6 Pieces of Advice That Will Enable You to Actually Make Your Time in Class Useful: From an Ultra-Successful College Student

"If I'm going to do something that's not fun, I will make it my duty to make it so."- Julian Colvard (Collegiate Football Player & Real Estate Investor)

If we’re going to take on a task, we might as well make the best out of it, right? My answer is “No.” If I don’t want to take on a task, if I can have something or someone else do it instead, I won’t do it. However, if we have locked ourselves into a task that requires our attention for 3 ? months, let’s say college for instance, then we should make the best of it—to me, that’s too long of a time for anyone (especially me) not to make the best out of something. Another reason to make the best out of college, if you didn’t know, college does not give you your money back once you start, so uhhh…

           I saw this movie called “Fences” two weeks ago while I was movie hopping. I believe it was my third movie of the day, and while I was watching it, this actor guy, by the name of Denzel Washington said, “You gotta take to crookeds with the straights.” Now, this is not a quote that had a profound effect on my life—matter of fact, it was repeated so much that I started to get annoyed and almost walked out of the theater (just kidding), but it does hold meaning and truth. Said another way, what the actor was trying to get his son and everyone else watching the movie to learn is that if we want something, no matter how great it is, we have to be willing to accept the bad that comes with it just like we are willing to accept the good. For a college student, that’s how class is. Everyone wants all of the good that comes with the college experience (socializing, naps, being able to eat free food and not pay bills), but no one wants the bad (class). Well, we as college students have no choice but to accept the fact that college doesn’t exist without class; so if we want to go, we “gotta take the crookeds with the straights.” In this article, I will show you how to maximize the time you spend in class, so it won’t be entirely awful. If you follow the advice in this article, your perspective on class may change a little.

1.     Don’t Wait For Class To Be Over

Despite what you may think, you don’t have to come to class after a certain period of time, so when you do come, if you’re bored, doesn’t common sense tell you to make it fun (will touch on this shortly)? How much do you like it when someone waste your time? You don’t—no one does. But, that is exactly what YOU are doing to YOURSELF when you come to class only to watch the clock tick.

Why not, if you have to chance to, make every moment of your college experience unbelievably fun? Believe it or not, if you continue to partake in this dull and boring behavior by choosing not to spice your class time up, this may become a habit. This habit of being dull, boring, and uninteresting may become who you are after four years, and nobody wants to hang around those kind of people—so stop taking chances!

2.     Challenge You Peers

During class time, this is your opportunity to have a different kind of conversation, one that you would not normally have outside of class. This conversation isn’t about relationships, video games, or sports. This conversation may actually be about something important, like educational policy that affects you directly, why you believe the things you do, or something else that is lightly attached to enlightenment.

This is a time when you get to flex those intellectual muscles, the same ones that require you to clearly articulate your thoughts and feelings (an exercise most people do not do but should). Moreover, challenging your peers will help you sharpen your argument skills (and yes, this is considered a skill; and yes, you will need this skill throughout your life) which will come in handy when you find yourself in any argument or debate . These conversations allow you to discuss a topic in a serious manner and learn about someone else’s point of view which may end up changing your life for the better (it happened for me).

3.     Challenge Professor

This has so many perks attached to it, but I am only going to tell you the ones that have benefited me most. When students challenge the professor, especially in front of the whole class, if the student has some sense, he or she will come off as a geniuses to their peers which will enable them to put together an all-star team when it comes to group projects because everyone wants to work with them. In the professor’s eyes, if this student is not a jack-ass about the way he or she goes about challenging the professor, the professor will see them as someone who has potential—and that student will most likely be, for that class, the professor’s favorite student. Since the student, stands out, the professor will remember him or her which will benefit them in the long run (will touch on this shortly). How often and how many students do you see challenging your professors? Be among this minority, not the majority. If you don’t want to be in the same boat as everyone else, don’t do what everyone else does.

