Study Skills

                 The increase in workload that marks the change from school to college can prove to
be overwhelming for some students. Burying your self in books all the time is not
the solution to dealing with this increased work pressure. Instead the solution lies in
developing effective study skills:

Set Your Study Agenda for the Day
Refer to your weekly planner to check for imminent deadlines and upcoming quizzes.
Prioritize your work and set up goals for what needs to be accomplished on a given day.
It is often helpful to plan your next day the night before.

Get a feel for your reading material
The amount of reading that some courses require at LUMS, particularly Social Science
courses, can be overwhelming for students at the start of their university career. Sifting
mindlessly through pages after pages of a seemingly never-ending reading can get you
nowhere. So, instead you can start off by getting a sense of what you are up for by
glancing at the chapter headings and going through the short introduction at the top of
each chapter. Getting a sense of the reading material at the start would save you from
losing track of things half way through.

The Importance of Extra-curricular Involvement

Involvement with student societies and extra-curricular activities plays a critical role in
helping students adjusts to their college environment and feel integrated into their college
community. It helps them develop valuable social support structures, friendships and
connections and experience a more satisfying undergraduate education.

Following are excerpts from Dr. Richard J. Light's Book, Making the Most of College:
"Students speak their minds (Harvard University Press, 2002). These passages quote
studies and findings from Dr. Light's own interviews of Harvard undergraduates that
confirm the great importance of involvement in extra-curricular and campus activities
outside the classroom.

Academic Difficulty and Probation

At LUMS, students are placed on academic probation when their CGPA falls below 2.0 on a 4.0 Scale. Probation is a serious academic condition, and if the student fails to show improvement in their academic performance in the semester after being placed on probation, they are in danger to being separated from the undergraduate program.

If you are in Academic trouble or Academic Probation, seek the support of your faculty advisor or advising staff at the LUMS OSA as soon as possible. The sooner you alert others that you need help, the more chances you'll have to getting the support you need in time for you to recover academically.

What factors contribute to a student's slump to academic probation?

"Embarrassment, disappointment and desolation can be felt by a student who has failed to meet the academic requirements of his or her institution. Imagine experiencing all of these emotions and not knowing how to get back on track....probationary students desperately need help and support"

Dealing with Emotional Distress

Introduction

One of our goals at the LUMS Office of Student Affairs is to promote a sense of community and belonging among students at LUMS. In building this sense of community, the most powerful message that we convey to our students is that they are not alone in times of distress. Emotional distress is often triggered and intensified by a feeling of isolation. When students feel that their emotional well being is of no concern to their peers or their faculty, distress can turn into desperation, leading the student to act in ways that cause harm to their own selves or those around them.


Students at college everywhere are faced with many challenges that university life throws at them. In addition to surviving academically and preparing for further graduate study or professional careers, students are also involved in a process of becoming unique and independent adults, deciding on career alternatives, creating personal value systems and developing significant relationships. Most of these challenges are essential for students 9 develop and grow. It provides students with the opportunity to develop character, perseverance the ability to handle stress and pressure and to manage time. However, students handle the challenges with varying degrees of success. The problems they face at LUMS may overwhelm them emotionally, causing a decline in mood, performance and quality of life.

If you are facing problems coping with life at LUMS, you should confide in faculty members you respect and who you may consider a mentor.

Strategies for Academic Success at LUMS

                      

Time Management

Learning how to manage your time effectively is crucial to academic success and to experiencing a fulfilling university life. Surprise quizzes, assignments, and multiple deadlines on a single day are routine in the schedule of any LUMS undergraduate student. The key to effectively juggling all these demands is to develop good time management skills, from the very start of your undergraduate career. Consider these strategies:

Planning your Semester Activities

It is always helpful to get a feel for what lies ahead in the semester at the very start of a term. To this end, it is useful to maintain a semester planner on which you can jot down the important dates and deadlines (like the mid-term and the final exam schedule). Planning can also be done for different university events as well as for participation in extracurricular activities. As the semester progresses, fresh additions can be made to this schedule as new assignment, project and paper deadlines are communicated. Laying a framework for your weekly activities. 

Your Freshman Year at LUMS

                      Understanding Your Transition to University

"Young women and men arriving at college immediately confront a set of decisions. Which courses to choose? What subject to specialize in? What activities to join? How much to study? How to study? Such decisions are intensely personal. Often they are made with little information. Yet their consequences can be enormous. A subject that is bypassed, or study habits that are mismatched for certain classes, can result in limited options, reduced opportunities, or closed doors. Advisors play a critical role. They can ask a broad array of questions, and make a few suggestions, that can affect students in a profound and continuing way."

(p. 84, Making the Most of College, Richard J. Light, Harvard University)

Your transition to university involves significant changes on all dimensions of your life: academic, personal and social, and it must be understood that adjusting to these changes might take time. If you are facing difficultly adjusting academically or socially to LUMS, you must be patient and allow yourself time to grow into your new life at LUMS

The Importance of Time Management

Our Experience at LUMS 

    Require students to keep time logs. I ask each student to record exactly how his or her time is spent, half_hour-by-half_hour, for several weeks. Then I sit and debrief each student, one-to-one, about what his or her time log shows. A crucial focus in the debriefing should be on how time in between scheduled obligations is used. For example, a student with a class from 9 to 10 a.m., and then another class from noon to 1 p.m., has two hours of in-between time. How should the student use this time? He or she may choose to chat with friends or go back to the room to study. He or she may want to do a few errands or do some physical exercise. There is no single correct thing to do. Rather, whatever he or she chooses, the key point is that it should be done with some thought.