A PROFESSIONAL STUDENT

(ESSAY NUMBER 345) One of my main goals every semester is to help my students become better at being good students.  I want them to walk out of class on the last day as more efficient learners.  I’m often shocked at how poorly they have been trained as students.  Some of my smartest students struggle simply because they don’t know how to succeed as a student.  So, for example, over the summer, I offer them extra credit for the fall if they will read either Make It Stick or Outsmart Your Brain. 

In addition, four months before they enter my class, I try to start planting the concept of a “professional student” in their brains.  That is a student who knows how to be successful as a student versus being an “amateur student” who always seems to take the wrong approach.  I’d like the idea of a “professional student” to rattle around in their heads for a while before they meet me.  That goal doesn’t require smarts.  It just requires being alert, paying attention, and getting into the habit of doing things the right way.  I want them to walk in on the first day thinking, “I know this is a challenging course but if I do things the right way I can be successful.” 

So, yesterday, I emailed my 56 students for the fall (in Accounting 301 and 302) the attached note.  It is nothing brilliant.  It just says, “In my class, there is a right way and a wrong way to do things.  If you do things the right way, I think you’ll have a much greater chance to be a successful student. In that case, this will be one of your very favorite courses. That is what I want."

In case you are interested, here is the note I sent to my students yesterday.  I talk about accounting with them because it is an accounting course.  You can easily substitute history, biology, or the like based on whatever you teach.

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To:  Intermediate Accounting Students for the Fall Semester

From:  JH

I hope you are winding up a fantastic semester and that you are looking forward to a great summer.

You will be entering my class (likely for the first time) next semester.  Virtually all of you have been students since you were 4 or 5 years old.  You probably have spent about 80 percent of your lives as students.  After so many years and so many teachers, you should be very good at being a student.  I often refer to college students as “professional students” because they have spent such a long time at it.  If you spent that much of your life playing pickle ball or poker, you’d be a pro.  Same for being a student.

I find that many of the students in intermediate accounting really do qualify as professional students.  They know how to get it done and done well.  They are often not smarter.  They just know how this learning business works. 

However, some students strike me as amateurs when it comes to being a student.  They are often the smartest people in the room, but they just cannot seem to live up to that because they are not very good at being a student.

Over the summer, I want you to think about what it means to have the talents of a professional student.  I think that will help you do better in my class next fall as well as in all your other classes.  Stop being an amateur when it comes to school and you’ll be a better student than you ever thought you could be.  That’s what you and I both should want. 

Here are a few of my observations. 

Most students are aware that my class consists of three separate actions.  First, I give all the questions and problems to the students a day or two prior to class.  Second, I ask students to discuss the questions with me and the rest of the class.  They’ve had the questions for a day or two.  They should be ready.  Third, about 50 percent of the time (more in 302 than 301), I send out a practice problem a few hours after class for the students to use for practice purposes. This is complicated college material, so I suggest (strongly) that students spend 80-100 minutes every day (no more, no less) on intermediate accounting.

--Within a week or so, professional students figure out how to spend the suggested time (80-100 minutes) every day and just build that scheduled work into their daily planners.

It becomes a daily ritual.

--Amateur students have a different attitude, “I’ve never studied 80-100 minutes per day for any class in my life and I don’t plan to start now.”  That attitude never changes even if grades are not what they would like.

--Professional students realize that I send out a lot of information using emails so they read the emails.  It just becomes part of the ritual.

--Amateur students get an email from me and roll their eyes wondering what planet I’m from.  They store these away to be forgotten.  For these students, procrastination is the biggest roadblock for success. 

--In the 10-20 minutes prior to class, professional students go back and re-read the daily handout, highlighting any names or numbers they will need if called on for a particular question.  Or, they chat with other students about what appropriate answers might be.  If called on, they want to sound like a professional accountant.

--In the 10-20 minutes prior to class, amateur students scroll through their phones looking for some entertainment.  (You will be able to recognize amateur students.  When, I call on them to describe a problem, they immediately begin reading it to me because they aren’t really sure what it is about.  Don’t read problems [that I wrote] to me.  Tell me the facts that they contain.)

--Professional students learn to read the professor and figure out what he really wants from them.  They are flexible and willing to adapt if that seems appropriate. 

--Amateur students seem incapable of anticipating what the professor wants from them.  You will occasionally hear them say, “I never thought he would do that.”

--Professional students realize that the material is complex so they are going to need to get it down in writing as quickly as possible after class.  They set up a system to clear up and organize their class notes within just a few hours of class.

--Amateur students believe if they understood a concept during class, they will understand it forever so there is no reason to write it down or solidify it through organized note taking.

--Professional students do any and every practice problem within 12 hours of receipt.  If anything is wrong, they bring their work to me for help just as soon as possible.  That’s my job—to be of help in learning this stuff.

--Amateur students file away practice problems and try to figure them out right before the test (often in a mad dash).  They are not concerned about understanding.  Memorization rather than understanding was stressed in their high school classes.

--Professional students read test questions carefully and highlight the information that might be relevant to the problem to be solved.  They stay methodical and don’t get rattled.

--Amateur students skim the test and never quite get a handle on the facts that are being presented.  They often start trying to answer the questions before they even know what they’ve got to work with.

--Professional students come by my office whenever there is any confusion.  They come by before class so there won’t be any confusion during class.  They come by after class to clear up anything from class that they didn’t understand.

--Amateur students come by the day before a test and try to ask three weeks worth of questions.  Without a doubt, the biggest enemy an amateur student has is procrastination.  Redundant point but still important.

 

My fundamental message is that you will enjoy this coming semester ever so much more if you are successful.  Heck, that just makes sense.  So, I very much want you (YOU) to be successful.  I believe that success is more likely if you start right away working to be a professional student – meaning that you do everything we do in the best possible way. 

One thing you can do in the fall to help guarantee maximum success is to take 5-10 minutes after every class to evaluate how well you did and why – were you prepared, did you listen to the questions and think about how you would answer them, did you stress understanding more than memorization.  Nothing beats learning from your own actions.

Maybe most importantly, did you find joy in what we were doing?  Did you enjoy the discussion and thinking about how to resolve the problems we faced?  I’m a strong believer that the best classes are the ones that create the most joy in learning.  I find accounting fascinating like some giant and intricate puzzle.  To me, that is what success should mean for a professional student.