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.