It is a fact that college and university degree programs contain ample students who struggle with the prospect of concentrating in the class. While the case only worsens in tedious and challenging courses requiring a conceptual and thought-provoking mindset.
Many students admit that they have a problem concentrating in the class, but don’t know how to tackle the issue. This is quite a big problem especially prevailing in college and university life where the ever-increasing academic and campus obligations make it easy for the student to tip him- or herself off the learning scale.
Although there are many promising and brilliant strategies to help you in this regard, as for this discussion, we are going to talk about the one that lies in the motivational and organizational aspect of the student’s psychology.
A Motivational and Organizational Strategy
It’s not about following some rocket science tips to bring your brain and gaze back on the teacher and the whiteboard in the lecture, rather the students should cater the following thing and experience the change themselves.
Fabricate interest in the work
It’s simple if you are not interested in the subject matter delivered by the teacher during the lecture, obviously, there is little or no chance you will be able to focus. You concentrate well when developing the interest in the subject. For example, if you are about to attend the class of differential calculus, and have no interest in pre-calculus concepts or have weak foundations in particular, it will be very difficult for the student to focus on the lecture, let alone understanding the advanced theorems and their applications in physics.
Students should devise ways to develop an interest in the course, the focus in the class lectures will automatically follow. One of the simplest, yet effective way to develop interest is by previewing the topic prior to attending the next class. How to preview a topic before the lecture is a different thing altogether which you can learn from various online resources. The trick is to locate the topics in the chapter that attracts you the most. Even locating a couple of topics will do great in enhancing your motivation level, hence, urging you to read the complete chapter as well.
Another way of raising interest in the task is by altering the task itself. If you see that chapters you need to read are too boring and exhausting, instead of simply ‘reading’ them, do something interesting. For instance, take notes or examine the diagrams, images, while reading. Try to write questions in the margin of the text while reading. The point is to do anything that encourages you to not only read the content but also “consume” it in a meaningful manner.
When we talk about writing assignments that students are provided throughout the term or semester, try completing the project in chunks, for example, one study session for research, second session for filtering and organizing the information, and writing and editing, and so on. This will keep your concentration sharp for as long as possible. Speaking of spaced practice, it will allow the learner to cater the reading and writing assignments in defined intervals with the aim to keep your motivation and concentration level fresh, as compared to the massed approach where students foolishly try to cover the entire bulk of the subject material in one session.
Simply speaking, if you are not feeling like reading the entire chapter “The Reasons for the Fall of Adolf Hitler in World War 2” for the history class, reading only a couple of or three topics/reasons in one session will be less boring and tiresome. Switch to a different activity and come back to resume the task.
The point to understand is that keeping your concentration up and running not only helps you focus in the class but also assists the student in retaining the information strongly in his or her long-term memory (LTM).
Author Bio
Lara Hawkins is a professional psychologist and has the experience of conducting various field related seminars and workshops worldwide. Besides her regular job and passion in writing informative blogs for students and professionals, Lara is also an accomplished custom assignment writing specialist with a registered client/student base under her belt in a variety of disciplines.