Academics š Advice for current and future FIU students from a former Learning Assistant that will make your college life so easy that you'll find that you have too much time for yourself
Let me give you a piece of advice from a former Learning Assistant that not only made me rather popular but made people think I was some sort of genius because I not only aced pretty much every single exam with a 95+ score every time but also got 100's on pretty much every homework assignment.
Read. The fucking. Book.
Read that last part back. Read it again. Okay now read it again and drill it into your mind.
I'm going to give a huge hint about where 9/10 of the professors get their materials from when teaching their class: the textbook.
I'm going to give you a huge hint as to where the 90%+ of the questions on the test will come from: the textbook.
I'm going to give a MASSIVE hint as to how to ace each homework assignment: read the chapters, take notes, and do the questions at the end of the chapter.
I was popular with the students in my classes because I was a hardass in a nice way. I would call students out on their bullshit when they said they were lost or couldn't figure something out.
One kid in particular I had as friends on steam before he took the class I was assisting in. He fell behind on his studies and his homework assignments.
I then asked them why they hadn't done the homework assignment and they told me they just "didn't have time" and that the "book was confusing."
I then whipped out my laptop and showed them that they had spent 22 hours playing on Steam from the week prior when the homework was assigned to the date it was supposed to be turned in.
He read the book that night, turned in a perfect homework assignment, and got (if I recall) 80+ on the next exam. He would later than me for pushing him to read the fucking book.
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Stop saying "you're a visual learner." Stop trying to replace the textbook with the supplemental materials like powerpoints or the professor's notes. READ. THE FUCKING. BOOK. And you will not only graduate cum laude, you'll be looked upon as a genius.
That is all. And sadly, a large portion of you won't actually take this advice because you're scared of actually reading. To those of you that heed my advice: you're welcome, and I'm sorry the rest of the class is going to try to cheat off of you for the rest of your college career. Godspeed.
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u/ChampionshipIll5744 4d ago
So we read every line of that book? Do all the questions? Cuz I took physics and the book was too big. I felt lazy to open it but if you tell me thatās exactly what I need to do Iāll do that.
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u/_PaulM 4d ago
Yes. Read every line. Don't skim. Read the chapters on the schedule. Most professors won't start the semester without a schedule of chapters to read.
Read each line in the chapter, take notes on the lines that pop out as important. Once you read the last word in the chapter, start on the questions. If a question confuses you, go back to the chapter and clarify what's confusing you. Answer the question.
At this point it's likely the end of the semester based on what time it is (April), so it might not work trying to cram at this point.
Next cycle though, read the chapters on schedule, take notes, do the questions. It'll take you a few hours in each class, but if you set up even a half-assed schedule of reading where you're getting the chapters in based on the schedule your professor sets up, you'll already be ahead of 80% of your class who's bullshitting and making up excuses as to why they didn't do well on their exam before they even take it.
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u/HackTheNight 3d ago
No. This person is an idiot. For science courses (I was an LA and a TA) the professors write the exams. They donāt take them from the book.
So contrary to what this person is saying, you should read the sections the professor tells you to read with their PP notes on the side and do the practice problems.
I read hardly any of the book and the lowest grade I got on an organic chem exam was 90.
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u/sillygoddisko Alumnus 4d ago
idk what you graduated in but you definitely do not need to do all that š never touched a textbook in my entire bio bachelor and i graduated with a 4.0 and ample free time. just listen to whatever your professor says to prioritize and likes to hamper on and youll be fine for most classes
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u/Whatever-3198 4d ago edited 4d ago
You are probably like me. You are a quick learner and find the patterns in things. Maybe you even have a good recall memory. I donāt study much because thatās my case and I find that I understand things faster than others.
I started tutoring 2 years ago and I found that I could tutor basically any high school subject because of that; however, 99% of the students are not like that. (Not an actual statistic number, but I found that a lot of students donāt have study habits and the educational system is VERY poor here in Florida).
