Overcoming Obstacles to Study Success

Fear and anxiety are obstacles to overcome when going to school. Many students are afraid of particular subjects, types of learning, or perceptions that are part of a learning journey. Additionally, many students compare themselves to others and decide that the others are more capable than they are. Finally, second guessing, over thinking, or starting over and over, even when the restarts net nothing, are obstacles to student success. Luckily, there are strategies to combat these debilitating habits that prevent learning. 

For example, I struggled with learning math early in my educational career and presumed that I was not capable of understanding it. I never overcame that fear and the anxiety that it brought me, and I never did well in math.  However, if I needed to study it today, I would let my professor know immediately that I had math phobia, find out what tutoring was available prior to starting the class, and get help before overwhelming fear stopped my learning. 

Also, I would ask my professor to recommend other students I could contact who had similar fears, to find out how they overcame their learning problems. It is far more beneficial to ask a student who is competent in a subject for help, rather than feeling inferior to that person. Ask the student who understands a subject how he or she figured it out. Sometimes it’s as simple as the student directing you to youTube videos or other resources that helped him or her understand the material. 

Finally, don’t get stuck on second guessing, over thinking, or starting over and over, when these three strategies are no longer useful to you. I panic when there is a multiple-choice test. I know I should get rid of the answers that are incorrect right away and, if I can’t figure it out, go back to the question later. Do I do that? No. I freeze on the question, think about it over and over, try to answer it, and waste time as I become more anxious. Often, it’s best to move along to get unstuck and stop over thinking something. Then it’s possible to go back and try again. Hopefully, I will take my own advice on my next test!

Do any of these obstacles seem familiar to you? Do you catch yourself stuck in them when you are studying or trying to get your college work done? If you pay attention to what and how you are learning as you do it, you can begin to counteract the fear, anxiety, comparing, and second guessing that inhibits your college success. Humans are set up to learn well or not at all. It is our job to take note of the obstacles that we place in our learning’s way and change the obstructive behaviors that do not help our college success. After all, we are here to be successful students. 

Talk to Yourself About Getting Work Done

Are you coming to the end of your courses and feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, frustrated, burned out, and/or upset? Do you find yourself not where you thought you would be with your grades or course accomplishments to date?

Are you mad at yourself by your answers to these questions, because you haven’t achieved what you set out to do? If that is the case, then you will be happy to hear these three steps to get back on track, be rid of your anger, and achieve the goals that you hoped for at the courses’ start.

(Photo Credit: Frank Sonnenberg)

First, you have to have a good, honest talk with yourself about the details of your troubles. What work haven’t you done at all? What work have you done partially or in a half-baked manner? What do you have left to do? After you have looked at what work has to get done, figure out how to do it, including assessing the parts you do not understand.

Next, email or call your teacher, using the teacher’s preferred method of contact. Find out if you can still submit any of your work. If you can, state what you believe to be missing or poorly done and how you plan to fix or finish it. Ask for any help you might need, if any of the work is confusing.

Third, you need to set a schedule of course work time and stick to it. This requires knowing you will give up time that you like to spend doing other things, but that is the only way to get your course work done and accomplish what you hoped to do in the first place. Do the work that you do not enjoy first. Use a timer and build in short breaks. Do not alter or lessen the time set in your schedule; there is no time left for that now.

It never feels good to set out to achieve something and not do it. Taking courses is the same as any other goal; it requires hard work, including parts that are not enjoyable. Deciding to pass a course is exactly that: making a decision to achieve success. The only way to achieve success is also exactly that: DO IT.

Once done, the feeling of achievement will justify the pain of your hard work and overtake the anger you have at yourself for not doing the work in the first place. Often the time spent being upset about not achieving goals takes up more time than it would have taken to get the work done. In the end, working hard feels good, and the rewards of achievement make it all worthwhile. 

How to Avoid the Research Writing Scream

Do you look at your course syllabus, see a research assignment, and cringe? Do you scream at the thought of finding a topic, doing research, citing sources, and writing a paper?

The Research Paper Scream!

