Tips for Academic Success
Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science
General Advice
If you are a graduate assistant, remember: You are a student first, graduate assistant second! Sometimes it is tempting to spend lots of time preparing for a class that you are TA'ing for--it is fun and it is probably a little easier than working on your own course work. Avoid this temptation. It is important that you do a good job as a TA, but keep your priorities in order.
Understand that you are not alone in thinking that you are the only one who is having problems understanding the material. You all are talented in many different ways. Believe me, you all have enough talent and background to succeed--not many people out there ever make it to graduate school.. Keep in mind that in graduate school, being bright and/or having seen the material before is arguably not nearly as important as hard work, persistence, and curiosity. It's also about having a good attitude.
Attend Lectures and Ask Questions.
Attend lectures, always. If you absolutely must miss, make up for it by getting the notes from a fellow student. After reading the relevant sections in the textbook very carefully, rewrite these notes using your own words and ideas. For obvious reasons, it is not a good idea to simply miss class and ask the professor if you "missed anything important."
Ask lots of questions in and out of class. Faculty members enjoy seeing interest.
When visiting faculty during office hours, come prepared. Show the instructor what you have done, show her/him your relevant notes, etc. It is human nature to expend more energy on something that holds promise for the future. A faculty member will naturally spend more time on a student who is interested, hard-working, and curious to learn.
Note-Taking and Reading
Read ahead whenever possible. Read about topics from a variety of sources. Sometimes reading about a topic in a more elementary book can give you a better idea of the big picture. Ask your instructor for additional textbook recommendations.
Use post-it notes to mark important passages in the book.
Reread the text and rewrite notes as soon after lecture as possible. Incorporate material from the textbook into the rewritten notes. Clearly mark those notes that the instructor emphasized. (If rewriting is not feasible, at the very least, review, edit, fill-in, and augment your notes.)
You might choose to use only one side of the page to write your notes. The blank side could be used for additional ideas, thoughts, etc. that may come later in the course.
In addition to rewriting (or at least reviewing and editing) lecture notes, create a separate summary or outline of the main ideas. The summary might only include statements of theorems, ideas for proofs, useful techniques, etc. Consult both the lecture notes and the textbook when creating this summary.
Be alert in lecture. Record any cues from the instructor that indicate an idea/topic/technique is especially important, at least in the instructor's opinion (this very same instructor will be writing the exams).
Keep in mind that you will be rewriting (or at least reviewing and editing) your notes soon after class is over. Knowing this, and knowing what is in the textbook (because you have read ahead), will allow you to take better, and perhaps less detailed, notes in class; you will be in a position to listen more carefully to the instructor.
Studying and Doing Homework
Come up with a regular study schedule -- plan on about 3 hours per s.h. per week. Don't cram, don't procrastinate.
Many textbooks offer answers to a subset of the problems. Often homework problems that are close together physically are also conceptually related. Therefore, it makes some sense to work the problems with answers that are close to the ones that are assigned as homework.
Whenever possible, use computer simulations to check your homework solutions. If the simulation results do not align with your solution, you had better rework the homework problem. If the simulation results do align with your homework solution at least you have corroborating evidence that it is correct.
Practice reading and writing mathematical expressions using grammatically correct English. Practice explaining what the different symbols in the mathematical expressions actually represent. Practice summarizing in words (and out loud) the basic ideas of the theorems and assumptions.
Test Preparation and Test Taking
Test preparation. Look over your notes to see what the instructor emphasized; know the theorems and ideas for proofs. Practice writing out the theorems so that the technical assumptions will sink in. Go through as many problems as possible. Do not look to see what section a randomly selected problem comes from. Especially practice getting started on problems--knowing what tools/theorems/results to use is half the battle during the exam.
Study groups can be very helpful, and fun. Form a group early on. A caveat: Make sure you can independently get started on the problems--there is the danger of always taking cues from one of the members of the study group, cues that will not be available on the exam.
Test taking. Look over the entire exam first. Some students like to work through the problems from easiest to hardest. Use scratch paper so that you can hand in organized solutions.
Connecting in Grad School
Make an effort to interact with your fellow students. Form study groups. Don't be afraid to go out and talk about statistics, about ideas and concepts.
Learn about faculty research interests early on in your program. It's never too early to start thinking about research.
Become involved in the department and the profession. Join student and professional organizations. Go to colloquia and seminars.
Remember: Social connections never hurt.
Start reading journal articles early on in your grad student career.Read both articles in statistics journals, and articles in journals in other disciplines in which statistical analyses are presented. Ask instructors for ideas of journal articles that would be useful and appropriate.--Prof Cowles
Web Resources
Teaching and Learning Centers in the U.S. http://www.hofstra.edu/faculty/ctse/cte_links.cfm
AcademicTips.Org http://www.academictips.org/acad/index.html
Sites to Promote Academic Success http://www.uni.edu/walsh/linda7.html
How to Study Math, Science, and Engineering http://www.csupomona.edu/~rosenkrantz/skills2.htm
Excerpt from article about UCLA math professor, Terence Tao (full article at http://newsroom.ucla.edu/page.asp?RelNum=7252 )What are Tao's secrets for success? Tao offered some insight.
"I don't have any magical ability," he said. "I look at a problem, and it looks something like one I've done before; I think maybe the idea that worked before will work here. Nothing's working out; then you think of a small trick that makes it a little better but still is not quite right. I play with the problem, and after a while, I figure out what's going on.
"Most people, faced with a math problem, will try to solve the problem directly," he said. "Even if they get it, they might not understand exactly what they did. Before I work out any details, I work on the strategy. Once you have a strategy, a very complicated problem can split up into a lot of mini-problems. I've never really been satisfied with just solving the problem. I want to see what happens if I make some changes; will it still work? If you experiment enough, you get a deeper understanding. After a while, when something similar comes along, you get an idea of what works and what doesn't work.
"It's not about being smart or even fast," Tao added. "It's like climbing a cliff: If you're very strong and quick and have a lot of rope, it helps, but you need to devise a good route to get up there. Doing calculations quickly and knowing a lot of facts are like a rock climber with strength, quickness and good tools. You still need a plan � that's the hard part � and you have to see the bigger picture."
08/31/2007 10:00:31 AM Joseph B. Lang
