For more success in your studies, you should think about creating a personal study area. Our mind associates activities with certain areas of our homes. (This is why the experts say not to have a tV in the bedroom if you suffer from insomnia.) If you create a space that you only use to use to study,you will have an easier time getting down to work when you enter the space . Don’t use the area for anything else. It isn’’t the place to eat a snack, paint your nails, or chatting to other family members. If you want to do any of these, leave your study area and do them somewhere else!

Make a rule that when you enter your study area that you are not to be disturbed. Your family members may have difficulty with this at first. Talk with them and make this a permanent, non-negotiable, rule, broken only in cases of emergency. You can help by scheduling your study times when other people are less likely to disturb you, and by building in time to spend with family and friends when you are not studying. If your study area is, by necessity, near a busy area where people are active, try to schedule your study time when that local activity is at its quietest, less busy times. Keep your cell phone switched off, unless you have to be available to colleagues from work. If you do have to be contactable at home by work colleagues, try to make contact first, to stop calls coming in when you are studying.

For some students it is not possible to have a dedicated personal study area in the home, or at least not a permanent one. For these students, a library is the best alternative. Libraries give you plenty of desk space to work from, a very quiet atmosphere, and, of course, reference and subject textbooks at your disposal. Today, many libraries also have pc and internet facilities for your use. Your workplace may be another excellent place to study during non-work hours.You may be able to use lunch breaks, and-or time before or after work, to fit in some study time. It may also be possible to arrange to use a meeting room or unoccupied office, at least on a short-term basis. Some students who find it impossible to study at home, make arrangements to go into the workplace on weekends and study there.

Photo by Thomas Anderson

Over the last week, I have driven over 2800 miles from Houston, TX to a small town in northern Alberta, Canada. There were so many stops and starts, so many delays along the way, and so much fear and agitation involved that it couldn’t help remind me of one of the toughest journeys I ever took in my life: that of a non-traditional student.

We decided to pull up stakes and move back to be closer to my family last month. Ummmm, no impulsiveness involved at all, right? The day job was getting to be a real grind, and I was getting nothing back in terms of emotional satisfaction or even any real financial gains. Even though it could be suicide financially to quit my job in today’s economic climate, I had to do it or lose any self-respect I had for myself. Sometimes you just have to close your eyes, take the plunge and do what’s right for yourself for once.

When I was driving on this long, long trip, I frequently encountered road construction. I was even almost wiped off the face of the planet by a moving van in a construction site near Edmonton.  When you decide to go back to school, you’ll go through your own road construction too. You’ll think you finally have all your paperwork in order for financial aid, only to find that your school has their own forms apart from the FAFSA you need filled out. Only they never bothered to tell you this! Or your daycare arrangements will fall through at the last minute.  Something will definitely happen to make you shriek in frustration.  But just like the road construction I encountered on my trip, it delayed my journey, but it never stopped it completely. Pick yourself up, and keep going.

Just like I had many doubters that thought I was crazy to move back to something not even big enough to call a hick town,  you’ll have many doubters that think that you’ll never actually enroll in classes either. The doubters have probably been stuck in the same rut you have been in for years, and they’ll be jealous that you have the guts to do something about your situation. Even though what they have been doing isn’t working for them either, they will stay firmly planted in their little assigned box, quaking with fear over trying anything new. When you decide to finally take action and do something to improve yourself and your prospects, it will rock certain people to the core. They will try their utmost to discourage you from enrolling in classes, making you doubt your intellectual abilities, your financial resources to return to school, your daycare arrangements, anything at all to get you to stay in that little confined box with them.

Don’t let them. Be your own hero. Get in your figurative car and drive it hard until you get to Diploma Town.

Photo by ALRowerGuy

Truthfully, I’d have to say that college is as much a test of endurance than it is a test of intelligence, especially for non-traditional students. Why do I say this? As a non-traditional students, we have so much on our plates already. Many of us have kids, and let’s face it–kids are needy little creatures! Just when you’re sitting down to do some heavy-duty studying for that mid-term test, Billy or Susie will suddenly decide that they need help with their own homework THAT VERY MINUTE! Just when you get your tuition and books paid for the upcoming semester, the fuel pump will decide to implode on your car. Even when you’ve asked to reduce your hours at work to accomodate your academic demands, the boss will greet you with mandatory overtime.

With all these obstacles in your way, you will no doubt encounter classes that seem totally meaningless to the point that you are in your life. My biggest example of this was a required course I had to take in Philosophy, entitled “The Philosophy of Human Nature.” OMG, that was the most boring course I took throughout my college career. I was thirty-five when I started college, and by that point, I knew who I was, and was really not that interested in the musings of Descartes and friends. Funny, by this point in my life I was way over wondering if  “I was really real or not,” and listening to a weird discourse the professor kept going back to about pink elephants on the ceiling. I was so completely uninterested in this course that I swore one day I had an out-of-body experience in class! I think the reason that this class was so brutal for me is that several studies about non-traditional students have pointed to the fact that non-traditional students want classes that are relevant to their lives, and have practical applications for their career aspirations. My patience for abstract theories that I could never apply to my own life was nil, and I know that in this I was not alone among my non-traditional student peers.

While it definitely takes brain power to get good grades, having a system to organize yourself to study effectively is just as important as being a brainiac. In these earlier posts, here and here,  I outlined some study tips to make yourself a better student. But unfortunately, you will have to endure many classes that will frustrate you to no end because they  because of their lack of practical application. Getting that undergraduate degree shows an employer that you have a stick-to-it attitude and that you are not a person who gives up easily when they encounter obstacles. I toast all non-traditional students today. Don’t give up; don’t give in. You will persevere despite all the odds, and despite all the doubters who think you will never get to that degree. You have the intelligence AND the endurance it takes to get that sheepskin.