If so, follow these 10 easy research steps and use your panic adrenalin to get it done.  Here’s how: 

1. Open your calendar and schedule the time you need to do all the steps below
2. Find a topic that interests you and do preliminary research to see if there is credible, academic research about the topic:

• Use Credo Database & Academic Search Premier (EBSCO Host) for an overview of your topic. Narrow your search down by selecting peer reviewed articles, full-text, and year span (last 5 years):

3. Use this organizational system to keep track of your research:

• Select “email” article in the database. Write an email subject heading: course title and several words of the article’s title, to find this research for now and future classes
• Check full-text article, make certain to check APA citation
• Keep track of all sources by keeping an ongoing APA References page from the start of your research, deleting references not used in the paper before submission 

4. Decide upon a topic and thesis that includes a topic, claim, and main ideas: 

5. Use your main ideas as areas to back up with research. Outlining and mind mapping will help you with this step:

Making an Outline

• When using the Credo mind map, take note of the names of the subheadings that pop-up and use them for further searching. Pull down the arrow next to “basic search” to find mind map:

6. Be flexible with your thesis and main ideas as you learn more about the topic, change accordingly, and use at least one reference for each main idea you discuss. Be certain to paraphrase, summarize, or directly quote the research to give credit to the researchers’ hard work and avoid plagiarism:

7. Draft your paper, rewrite, let it sit, read it out loud, make corrections, revise, use Grammarly, edit, and rewrite, understanding that the writing is a process that is hard for everyone:

8. Be certain to make APA easy by using an APA Template

9. Use the correct intext citation and References formatting:

APA In-Text Citations and References

10. Stop screaming. Ask your professor, librarian, classmate, or friend for help you. Go to the 
Traveling Writing Teacher or the  Purdue Online Writing Center. Finally, remember that research and writing require growth mindset and Nike resolution: Just Do It!

Don’t Let Your Story Hold You Back

Recently, I was asked to teach in Stayer’s new Digital Entrepreneur Cheddar MBA program. I accepted the offer and then decided to enroll in it. Crazy, right? Why would an older woman with a BA, MA, and PhD want to do that? Why would she want to spend her time and money on something seemingly far afield from being an English professor? What could she possibly have to prove?

I decided to get my MBA because I am finally conquering my fears, by paying attention to what has held me back for years. I’m saying “Yes” to possibility—even if it’s scary and hard. How did I get to this “yes?” A big breakthrough in moving forward came when my daughter and I went to counseling to improve our communication. When I was telling my side of our relationship to the counselor, the counselor said to me, “Your stories do not serve you well.” 

I was furious that the counselor dared to question my stories.  My stories are my experience, and they frame how I live my life. They are uniquely mine! The counselor was not diminishing my stories; however, she was helping me understand that I was in counseling for the specific outcome of improving my communication with my daughter. Holding onto my stories would not achieve that outcome. 

The counselor helped me understand that my daughter and I had our own stories—points of view—about our relationship, but that now, in this moment, the story that mattered most was getting beyond all of them.  She asked us both to follow Dr. David Drake’s (2017) conception of analyzing stories carefully to “connect the neural dots” and get beyond what was holding us back:  

As noted in the top arrow in Dr. Drake’s (2017) graphic, the internal stories that guide us come from an event or (experience) that we turn into a (story), which triggers our core values (identity) and impacts our (behavior), often about an unmet need that results in a negative (outcome) (Drake, 2017). These stories live inside us and stop us from moving forward. 

Here’s an example: Even though I published writing at a young age, when I went to Columbia University to get my MA, I was told by a professor that my poetry writing was not good. The event triggered my growing fear that I didn’t write well and should stop writing. I internalized triggers that caused me to accept the poetry story as disapproval. I couldn’t get out of my own way, once triggered, and held myself back, over and over. I was not able to analyze my behavior to change the outcome.

However, the bottom arrow on the graphic is a cue to understand how to interpret a story differently, through reversing the analysis, or rewinding the story. Think about the poetry experience (outcome) as one person not liking the poems, then realize that the feedback could be seen positively (behavior), and understand this as a growth mindset opportunity (identity) to continue writing, by rewinding the (story) and moving forward (experience).

Our brains process our stories and hold us hostage to them in our memory, stopping us with fear and doubt before we even begin something new. Our job is to take the time to understand our stories frame-by-frame, rewind them to react to the cues that trigger negative outcomes, and look at the outcomes as a “let me move forward” opportunity (Drake, 2017). By rewinding our stories, may me all create new ones to move us forward. This is how we conquer what holds us back.

