Get Off the Struggle Bus: How to Set Yourself Up for Success and Ask for Help

Do you have a dedicated notebook or binder for each of your subjects? 

Do you come with the proper tools (pencil pen, calculator, laptop, etc.)?

Have you gotten enough sleep the night before so that your mind can be sharp? 

Are you taking notes during class? (Pro-tip: handwritten notes have more staying power for learners than typing notes on a computer.)

Are you actively participating in class? Often teachers will vary the activities during class time, whether that’s asking the class to engage in a discovery type activity, spending some time lecturing, or prompting the class to share and work on sample problems. What are YOU doing when those things happen? Be sure to be an active participant throughout class. 

Highlight the areas in which you are having difficulty or make a list. As a teacher is lecturing or giving notes, put little markings on the side of your notes to indicate a struggle spot. Do the same with your homework. Make a list of the things or concepts you don’t understand. Bring this list of notes with you when you ask for help.

Put in the time. Doing your homework isn’t enough. Practice is important but it has to be done the right way - I call this “perfect practice.” What does that mean? Well, what if you do your homework and you get all of the answers wrong? Did you do the work? Yes. But clearly your process was flawed, and if your process is flawed, you’re never going to make progress. So before you even begin your assignment, be sure to review your notes, the textbook, and if applicable, the sample problems available to you. Then as you do the assignment, you’ll need to intentionally confirm your answers and your process are correct. That will look different in different subjects. In math or science, the answers might be posted by the teacher or in the back of a textbook. Check them. If you’re consistently getting them wrong, it’s time to tap into other resources like online education platforms or one-on-one sessions with your teacher. They say “practice makes perfect” but “perfect practice” is the act of making sure you’re doing the work the right way so as to attain the correct results. All of this takes time, but it’s the only way to ensure that you’re learning the material necessary to succeed both in your current classes and in the future. 

Make corrections. When material is reviewed in class, whether by the teacher or through student presentations, it is critical that you take the time to make corrections to your own work. Sometimes you will be able to identify the source of your errors yourself but other times you might still have some trouble figuring out what you did wrong. If that has not happened to you yet, believe me that it is going to happen at some point. What can you do to bring clarity to your confusion? Seek help…our next bullet point!

Seek help. There’s nothing like a back-and-forth dialogue with a teacher or peer in situations where you can’t understand your error. You share your initial thoughts and impressions as well as any attempts you’ve made on your own to solve the problem, and then get some feedback on those things. You then take that feedback, tweak your approach, make another attempt, and have some more back-and-forth about the new attempt. Asking questions in class is great and you should continue to do that, but you should also seek help outside of class. 

Make a dedicated plan. If you want to see a change, then make a plan. As Ben Franklin said, “By failing to plan, you are preparing to fail.” Do yourself a favor and reach out to your teacher. Most teachers will have their extra-help availability posted somewhere. Look at your schedule and your teacher’s availability and make a dedicated plan. Be specific with it. Don’t simply say, “I will go for help two days a week.” Quantify it. For example, you may notice that on a certain day in the schedule, your teacher is free during the same block as you. Plan to go for help every time that occurs in the schedule. It might look like the following: “On Day A1, I will go to the math center for help on the third block.” Maybe there’s a day after school that works for you and your teacher. Then the plan is, “I will go for extra help Thursdays from 2:30 to 3:00.” Talk with your teacher so that you have your plan officially scheduled. Put it in your calendar or wherever you keep track of appointments. If things come up and you cannot make the appointment for some reason, be sure to reach out and let your teacher know.

Become an expert and believer in you. You need to become an expert in you, and then believe in yourself. Know how you learn and set yourself up for success. Maybe you need to ask your teacher to seat you up front or away from your friends, because you know that you can be easily distracted. Maybe you need to spend a little less time on TV and games after school, waiting until after all of your homework is done to turn on the screens. Maybe you need to take time every day reviewing content rather than cramming for a test at the last minute. Maybe you need to put your phone in another room when you study, to avoid the temptation of distraction. You can succeed - there’s no doubt - but YOU need to believe in you. Take yourself as far as you can go and realize that there are lots of tools and people in place to help you get even further.