Advice to students who study in the U.S
Students who come to study in the U.S. have been told that U.S. school is different from their school and they will need to change their studying habit. Although many have heard of this advice, they do not know how to change and what to do to succeed. The lack of understanding and preparation ahead of time are the primary causes of students' frustration, depression, and even failure.
In many U.S. college, reading assignments are common, and professors expect that students read them BEFORE coming to class as class time is used for discussion. If students do not read before the class, they may not understand the materials being discussed and may not do well in class. When teaching foreign students, I found that many did not have a good reading habit, many were having difficulty with books and articles written in English. Although many had good TOEFL score and passed the SAT with a high percentage, their reading skills were not suitable for college study. To prepare for the study in the U.S. students need to develop a good reading habit, as early as possible, and they need to read books in English, not the books that have been translated into their language.
Reading is a habit that needs time to develop. Learning from textbooks requires a lot of concentration, but many students do not have a good reading habit. When study textbooks, many often put in earphone to listen to music from their mobile phone. With music filling their ears, they look quickly through few pages and conclude that they have done enough studying. Before the exam, they memorize a few key definitions and equate them with learning. That is why many cannot solve problems or answer questions in the tests. Students often asked me: “Why don't you ask about definitions? Why make the tests difficult?” I explained: “In traditional education, many exams are focusing on the “WHAT” questions and memorization is good enough to pass. But in the U.S. education, most questions are about the “WHY” and the “HOW.”” Knowing the concept is NOT enough, you should be able to EXPLAIN and APPLY the concept to pass the exams. That is the difference approach between two education system. Unless you understand this approach and change your study habit, you may not do well.”
Studying habit is NOT easy to change, especially when you are learning in another language. Even I have explained it clearly in every class, many students could not change fast enough. I often found that students continue to study the same way as they did in the past then fail the exams again. Students told me that they spent more time to study than in the past but somehow they still failed. I explained: “It is NOT how much time you study. It is NOT how hard you study, but you need to change the way you study. You must go beyond just understand the concept by learning how to apply them, else you will not do well.” To succeed, it is important for the student to focus on changing their study habit as early as possible by focusing more on the “WHY” and the “HOW.”
As students are studying in English, they need a dictionary to check for terminologies, and it requires more time to learn. Many stay up late at night to study, but when they come to class, they are tired, fell asleep, and having difficulty to focus on the lecture. Many professors expect students to be responsible for their learning. If students do not come to class, they do not check. If students do not ask a question or participate in class discussion, they do not pay attention. If students fail, that is their problem and if they fail many classes, they will be expelled from school. I often advised: “I know many of you spend time and money for English tutorials to pass the TOEFL or IELTS to get admission to U.S. Schools. But to succeed here, you need strong reading and comprehension skills. It is better to develop these skills BEFORE coming here than to struggle in class, have a lower grade, or even failure.”
Many college courses only have one midterm and a final exam. Students do not have to study for the exams in the first few weeks and have a lot of time for other activities. Many students do not start to study until few days before the exam. Since they used to cram before exams in high school and did well so they are convinced that they can still do it. When they are overwhelmed by so much to read, so many things to know, they do not know what to do. This is the major cause of failures that happen every year for these students. I often advised them: “You have many distractions such as missing home, unfamiliar with English language, difficulty to adjust to new school, and not familiar with the education system. But you should overcome these difficulties by focus all efforts to change your study habit. If you put your best effort in the first year, you will do well for the rest. Every journey starts with the first step, and you must make this first step a priority.”
Students often asked me: “What should I do to succeed in the U.S schools?” I advised: “First, you must “Learn to understand deeply” by constant questioning all the facts, information, formulas, concept. By asking “Why” and “How” and “What does this mean?” you will understand them at “deeper level” than just knowing the definitions or representations. Second, you must “Learn how to learn fast” because today knowledge doubles every two years and overwhelm everything. You must develop better reading skills so you can read fast and learn fast. The current trend in education is the integration of multi-fields to promote innovations. Educators called it “cross-disciplines approach” and began to apply them in research at top universities, but this concept is spreading rapidly now. To succeed today and the future you need to be a “trans-disciplinarian” be able to establish connections between different fields. This means you must read more to broaden your knowledge into other fields such as philosophy, humanities, architecture, arts, sociology, math, science, and technology. This “trans-disciplinary” approach will help you to connect to changes as they happen so you can adapt them to your professional life. Third, you must “Learn to think critically about causes and effects” which is the ability to understand the situation totally to implement your ideas into actions. Some people called this concept “Design thinking” or the ability to connect disparate parts into a cohesive whole, knowing what you do and what will be the results before even implement it. Design thinking allows you to understand what you do and what will be the consequences so you can avoid making mistakes.”
Traditional education is focusing on the individual and competition among individual is considered normal. Students compete in the class for a better grade and compete in exams for a higher percentage. However, the U.S. education is focusing more on teamwork. As students, you need to learn how to work in teams. You work with friends in school, you learn to work with different people at different parts of your working life. You need to build a good relationship with whoever you have to work with so you must learn how to listen well and be in good terms with all person. Confucius taught that “There is a teacher whenever three people are together” if you learn how to listen and respect others, you will learn more because of everyone, including people with much less education than you, has something to teach you.
My last advice is while you needs to be fast in this rapidly changing world, you also needs to learn “NOT to hurry” by capturing the “moments” to enjoy the “joys of life.” There are more things in life than just study, pass exams, get a degree, and have a good job. College life is precious and full of great memories. Not hurrying will also allow you to appreciate the wonderful things in your life such as be grateful for your parents who have helped you; or by watching a beautiful sunset with a good friend, or spend time in solitude to pursue the inner peace to understand the “why” of life. Through such profound gratitude you will become more authentic and a better person.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
