A Syllabus is a Guide to Success
Spring college terms are starting (or have started) all over the United States. Today in this blog we are going to focus on day one – also known as syllabus day.
Syllabus day is the day that most students might actually blow off. It’s not really mandatory. Colleges still have registration flexibility – so adding and dropping a course can still occur without penalty. But Ayrielle (who graduated with a 4.0 GPA in her master’s program) would recommend that you attend. WHY? Because a syllabus is actually the most important document you will get from the professor on how to ace the course.
Now there is a lot of debate on whether the syllabus is a contract (Harvard says yes) or an Operator’s Manual (Higher Education Organizations would say it’s more like this), but the contents are often the same across universities. There is a description of the course, the learning objectives, the learning materials, the assessments, the grades, expected behavior, and some relevant policies. It’s a lot of information to take in and a lot does not seem relevant for the moment. But there is relevance and how it will be important to your success later down.
Immediate:
The learning materials (or the textbooks). It isn’t uncommon for the professor to list the most up-to-date readings in this document, with the bookstore having maybe last term’s (or last year’s) information. Faculty are human, and just like you might want to put off work until the last moment – faculty do the same thing. The bookstore’s deadline, however, is usually mid-term last term so they can get all the necessary orders in to ensure their shelves are stock appropriately in early January – meaning they have to get their books in during the Christmas rush. Use the syllabus day to determine if you have the right book and if it differs ask the professor if your version is ok to proceed – or if you need to make hast to the bookstore to get a refund and update your order. If you have to order your books, it’s also a good time to let the professor know the estimated time of arrival. Most of the time the professor can be flexible the first couple of weeks so that students can get their books in – but they don’t know the book store is saying the timeline will be.
Few Weeks In and During:
In the syllabus, there may be a rough timeline of what the homework is and what the assignments are. Whatever method you use to keep organized of this – input that information into that method.
Ayrielle’s method was a calendar to-do list, as seen here:
Once you have your actions (readings and assignment due dates) placed in a method where you will visit them, you will want to build out a schedule that will make the most sense to your study style that is the least painful for you to execute – waiting till last minute to pull an all-nighter is NOT a study style and it is painful AF on your physical and mental health.
There are a few resources on campus that can help you make a study plan: Libraries, Counseling Centers, and Resource Centers (also called Accommodations and Services Offices). These centers have people who can counsel you on the steps you need to take to get the readings or assignments done. Have a reflection paper due after you read the weekly text? They can show you how many pages you can read throughout the week and when you should schedule writing your paper. Have a large paper due that needs 10 sources? They can show you how to find those sources, how to read the sources so you aren’t reading the whole thing, how you can divide the readings so you aren’t reading for hours, how to break your writing down into small chunks, and citation tools so you don’t have to know the rules of MLA or APA – just plug and chug. If you have to write more than one paper, they can show you how you can use the same sources to write multiple papers without plagiarizing yourself – because who wants to write three different 10-page papers from scratch each time?
See Ayrielle’s plan for the same assignment here:
Having this plan of attack where you make the assignments into smaller components will free up your nights and weekends. Having someone guide you through the gathering and managing of these assignments is also life-changing.
In the example above, Ayrielle meet with a librarian to collect resources on special education history in the United States (for her 560 paper) and how states issue special education licenses (612 paper). Since librarians know the most efficient way of finding resources, it means less time for Ayrielle to fumble around the building, online databases, and google scholar. While she may be only collected 5 fewer articles than say she had to do two unrelated papers, she saved a lot of time in the writing portion as much of her intro (literature review) paragraphs for 560 and 612 were the same. This left her around three or four pages of actual work she needed to do on the second paper than say 10 had she done a totally different topic. Bonus - one of her professors was a former special education teacher, so Ayrielle knew it would play in the professor’s bias positively.
If there are a lot of quizzes or tests in the syllabus, go to the professor’s office hours to review the class material to ensure you understand it a few days/weeks before the assessment. Most professors are happy to assist you, give you one-on-one tutoring or give you and some peer students a place to study near their office in case you have questions. If anything, if you are borderline in a graded area they may give you a more positive mark because you show them that you are trying to understand the material.
So when it’s time to take the test or submit the assignment, you got it in the bag without having to stress the night before.
AFTER:
After you complete the course – don’t throw away that syllabus. Keep it in a folder on your laptop or USB. The learning outcomes are great to pull from when you are drafting resumes and interviewing with future employers. Most of these courses were designed because accreditors (indirectly) or industry (directly) are saying these are the outcomes they want graduating students to know so they can have a job with their companies. While they know your program is reputable, they don’t know what you have learned, so tell them and show them.
If you are international and you are applying for a visa/work authorization in the U.S. – these syllabi may be asked for by the visa agent so they can build a case that you have the expert knowledge to perform your job.
We hope you find this helpful. Our next few blogs will be from Ayrielle showing her method of organizing assignments (mostly writing and submitting papers) but we love to hear from you – what skills do you have to share on how to be successful on day one?