Recommendations for effective university study

What is it about?

This research examined what university students recommend for effective university study and whether their recommendations differ by gender, faculty or study programme degree. The research was based on 985 questionnaires. The following words were most commonly used in advice for freshmen: Go, Lectures, Learn, Continuously, Be, Prepare, Information, Have, Do, Materials. The fundamental advice seems to be: to go to lectures, to have needed materials and information and to learn and prepare continuously. Some stated recommendations react to the development of information and communication technologies and the massive usage of the Internet (such as obtaining a laptop and a cell phone or setting up a Facebook profile). Quite a lot of advice was connected with health, such as to sleep enough, to eat regularly, to not smoke, to relax and to restrict alcohol consumption. The recommendations gained in this survey were categorised by thematic similarities to characteristics, knowledge, skills, behaviour and background. The findings highlight the fact that given recommendations for effective study differ by the respondent’s gender and faculty. Women concentrated more on recommendations on how to behave and men mentioned more often what personality characteristics are important for effective university study. Students of the Faculty of Multimedia Communications highlighted the necessity of creativity and practical experience more often than others.

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Photo by Juan Ramos on Unsplash

Photo by Juan Ramos on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The basic question of the conducted study was: What would students recommend to their best friend beginning of his/her university study in the specific field in order to study effectively? The strategies for effective university study are examined on the basis of students’ recommendations for university freshmen, because 1) junior college students acquire information primarily from interpersonal sources, e.g., from friends that they have on campu , 2) such recommendations are probably based on students’ personal experience and their ideas about university setting and 3) such advice might point out on such determinants of a university adaptation, academic performance or academic success (which are not examined enough in the current literature).