrate and cement new material into your existing knowledge base.
12. Learn your own learning rhythms. If you can’t stay up late to study, get up early. If you’re not being productive, take a break.
13. Seek help from counselors, deans, and other professors. They are good at assessing your problems.
14. Make your learning relevant by continuously making connections between the course’s content and your life, your career, or your planned career. Says one student, “The more connections you can make between what you are learning and your life, the more exciting and rewarding your learning will be.”
15. Look for sample assignments or papers to understand your professor’s standards for writing. You will learn the basics in your composition course, but the standards vary a bit from professor to professor. Learn the expectations of each professor.
16. Expect to feel overwhelmed from time to time. As one student confides, “Going to school as an adult is difficult, and sometimes it seems (or is) impossible. Knowing that helps when these feelings come, as they inevitably will.”

—by Dee Seligman, with contributions by Dr. Dale Sonnethal, Professor Joyce Kerr Tarpley and Dr. Myrna B. Teck.