The Key to Success in College Intro STEM Courses

People who have been to college or are raising college students offer a wide range of answers to this question:

• Students are distracted by too many activities in their social groups and dorms

• The classes are just harder

• Class sizes are much larger

• They are weeder courses 

• My kid has ADHD 

• Students are eating ice cream every night at the cafeteria

• The professors are mean and don’t care 

• The professors don’t speak english 

• They don’t know how to study 

To be fair, many of these explanations play a role, but they lack complexity and they do not allow for solutions. Your child’s dorm hallway is not going to get any quieter, their professor’s English isn’t going to improve within the course of the semester, and they aren’t going to stop eating all-you-can-eat ice cream for dinner. And why should they? There are THREE FLAVORS IN THE MACHINE and the evidence-based connection between ADHD and sugar is dubious at best. 

So, let’s look at the real root of the difference between a high school education and a college education, because it actually lends itself to practical solutions. 

Structure vs Rigor 

For organizational simplicity, I characterize the educational challenge of a STEM course in two ways - structure vs rigor. 

A highly structured course will involve many quizzes, homework and class assignments, thorough feedback for those quizzes and assignments, pre-determined work groups, seating charts, suggested resources for extra studying/practice, and more. 

A high level of rigor will involve complex, complicated content, difficult homework and even more difficult test questions. And, all of that complex content is thrown at students at a breakneck pace. 

High school courses, much more often than college courses, tend to have a high level of structure, especially when they have a high level of rigor. A high school calculus course, for example, may have a short quiz every week or every other week, then 5 or more tests over a 20 week semester. Students are usually assigned homework 4-5 days a week, with an associated answer key so they can get in-the-moment feedback on their understanding. Generally, a lot of pressure is put on teachers by parents and school staff to make sure students are given every opportunity to succeed, as course grades are seen as monumental to students’ admission to college and ultimate life success. 

College STEM courses, in contrast, tend to have a low level of structure and high level of rigor. A classic first year calculus course at a large university will commonly have 500 or more students and 1-2 professors. There are usually short weekly homework assignments in these courses, but little to no feedback is given on student work. Then, with this very low level of structure, students’ grades are determined mainly by tests, which just happen around 3-5 times in a semester, and ask of students the highest levels of content rigor presented in the course. In a course like this, if a student fails more than 1-2 tests, they likely won’t be able to pass the course. 

What students usually do, and what works better

Many students entering college, especially those from high-structure high school courses, never had to make and execute a study plan. They may have made some flash cards or gone to office hours for some extra help on a practice test, but when their class provides all the structure they need, they simply have to follow instructions to be successful. Given the high level of rigor and low structure of college STEM courses, simply following instructions and completing the work isn’t sufficient. 

A good place to start is to remember that college is a full-time job. Most full time jobs require at least 35-40 hours per week of work. If a student is enrolled in 4 courses, they will likely be in class for those courses a total of around 12-14 hours per week. That means study and homework completion should encompass at least 20-25 hours per week. Typically, STEM classes will demand a majority of that work, so it is common that a student does 6-8 hours worth of work for one college STEM course outside of class time. 

Now, the more important question - what should they do with that time? 

A student accustomed to high structure, high rigor courses in high school will more easily come up with ideas for this, as their high school courses model learning activities that are effective. If their college course doesn’t have quizzes weekly, they should make and complete their own using a gradual buildup of challenge in terms of the kinds of problems they complete. If their college course doesn’t implement small group study in any meaningful way, they should get a group of students together to do some group problem solving weekly. Most importantly, I recommend completing (or at least trying) the required homeworks/practice tests as early as possible each week so their extra practice is based on the challenges they experienced trying to complete the required assignments. 

Students from low rigor, low structure courses will likely have a harder time building these structures. For these students, in addition to some googling to come up with these strategies, I recommend connecting with on-campus tutoring and going to office hours every week. In office hours, ask these kinds of questions to figure out how you could study better:

• Where should I find extra study problems/questions?

• How much of the above should I be doing? 

• How soon before the next test should I start studying, beyond the weekly homework?

• Is there anything specific you really recommend students do? I am finding I have pretty limited time, any one thing you think is most important? 

• Have you met any other students coming to office hours looking for similar support? I’d love to reach out and start a study group. Or maybe you could pass on my information?

Despite the challenging transition, the resources needed to be successful in college STEM courses are out there! They just require creativity and self-assessment to find and implement effectively.