Try College 101

The five most basic building blocks of learning in college and elsewhere are reading, writing, listening, taking notes, and studying. You have already learned how to improve your reading skills in Unit 4 and explored your learning style in Unit 5. This unit introduces you to concepts that will also improve the learning skills you use during class, including listening and taking notes during instruction and discussion. You almost certainly already know how to practice these skills to some extent, but this unit provides you with tools to practice these skills more efficiently.

Like any other skill, the key to improving your effectiveness in listening, taking notes, reading, and studying is to understand each skill better. Just as a baseball player or golfer will not get better at hitting the ball by continuing to swing poorly over and over, you will not become a better listener by continuing to listen poorly! The athlete needs to look at his swing, get advice on how to swing better, and practice the better swing. Even professional athletes analyze their performance in order to improve, so no matter how good you already are at the skills covered in this unit, you can always work on these skills in order to become a better student.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 6 hours.