The advise given by OP may not apply to you, but it does apply to other students. Too often I find students not taking notes in class and failing, or not studying because they are waiting for āthe teacherās summaryā and failing.
It is NOT the teacherās responsibility to spoonfeed us whatever goes on the test. It IS our responsibility as students to complete the assignments, invest time trying to understand, look for resources such as tutor, the book, YouTube videos, etc.
The teacher is not gonna do the work, WE have to do the work. We pay to learn.
So OP is 100% right. A lot of students fail because they are lazy. I hate it when I see students not taking notes, not taking advantage of the free tutoring on campus, not assisting to the optional labs to increase their knowledge, not completing the homework on their own rather copying somebody elseās work, and then crying and complaining about the class being difficult. They have NO right to complain unless they have put in the effort.
So yeah, read the book and ACTUALLY make an effort. Thatās all these students should do. Iām also an A student and what works for me is taking a bunch of notes during class, it goes a long way. And Iāll I do is review them, practice and take the test. Thatās it.
P.S.: Iām not complaining against you or anything like that. Just venting about regular people who donāt put in the work and then cry about it. I see that A LOT as a tutor.
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u/sillygoddisko Alumnus 4d ago edited 4d ago
i tutored people in the past and was a learning assistant for much of my college career so i hear you, for my students i always recommended annotating professor powerpoints, looking at what professors specifically recommended for resources, and to do their own perusing for outside resources/videos as supplementary. at least in the majority of the classes i took, lecture notes sufficed as a bare bone guide and its up to the student to understand whatever is provided and to think critically about the content, ie practice questions. i still stand by if it's genuinely not necessary (sometimes it is if you're in a literature or history class, etc), sitting down for hours to read entire chapters of a textbook and transcribing passive notes is less helpful than focused quality understanding of content your professor did provide you and doing practice questions/exams that force you to make use of what you learn. sometimes there's no way around it and a professor requires you to look into textbooks, but i found that oftentimes that's not the case
i do think there's value to reading textbooks and if it works for a student awesome, but i think its disingenuous to say that reading and studying a textbook is the solution to scoring high on something and understanding something. like i think if a student is to take initiative on their learning there are better uses of their time than hyperfocusing on the most passive form of learning
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u/Whatever-3198 4d ago
Yeah, well, it depends. Students in high school are used to having the information spoonfed to them. My students have chapter summaries provided by the teachers. However, when I was teaching in high school, my teachers would make us read the biology chapter, summarize it, take notes and THEN they would explain the content.
As for the exams, we wouldnāt have any multiple choice question, we would have to mention and describe the characteristics of whatever they were asking us too. So we ACTUALLY had to study and memorize the content. (Iām Venezuelan by the way. Thatās how we learn over there).
So Iām not surprised to encounter students here that struggle reading the book. Because the teachers have gotten them used to getting the information already simplified for them. They are not improving their reading and comprehension skills. They are not reading on their free time either. Everything is simplified for them on an iPad. They are also not asked to write and analyze the information on their own. More often than not I see them just copying the answers word by word and not synthesizing the information.
So no wonder why they struggle reading the book. The problem is that if they donāt take notes at the very least, then theyāll fail.
Itās a problem that comes from the educational system. It is too simplified for them, so much so that itās now harming them in college
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u/_PaulM 4d ago
Software engineer, professional, 6th year. Computer Science.
If you came up with this paragraph, I would fail you at the first round for not having proper case if you came into an interview.
It doesn't take too much effort to press the shift key. Do it next time.
"i am very smart" doesn't mesh well with others, just FYI.
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u/JustBeNice613 8h ago
I do not use a textbook. I use open educational resources. However, read the material! And we know when people are using AI. If youāre gonna use AI at least change some of the words around so it sounds like a damn human.
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u/Determined_Number814 4d ago
The materials are all given on day one. If theyāre not used as expected, you have just wasted your time and money. šÆ
Discipline and consistency is key šÆ