4.     Ask Questions

Dale Carnegie, who is a best-selling author, wrote a book that was published in 1937. The name of it was “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” This is among the top five most gifted books of all time. How do I know? I have asked over 100 people what are the top 3 books they have ever read, and more than half the time, this book (along with “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” “7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” and “Think & Grow Rich”) has almost always been in the top 3. In Dale Carnegie’s book, he has this practical piece of advice—that is amazingly effective relative to how easy it is to implement and the immediate results rendered—where he says, “talk in terms of the other person’s interest.” On the cover of the book, it says, “the only book you need for success,” and if you implement this piece of advice, you will see why.

Most times, professors are Doctors, and if they aren’t, they are working towards it. To obtain a doctorate, one has to write a book, which requires a lot of their time and, most times, drives them to the boarder of insanity; they have dedicated their life to the subject they are teaching. If you, like all of your other classmates, don’t show any interest in their favorite subject, do you think they will feel compelled to help you out when you need it most? Because I have come to class and asked questions on a consistent basis, showing interest in what the professor loves, I have never had to nervously ask for a letter of recommendation. In fact, I have had several professors reach out to me and tell me that if I ever needed it, they will write a letter for me.

Ask questions no matter what. Even if you already know the answer or the question you’re asking requires a short answer. No one asks questions on a consistent basis, so if you do, you will be ahead of everyone else. If you ask questions on a consistent basis, you will be favored and helped more than everyone else in the class. I have done this and experienced the results time and time again, no matter the size of the class.

Very short story: I was in a biology class with over 100 students, and on the second day of class, I asked 3 questions. The professor asked for my name and wrote it down on her notes. This happened in front of everyone. In late November, around finals, i was emailed a list of things that made up the majority of the test (somewhat like a study guide). There were only 3-5 other people (out of over 100) who also received the same email.

5.     Make Jokes

In addition to asking questions, this is how you build rapport with your professors without going to office hours. If you can make them laugh or simply smile, you will be loved. People love people who can make them laugh. It’s that simple. But, if you’re saying to yourself, “I’m not funny,” I have something for you that will get you around that, smile. If you simply smile at your professor, more times than not, you will lighten their mood, and they will smile back. This is what I’ve come to discover. By doing this over the past 2 ? years since I’ve been in college, I have noticed that people have an inclination to unconsciously mirror the body language of the other person with whom they are interacting with.

Even more, when you make jokes, you also ease the mood in class, making more people comfortable and relaxed which results in a more fun class experience.

6.     If Class is Ultra-Boring, Do this…

If you come to class, by all means, do not waste your time. If roll has already been called, I am not encouraging you to leave, but… If you cannot leave because it is super noticeable if you do, again, by all means, do not waste your time. This can be time where you plan for the next day. When classes are too boring for me, instead of leaving or falling asleep, I time-block my next day right there in class, or I begin to think about cool stuff I would like to do (on the weekend), then, proceed to map out a 'do-cool-stuff' plan. You can also write down or make a list of what you want your life to be like in 5 years, or what you think the perfect semester would look like for you.

Conclusion

If you decide to go to class, you might as well make the most out of it. Here, you were provided with information that will allow you to adjust your behavior effectively. Even more, you were provided practical advice, which has been tested and proven to work immediately over and over again, that you can use to maximize your time in class. Have a full college experience. Be one of those students who lives a full 4 years of college every year; and while you’re in class, make the best out of that to.

Books (Video Summery Links):

“How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie

“7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Steven Covey

“How to Become a Straight ‘A’ Student” by Cal Newport

Website that is dedicated to showing you how to be a more effective college student

About the author

Julian Colvard is an education major at Clark Atlanta University who has accumulated over $100,000 in scholarship money, is a collegiate football player (Captain), a fitness trainer in the Atlanta University Center (40+ clients), real estate entrepreneur, and public speaker, teaching students within the Atlanta Public Schools system about what it takes and how to win at college.