College Transition 101

Each professor will have his/her own spin on the how to teach the course.  You will have to adjust to the professor. It’s like the batter at home plate has to adjust his swing to the pitch.

Your teachers throughout high school usually had educational training. That means they had to learn how to teach. Your professors in college are experts in their field. In other words, you are taking Economics from an economist, Biology from a biologist, History from a historian. So each professor will teach from the perspective of their discipline. Your professor will ask you to learn to think like an economist, or a biologist or a historian.

Some professors will have everything online, the syllabus, the assignments, the power point notes, articles for assigned readings, videos to watch etc. Other professors will be “old school” and not use technology as much.

Your job is to read your professor. You want to be able to predict accurately what your professor thinks is important.

Here are three ways to figure out your professor.

1. Read the syllabus carefully. Then read it again before a major paper or a major exam. The syllabus will tell you what the professor will emphasize in the course. The learning objective listed in the syllabus will help you know what is important in the readings and also what to emphasize in your essays.
2. Attend class. Human behavior,  including your professors’ behaviors, will fall into patterns. If you can identify patterns in your professor’s lectures, then you will be able to predict what will be important to study and master for the test.
3. Go visit the professor in his/her office. This can be scary but do it anyway. Build that student-professor relationship.  Ask questions about the readings and lectures. This will help you understand what’s happening in class lecture.