Helpful+hints+for+students

So what distinguishes a student? What makes the student stand out from the rest of the class? The **four As**: attitude, academic skills, awareness, and accomplishment, certainly are a large part of it, and a student who has them will be very likely to earn As: All of these add up to a fifth A: **ability**, a word frequently used above. The goal of education is to achieve the ability to apply one's knowledge in new, creative, and correct ways. Abilities are not entirely innate; some are achievable through dedicated and focused effort. Other symptoms and qualities of a good student include: Work to be educated, not merely trained.
 * **Attitude** is primarily a genuine desire to learn, and the willingness to do hard intellectual work to achieve understanding. It is also shown by how well you apply yourself even to subjects in which you have little interest, and how much you can achieve even when a teacher's style isn't to your liking.
 * **Academic skills** include ability to read with comprehension, intelligent use of resources (including library resources), logical and mathematical skills, efficient study habits, and the ability to communicate clearly and fluently in speaking and writing.
 * **Awareness** of what's going on in the world around you, and the habit of intelligently relating it to your academic courses.
 * **Accomplishment** is demonstrated by successful application of understanding. The evidence of that is:
 * 1) Correct and confident application of what you've learned to new problems and challenges,
 * 2) clear and effective communication of your understanding through speaking and writing, and
 * 3) possession of a base of information, skills and understanding sufficient to allow you to continue your education outside of the classroom, throughout your life.
 * 1) **Self-discipline**. The successful student has learned to budget time, and uses it efficiently, and will do the things that need to be done, when they must be done, whether or not one feels like it at the time.
 * 2) **Initiative**. In short: doing things without being told. The student doesn't wait for assignments to read ahead in the textbook, or to seek out and study related books to gain understanding. The good student does more problems or exercises than assigned, and does them even when none are assigned. The good student working in the laboratory does not merely follow instructions (though that is an important skill) but looks for opportunities to discover new things, try new things, or find better methods. When an opportunity arises to do a project outside of class, the good student jumps at the chance and doesn't even ask whether it will earn extra credit.
 * 3) **An open mind** is a mind receptive to examination of new ideas and facts. Having an open mind does //not// mean that one jumps on the bandwagon of every new fad. A better characterization of an open mind is one which is willing to dispassionately and rationally analyze new ideas, weighing them objectively against established knowledge and the facts at hand.
 * 4) **Perceptiveness**. The more you learn, the more perceptive you become. You can, as necessary, "read between the lines." You no longer need everything spelled out; you can fill in missing details. You aren't dependent on being shown; you can puzzle things out for yourself. You perceive quickly what a writer or speaker means, without misinterpreting. You learn to seek the intended meaning of what you read or hear rather than trying to impose your own preconceived meaning. You can see through complexity to the heart of a matter. You are able to distinguish the important from the trivial in a serious discussion.
 * 5) **Humility**. However much one knows, one must realize there's a lot more to be learned, and that some of what one `knows' may turn out to be wrong. For this reason intellectual arrogance is unbecoming an educated person. Knowing lots of things is good, but knowing the limitations of one's knowledge is essential to using it properly. Many of the classic errors of history were made by people over-confidently going beyond what they knew and understood.

-- Donald E. Simanek, April 15, 1997.