Friday, August 19, 2011

Key Success Factors When Returning to School

There are many things a student can do to be successful in school. Many times an adult learner has not been to school in a number of years. They are not sure what to expect. Others only take a term or two off before returning back to school. Every student and situation is a little different. It is important to know what to expect when you are returning to school. This will help prepare you for classes and ensure you succeed. In this article we are going to uncover some key success factors everyone should consider when going back to school.

The first thing we recommend is learning more about the structure of the course. Is it online or on campus? How many hours a week are required to study, work on papers, and attend class? Knowing what you are up against is half the battle. Are there group assignments? When will you make time to meet up with your group to complete these assignments? Is the course 12 weeks long or five? This is important if you are a working adult. In a 12 week course the assignments will be more spread out. If you are taking accelerated classes expect to spend more time per week on the coursework.

After you learn the structure, read over the syllabus to see what type of assignments are going to be required. For instance, do you have a presentation due in week four? If so, how familiar are you with PowerPoint? You may want to take a refresher course or do a tutorial online to bring you up to speed. Another popular program in many college courses is Excel. Excel is used for data entry, statistics, finance, and accounting courses. Excel is fairly easy to use, but if you do not use it at work you may want to learn more about the program before your course starts.


Finally, the third recommendation is making sure you have the required amount of time to commit to going back to school. Make sure your friends and family are aware of your commitment. Also, block out a couple of hours a day (including weekends) to work on your assignments. Try to commit a certain amount of time each week to be successful.

As you can see there are many things you can do to help you succeed in a college course. These are only a few recommendations, of course there are many more.

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