Academic Success Skills Workshops
Welcome to the Academic Success Workshops website. The workshops listed below will provide students with the opportunity to learn and adopt methods and strategies that promote success in college and beyond. Students will learn to develop their skills, maximize university resources, and develop habits to achieve their personal and academic goals. Workshops are open to all, but advanced registration is strongly encouraged (space is limited for in-person workshops). To register for a workshop, select the date of the workshop you want to attend. NOTE: After regstering, you will recieve an email from ACADEMIC SUCCESS WORKSHOPS containing workshop deails (Location or Zoom Link). Check your spam folder, or junk mail, If you do not receive the confirmation message within a few minutes of registering. Email Questions to asw@msu.edu
Academic Time Management
Facilitator: Seven Mattes, Ph.D.
Description: Achieve academic success by moving beyond basic planners and calendars; learn how adding a few simple time management techniques to your routine can significantly improve your academic performance and reduce the anxiety that comes with procrastination.
Tuesday, September 13, 3pm – 4pm
Tuesday, October 18, 2pm - 3pm
Thursday, October 6, 10am - 11am (Zoom)
Annotate Your Way to Higher Grades
Facilitator: Brandy Ellison, Ph.D.
Description: Research shows that students who learn how to annotate texts and lectures tend to significantly increase their grades while spending less time studying. This workshop teaches easy, time-saving, annotation skills to replace less efficient methods when you really need to understand large quantities of new information. Underlining, highlighting, outlining, or copying of text content you may be doing now can all be good strategies, but may not be the most efficient learning strategy for more challenging reading tasks. This workshop will help you become a more engaged, strategic, and efficient reader.
Wednesday, September 28, 5pm – 6pm
Tuesday, November 1, 11am – 12pm
Get Over Procrastination
Facilitator: Seven Mattes, Ph.D.
Description: Procrastination saps the energy and undermines the potential accomplishments of many talented people; so many of us see procrastination as an unwelcome but unavoidable part of our lives and even think it might be some sort of character flaw. The fact is that procrastination has many causes, and the key is to focus on making it easier to NOT procrastinate on high priority tasks. This workshop will teach you how small changes in your thinking, your routines, your habits, and your surroundings can make it easier for you to get essential things done while saving mental and emotional energy.
Thursday, September 15th , 1:30pm - 2:30pm
Tuesday, October 4th, 6pm - 7pm (Zoom)
Thursday, October 6th, 12pm - 1pm
Get Ready for Finals
Facilitator: Nate Clason, Ph.D.
Description: Learn easy strategies to prioritize learning goals and schedule study time for Finals Week. This session will also review a few high-performance study and time management strategies to help you give your best performance on final exams.
Tuesday, November 8, 9am – 10am
Wednesday, November 16, 7pm - 8pm (Zoom)
High Impact Study Strategies I
Facilitator: Kirby Gibson, M.S.
Description: Learn some simple, scientifically proven techniques that promote superior recall both on exams and in future classes in less time than “massed” study sessions (cramming).
Wednesday, September 14th 11:30am – 12:30pm
Thursday, September 22nd 9am – 10am (Zoom)
Tuesday, October 4th 9am – 10am
High Impact Study Strategies II
Facilitator: Sara Morales, M.A.
Description: Learn more powerful tools, (building on HIgh Impact Study Techniques 1): elaboration, dual coding, and concrete examples along with some equally effective graphical and analytical strategies can improve your understanding and recall of high priority course concepts.
Tuesday, October 4th 10am - 11am
Thursday, October 27th 1:30pm - 2:30pm
Monday, November 14th 7pm - 8pm (Zoom)
Mathematics Success Skills
Facilitator: Sam Drake, Ph.D.
Description: Do you sometimes feel that the time you spend studying isn’t reflected in your exam scores? It doesn’t mean that you’re just “not good at math.” Come learn some study, practice, and test-taking strategies that, if incorporated into your math study routine and test-taking strategies can help you improve your success and confidence in math classes.
Thursday, October 13th 10am -11am
Tuesday, October 18th, 12pm – 1pm
Friday, November 4th, 1:30pm – 2:30pm (Zoom)
More Than Memorizing
Facilitator: Sam Drake, Ph.D.
Description: Learn study strategies that will take you beyond the memorization you have used successfully in the past. In this workshop, we will build on study strategies you have already have mastered to branch out into new strategies, that reinforce recall while expanding your higher order reasoning skills, preparing you to excel in the critical thinking and application, evaluation questions that will become increasingly common in your exams as you advance in your college studies.
Monday, September 19th 4pm – 5pm
Tuesday, October 4th, 11am - 12pm
Wednesday, November 16th, 10:30am – 11:30am
Prioritize Like a Pro
Facilitator: Sara Morales, M.A.
Description: In this workshop, we will discuss time management and prioritization with an emphasis on tools and strategies. Bring your schedules, to-do lists, and planners to this session so you can practice during the workshop. We will discuss how to balance competing priorities and manage your tasks based on your own schedule. We will also discuss options for planners, to-do lists, and other productivity tools.
Wednesday, October 26, 6pm - 7pm
Monday, November 14, 10:30am - 11:30am
Taming Your Texts
Facilitator Shayla Young, Ed.D.
Description: Don’t let your course readings be an obstacle to success. If you have trouble getting through your reading assignments, remembering what you have read, or making connections between readings and lectures, you may have fallen into a pattern of passive reading. Do you want to find out how to read with purpose and efficiency? This workshop will teach you to think strategically about efficient reading strategies. You will also learn ways to read for better recall and long-term retention.
Friday, October 14th 1:30pm – 2:30pm
Tuesday, November 8th, 12:30pm – 1:30pm (Zoom)
The Most Effective Note-Taking Strategies
Facilitator: Shannon Habedel Ed.D.
Description: Do you find yourself taking notes and then not knowing how to study them later? Or maybe the way you take notes just isn’t working for every class. This workshop will introduce you to different strategies to revitalize your note-taking and and increase the variety of note-taking and note-using methods you can use for different purposes including note-taking during lectures, reviewing new material, deep study, and other circumstances.
Friday, September 16, 1pm - 2pm (Zoom)