I Am Continually Inspired By My Students

I have taught writing in middle school, high school,community college, college, and graduate school and am continually inspired by my students.  In 2008, I started teaching part-time at Strayer University and now teach all the English classes Strayer offers. When I started at Strayer, I had no idea how much I would not only be inspired by but grow to love my Strayer students.

I learn something new from my Strayer students every time I meet or talk with them. Their courage, resilience, dedication, and hard-work ethic fill me with admiration and awe. When I was younger, I started graduate school with an eight-month old, four jobs, and a commute to my classes, and I graduated eight years later with a 4, 6, and 8-year old. I know what it takes to sit in a Strayer classroom on ground or online and finally walk across the graduation stage. My students and I have that and so much else in common.

It’s hard work to go to college at any age. It’s hard but essential because someone’s dream for a life change and self-empowerment is worth every part of the struggle that each assignment, each class, each fulfilled college commitment takes. Those who graduate from Strayer University worked hard for their degrees.  

I had no idea when I agreed to teach one night a week for Strayer University that it would turn out to be one of the most rewarding jobs I could possibly have. When a student says to me, “Thanks for believing in me, Dr. S.  You have made me believe in myself,” I go home stunned and feeling lucky beyond measure that I participated in someone’s empowerment journey. Loving my Strayer University students is easy. It is one of my life’s joys.

                                                                                                               

Logistics, Stop/Reflect, Let Go, & Power of Yet : 4 Survival Tools to Achieve School/Life Balance

When I was 33 years old, I returned to college. My daughter was 8 months old, and her fingers--holding my shoulder from her kiddie backpack--were on my college ID picture. 

My daughter, teaching jobs, and marriage were all part of my concern when I planned my return to college. Little did I know that it would take eight years to complete graduate school and finish with not only a degree but 8, 6, and 4-year-old children! My life was a constant swirl of activity. Logistics, stop/reflect, let go, and the power of yet were my survival tools to achieve college/life balance.

First, logistics, including a support team, must be put into place.  My family, friends, and colleagues agreed to help me with my kids and occasional errands. I asked them to let me know when I was stressed and overwhelmed. Others can often see what we can’t. Exhaustion makes it difficult to ask for help, and using a support team is a best preventative practice. Once in college, I also made my professors and classmates part of my team. It is freeing to ask for help and a time saver.

Logistics also includes a reliable babysitter, car (my college was far away with no online classes), and funding source for both tuition and books. Not factoring in the cost of learning materials or a babysitter can end the start to a learning or degree dream. In addition, creating a space at home for quiet study is important. I put small desks in the corners of a room close to my kids’ play space and upstairs in a back hallway; I studied in both places when my family was occupied or asleep. Finding the closest public or college library and studying away from obligation are also excellent college logistics tools.

Another central piece of school/life balance is scheduling, part of the stop/reflect survival tip for balancing school and life. Learning success takes time, and course work takes more time as classes advance. A realistic schedule to fit course reading, writing, critical thinking, test taking, and big assignments requires a stop/reflect analysis about how and when to get work done. For example, I am not a morning person; therefore, I scheduled study time at night, at the library when my husband was home and around work and family activities.

Sometimes, in order to achieve my graduation dream, I had to give up activities that meant a great deal to me and let go of my guilt and sorrow for not being able to do everything. Going to school requires self-sacrifice and lots of letting go of parts of a former life! It’s hard. It takes grit. For instance, confession: I love watching sports on television. I had to let go of a lot of my game watching during college. It was sad but worthwhile; I got my degree!

Finally, it’s hard to start a dream that requires logistics, stop/reflect, let go, AND still find that it’s not enough. That’s where the final survival tool to achieve balance school and life is important: the “power of yet.” In Janelle Monae’s Sesame Street video, “Power of Yet,” she sings and dances to let us all know that it takes “believing in yourself, working hard, and staying focused to know that one day you'll get to where you want to go. That is the power of yet.”

       

No one will ever say that going to college, whether young or old, starting or returning, is easy. However, everyone says that getting a degree is a dream come true. With the help of the survival tools logistics, stop/reflect, let go, and the power of yet, it is possible to walk across a school or college graduation stage with everyone cheering! That is indeed a dream come true and the secret tool kit to achieve college/life balance!