Consider these points step by step
- The more time you spend studying the more successful you will be.
- You need motivation for that study time to be productive.
- If you are not that interested in studying but see it as a necessary way to get to your ideal career or even if you just want to get a degree then this is called an “instrumental approach”.
- If you are being “instrumental” and you are not that interested in studying you will be poorly motivated and you will find it difficult to have quality time spent studying.
- If you are not motivated then academic study will seem like a burden, be more difficult and it is likely that you will become cynical and either fail or get a low degree.
- For success (and an easier life) you must have a motivation towards academic enquiry that is separate or independent from your career aspirations. You must learn to love (or at least like) what you are studying. You must get into the study itself.
- One key motivation is when study helps you understand something. However, getting started is often difficult. This means an open attitude to new ideas and different ways of seeing the world is important.
- The idea of academic study (for everyone from undergraduates to professors) is that we do not know enough but that through research, writing and reflection we can understand more and more.
- Academic study at its best is transformative: students will have a different relationship with the rest of the world. And, rather than reflecting fixed intelligence, the results of study point towards continually developing knowledge and understanding.
- However, there are absolutely no shortcuts to this process: it requires lots of hard work.
Exercise: Write a paragraph explaining what you find interesting about your course.
Exercise: Calculate how many hours you expect to spend on your university work each week.