How to Be a Good Student

Voice 1

Welcome to Spotlight. I’m Liz Waid.

Voice 2

And I’m Roger Basick. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.

Click here to follow along with this program on YouTube.

Voice 1

Omar was a first-year university student. He had done very well in his studies before. But now that he was at university, he started having problems. Some of the ideas he was supposed to learn felt too complicated. And he was suddenly in a new environment. He had new friends and new activities to explore. He found it difficult to know when he should study. How much should he study? And what were the best ways to study?

Voice 2

Does this sound familiar to you? Learning can be difficult, in or out of school. Sometimes, we forget too quickly. Or the material can seem too difficult. But there are many different reasons why we do or do not learn a subject. And there are ways of studying that are more effective than others. In today’s Spotlight we will look at some of these methods. Today’s Spotlight is on how to be a good student.

Voice 1

The first step to being a good student is having confidence in yourself. Often, students who are having a difficult time believe it is because they are not intelligent.  But this is not true! Learning is how you become intelligent. All of us begin, as children, with no knowledge. From there, we learn and grow. Being a student means continuing this process. It means knowing you may not seem intelligent now, but you will be. Believing that you can learn is the most important step in being a good student. Geoff Nixon is a writer at Gemm Learning. He writes about the importance of confidence.

Voice 3

“Confidence is important in learning at any age. When we feel confident, we are more likely to try new things. That will help us improve our abilities. It will help us build on things we already know. Confidence drives resiliency. This is the ability to recover when something has gone wrong and try again.”

Voice 2

The second step of being a good student is understanding what kind of learning you prefer. Take language learning as an example. Some people learn language best by listening. They might learn well by listening to podcasts, audiobooks, or even Spotlight English! But other people learn best by doing. It helps them to apply the knowledge. They might need to speak to others to learn best. Some people are social learners, and study best with others. Others must be alone to learn. Understanding what style of learning you like can help you enjoy studying more. And, when you enjoy studying, you will be better at it.

Voice 1

Being a good student also means taking care of yourself. Our brains work better when our bodies are healthy. This means eating well, drinking lots of water, and taking time for breaks. The Feinberg School of Medicine is a university in the United States. Its students take very difficult tests to become doctors. They study for months and take an eight-hour examination. One successful student spoke to school staff after her test. She shared her secret of success: staying healthy!

Voice 4

“I do not care if I am the 1000^th person to say it. It is important, so I will say it again: Sleep, eat well and exercise. Honestly, I think that was the most important thing I did. I focused better. And I learned better on days when I was doing those things.”

Voice 2

Another way to learn more effectively is to make a routine. Have special times each week when you study. And study even if you do not feel like it. Studying is not always entertaining. You may not always want to do it. But having a routine will force you to focus.

Voice 1

Routines are also important in reducing stress. And stress can make learning more difficult. If you are stressed, you are not thinking about what you are studying. You are thinking about your stress. Kali Patrick is a psychologist. She wrote on entrepreneur.com about the importance of routine. She said that “when you do not have a plan, life is uncertain. When you have no idea what is going to happen, you can feel worried, anxious, and out of control. Your fear response can turn on. Routines reduce stress naturally. They give some control back to you”.

Voice 2

Good students also study over many days. They do not try to study everything all at once. Instead, it is better to repeat the same information several times over a longer period.  Hermann Ebbinghaus was a German psychologist. He also studied memory. In 1885, he discovered that people forget at a fixed rate. If we learn a fact once, we lose that information quickly. But, if we learn it again after a short period, it will stay in our memories. The more we repeat it, the more we remember.

Voice 1

Finally, good students ask questions. This may seem frightening at first. Asking a question may show that you do not know about a subject. And that can cause shame and embarrassment. But if you do not ask, no one will be able to help. Questions are how we naturally seek answers. Alison Gopnik is a professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley. She studies the science of learning. She wrote that “Asking questions is what our brains were born to do. At least, this is the case when we were children. For young children, quite literally, seeking answers is just as important as seeking food or water.”

Voice 2

If you can keep all of these tips in mind, they may help you be a better student and learner!

Voice 1

Now, we have some questions for you. How do you learn best? Do you have any special study tips? Tell us what they are on our website at www.spotlightenglish.com. You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Voice 2

The writer of this program was Dan Christmann. The producer was Michio Ozaki. The voices you heard were from the United States. All quotes were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight. This program is called: How to Be a Good Student.

Voice 1

Visit our website to download our free official app for Android and Apple devices. We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight program. Goodbye.

Question:

What makes a good student? How do you learn best?