The College Learning Curve

Does anyone else feel something along the lines of being slammed into having to learn everything at once? For a lot of us, the past 10 weeks has been a balancing act, trying to manage schoolwork with the new experiences of living independently/on our own. I feel like it has taken me this long to truly figure out how to do my homework effectively and actually use the syllabus to help you study and plan.

Does anyone else feel like they missed out on little things like that? For example, I was completely oblivious to the fact that we had weekly reading in this class, until I looked at the syllabus schedule. Why did it take me a month to figure that out?

I would like to think that, maybe, it's because I am learning how to learn.

Today I attended a lecture given by Dr. Matt Sanders, author of the book Becoming a Learner, which we were all required to read in Honors 198. His book makes the distinction that we come to college to learn how to learn, and not just to gain technical skills and people skills.

Today, someone asked him how we were supposed to manage the learning curve we will hit after we all earn our undergraduate degrees. How we were supposed to prepare ourselves to learn so many different things and not become overwhelmed?
Dr. Sanders' response was fairly simply I suppose, but it really struck a chord in me, and I guess I feel the need to share it all with you.

Dr. Sanders replied by saying that it would be impossible to give every single new thing we had to learn the same amount of time. There are some things that we are naturally good at, and others that we are not so good at. What matters is not how much time we dedicate to the subject, but the attitude in which we approach the subject. He used the example of general education classes vs. classes directly involved with your major. He said that you will probably place more emphasis, and therefore more time, into the classes concerning your major. However, the small amount of time you dedicate to that general ed. class can be worth just as much as the time you dedicate to your major classes if you approach the class wanting to be a learner.

Being a learner is not learning everything at once, but rather I feel that it is the way your approach your learning and the improvements you can make to it.

Sure, it took me a month to realize that Dr. Ballenger had provided us with a weekly reading schedule that would supplement the material we were learning in class. However, learning this has made my knowledge within this class grow and expand. It has also helped me to plan and study my other subjects.

So the college learning curve may have provided a slight obstacle for me, but I know that each part of the curve I climb gets me one step closer to who I want to be.