In order to be successful in college, students must be aware of the forthcoming changes in roles and responsibilities prior to making the transition. Here are some vital tips for success:
* The most important determinant of college success is determination. Intelligence is not as significant a factor as one might expect.
* It is important for students to be able to articulate their disability and where it affects their learning. They will need to share this information with the head of disability services, their tutors, and, if they choose, their instructors
* Know whether you are a visual, auditory, tactile learner, or a combination. Having this information enables you to study using your strongest channels. If you don’t know how you learn best, ask a counselor to administer a learning styles inventory. You want to have this information prior to entering college.
* Identify your strengths and surround yourself with people and activities where you can put them to use.
* Shore up your weaknesses by accessing tutor, asking questions, etc. The more up-front preparation you do now, the easier college will be.
* When choosing a college, know how your strengths and interests coincide. This will give you a sense of possible majors. You don’t want to spend lots of time and effort choosing a college, only to find out it doesn’t offer a major you’re interested in.
* Take as many challenging college-prep courses as possible. Beside this conditioning your thinking skills, colleges look favorably upon students who “stretch” themselves.
* Try to have a goal in mind when entering college. Research shows that “goal-oriented” students have more reason to persevere.
* Be sure to check a college’s SAT and ACT requirements before applying.
* Any college you attend will require you to take a placement test before registering. Practice your basic skills (math and English) with interactive websites. There are scads of sites in game format and others that provide answers and thorough explanations. Many colleges do not allow calculators for the math placement exam, so you’ll need to practice basic math skills that go back to elementary school. There are plenty of practice placement exams, such as Accuplacer, online.
College is a rite of passage; you are entering an arena with different expectations. If you are serious about succeeding, prepare well in advance; by the time you get to college, you can hit the ground running.
Joan M. Azarva, Ms.ED, an expert College Learning Specialist, parent of a successful adult son with LD/ADD, and a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education has experience that spans three+ decades with students of all ages. In 1993, however, due to the well-documented low postsecondary success rate of students with learning disabilities, Joan decided to focus exclusively on the critical period of high school-to-college transition.
From her professional and personal experiences, Joan learned that not only can proactive measures often fend off failure, they can also produce extremely desirable outcomes. If you are the parent of a high school student with learning differences, sign up for Joan’s listserv and receive a valuable FREE 55-page E-Book, Interactive Academic Websites, by going to http://www.ConquerCollegewithLD.com .