Developing good habits to ensure success

Header image for Interrobang article CREDIT: STEPHANIE LAI
The transition from high school to college can be difficult; Fanshawe offers a variety of services that can help students develop strategies to become more proficient in their program.

After graduating from high school and transitioning to post-secondary institutions, such as Fanshawe College, can be a change. At this point, you have decided on a potential path you want to follow that will help you achieve the career you want. Now is the time to reflect on any bad study habits you picked up in High School and work hard to break them for the sake of your education.

Student Success Facilitator for Fanshawe’s Learning Centre, Cheryl Mills, says that students need to be aware of the old habits they are bringing from high school.

“Often in high school, students are very successful with their studies with minimal work outside of the classroom and homework can become a foreign concept,” Mills said. “When they come to college, they bring [study habits like this] with them.”

“[With the change] there is the big question of: ‘What do I do?’ and ‘How do I do it?’ These habits from the past will not serve folks well in the college setting.”

In a post on synonym.com, Evie Sellers, a writer for Demand Media, explains how students might face issues during the transition in her article “How Bad Study Habits Affect You Post-High School.”

The issues Sellers notes include:

• Procrastination

• Poor time management

• Poor note taking

• Uncompleted assignments

However, these habits can intensify or develop from new situations. Onlineclasses.org explains some ways in its article “7 Bad Study Habits You Should Change Immediately”. Aside from procrastinating, the habits a student can get into include:

• Studying at home

• Listening to music while studying

• Studying with friends

• Pulling all-nighters

• Not making outlines

• Highlighting textbooks

When it comes to dealing with these habits, Fanshawe offers services such as the Student Success Centre where students can go and meet with an advisor for a specific department and determine strategies for success. Mills says that making these changes can greatly affect your performance in your program.

“Coming to Fanshawe is like starting a jigsaw puzzle,” she said. “When we start the front end, we can’t formulate a picture whatsoever. These little pieces of things do not make sense, but as you go through the course to develop a picture, it all makes sense.”

“We really want students to use their student success advisor as their first stop. You express your concerns, wants, needs and desires to the student success advisor and they will try to help you within the scope of their job. [Our advisors] genuinely care about your success and they can help you determine the next step.”

It can be hard to make these changes, but Mills says there are incentives to breaking bad habits.

“If you [work hard and focus] it will make the difference between you knowing information on the spot and needing to research it,” Mills said. “You are going to be much more confident, much more capable and your employers will provide you with more advanced projects based on your advanced level of skill.”

Focusing on your education has a huge advantage at Fanshawe. According to Fanshawe’s media release on April 14 concerning the annual Key Performance Indicators (KPI) survey, “The graduate employment rate was 87.5 per cent, 3.5 per cent above the provincial average of 84 per cent.”

From the findings collected from March 2014 to February 2015, “87.8 per cent of employers were satisfied with the quality of educational preparation of Fanshawe College graduates.”

When it comes to achieving the career you desire, it is going to take hard work. Coming into your first year at Fanshawe might be a difficult transition, but you are responsible for your education.

Building healthy study habits will help you perform efficiently throughout your program and help you impress your future employer. In order to go in the right direction, all you have to do is start off on the right foot.