DAS 100: Some Helpful Hints (Fall 2009)
Please take a few minutes to read the following advice. Reading this material can't hurt you -- and might just help you in your work as a K-State student.
Taking notes
Get into the habit of taking notes in every class and at every formal presentation you attend. It can be easy to let your mind wander in class. Taking notes focuses your attention on the presentation and helps train you to listen actively. What notes should you take? Think of note taking as a constant effort to record answers to the questions: “What really matters here? What captures the essence of this presentation?”
Taking notes efficiently will not interfere with your ability to understand a lecture. Instead, it will help you organize your understanding of the presentation and help you recall the presentation later. In this class, you will need to refer to your notes when you write your assigned papers. Your task will be easier if you have notes from class as well as from the event. Taking notes at performances may not be necessary, but notes from convocations and other formal presentations certainly are.
Asking questions
Asking questions in class is a sign of an inquisitive mind, and it is only inquisitive minds that can learn. For many students, asking questions in class is difficult, but developing a willingness to ask questions is extremely important. Particularly in a class such as Freshman Seminar, faculty members most definitely want you to ask questions. If you have a question, it is likely that other members of the class have the same question. You might achieve hero status by your willingness to actually ask it! More importantly, even if no one else has the same question, asking your question will help you learn more.
Reading is an active, not a passive, activity
No matter what you read, try to interact actively with what you read. Think about the text and try to relate it to what you already know. Put new information into perspective and integrate it with your prior knowledge. Evaluate ideas rather than just accept them.
As a reader, you should challenge the author of any work that you read to make sense and to provoke you. This is true whether you are reading novels, newspapers, magazines, reference books, or textbooks. Train yourself to read actively. Make notes in the margins as you read (assuming you own the reading material) or take notes elsewhere (especially if the reading material belongs to someone else). You should learn something every time you read (even when you read fiction). If you can reconstruct what you have read immediately after you are done, then you are an active reader.
You are likely to be asked to read more here at K-State than you have ever been asked before. Your instructors will assume that if they have assigned some reading, you will not only have read but understood the material – at least the material you don’t ask questions about.
Remember: don't be lulled into a false sense of security by merely having a book open – instead, actively read it. Don’t just read the words; read the ideas.
Keeping up with assignments
Entering the university brings with it a great deal of freedom. This can be a blessing because it forces you to assume responsibility for yourself. It can also be a curse if you make poor decisions about how to spend your time. Many students who fail at college do so because they fritter away their time – their most valuable asset – instead of using it wisely. Others over-commit to perfectly worthy activities and, as a result, put entirely too much stress on themselves as they try to do well academically.
One of the best ways to keep up with your assignments is to set aside a time each day to work on every class. Use this time to read assignments, do homework, review or recopy notes, and read ahead. In other words, work constantly, not just right before an exam or a deadline. Cramming may have worked for you before now. For a very few students it can even work at the university, but even for these few it works in only a very limited sense. Cramming is never a way to learn well, and for most people it is an entirely inadequate way of preparing for an exam. (Even cramming while listening to Mozart is unlikely to work well!)
Here is a technique that does work. Make a 7-day calendar (for Sunday through Saturday) with half-hour blocks of time for each day from the time you usually get out of bed until the time you usually go to sleep. Fill in the times for your classes, for when you eat and shower, and for work. Also block out time for social events and personal relaxation, such as exercising or playing intramural sports or watching TV. (Keep the latter to an absolute minimum if you expect to succeed in college.) Include time for religious services if you go to them. Now, look at the remaining blocks of free time. Fill in many of these for routine studying every day. There should still be available blocks of times for especially heavy studying for tests and for impromptu social and personal activities and for other events (such as Freshman Seminar activities). The trick, then, is to adhere to your schedule! If you do so, you are heading for success, not just in the university, but after you graduate
The concept of intellectual work
Maybe you’ve already gotten this idea from the earlier hints, but just in case you haven’t, we want to emphasize that learning is work. Just as surely as harvesting a crop or building a house is work, so is learning. This intellectual work simply begins in the classroom; most of it you will do outside the classroom. To a large extent, what happens in a classroom is that an instructor identifies the material you need to learn. You must then go out and learn it. Obviously, the more active you are in class – in taking notes and in asking questions – the more you will learn in the classroom itself. But the worst mistake you can make is to imagine that you can master the material for a course by just going to class.
Again: most of your learning must be done outside the classroom. In both physical and intellectual work, you have no choice but to dig in and get the stuff done – actively and on your own initiative. (We hasten to add that attending class is very important. There is a strong correlation between attending class regularly and receiving high grades. Attending class is necessary, but not sufficient, for academic success.)
Now here’s the good news: intellectual work is one of the most enjoyable types of work. There can be a great sense of personal accomplishment from mastering a body of material, having fresh insights of your own, discussing your views with other people, and writing about your ideas clearly and convincingly.
Freshman Seminar is an orientation to the cultural and intellectual life of the Kansas State University campus. And is an opportunity for you to improve your critical skills and your writing skills. In other words, this course is an opportunity for you to develop intellectual tools that will allow you to do first-class intellectual work for the rest of your life, both for your own benefit and enjoyment and for the benefit of society at large.