College Readiness Training Prepares Students for College
Are you a senior in high school who is about to start college this fall? If so, you could be in for a big shock.
For many college freshmen, even those who did well in high school, the transition to college can be difficult. Not only are you expected to be able to handle a much larger workload, but you’re also faced with a lot more unstructured time, so if you don’t have good planning and prioritization skills, you can quickly find yourself in over your head.
That’s why we are now offering College Readiness training — one-on-one tutoring sessions where we give you the skills you need to be able to tackle college with confidence.
Students generally meet with a college readiness tutor for about six to eight weeks addressing issues such as note-taking, time management, self-management, studying tips, and more.
“In high school you have seven hours of classes a day with maybe two hours of homework. When you get to college, that schedule is flipped. You have maybe one-and-a-half to two hours of classes a day and seven hours of studying,” explains Jesse Rutschman, who provides college readiness training for Educational Endeavors. “Managing the amount of studying to do each day is really important to independent study.”
For example, Rutschman gives students tips on how they can avoid distractions and stay on task and how to use a course syllabus as a road map for planning out their workload for the semester.
“A syllabus is really a foreign concept to a lot of high school students,” Rutschman says.
Another big difference between high school and college is the amount of reading you’re expected to do in each class. For example, in a high school English class, you may read two to four novels over the course of one semester. But in a college-level class on Jane Austen, you would be expected to read all six of Austen’s novels, plus other authors’ commentaries on those novels, in the same amount of time. That means you need to change your approach to reading, finding ways to glean the important points out of what you are reading and learning how to take notes to absorb all of the information.
Rutschman teaches students how to read more strategically by looking at all of the headings, subheadings and graphics in a textbook in order to ask themselves questions about what are the most important things they need to focus on.
In addition to providing nuts and bolts study tips, Rutschman also talks with students about how they can take ownership of their success.
“It’s hard to go anywhere with these skills unless you take ownership of your success,” Rutschman says, adding that once students realize that college is a big financial commitment, they are often even more motivated to do as well as they can to have a better future.
And finally, he encourages them to make a commitment to themselves and others to practice these new habits after the tutoring sessions are over.
“I really believe in the power of a social contract,” he says, adding that he suggests students talk with their parents and academic advisors about their goals to help keep them on track.
Although Rutschman says that while almost any incoming college freshman could benefit from this college readiness training, it’s especially helpful for students with ADD or ADHD. “I think this is a population that can benefit most from this support,” he says.
For more information on our college readiness tutoring, contact us today.