Accept Responsibility
Remember that you alone are responsible for your academic achievement. Your instructor is your guide and your classmates may help you to understand your assignments; however, you are responsible for your own success.
Discipline Yourself
Discipline yourself to study everyday at least two hours or until you understand your assignment. Study to know and to understand, not merely to get a particular grade.
Manage Your Time
Manage your time well, so that you allow time for your personal responsibilities and time to study. Remember procrastination is a subtle thief that will steal your academic success.
Stay Ahead
Stay one or more chapters ahead in reading your textbook.
Help Yourself Then Ask for Help
If you are not keeping up in class, do all that you can do to help yourself to improve your academic performance. (For example: increase your study time, form a study group, study with a partner, and use all support services available to you at AMSC.) If you continue to experience difficulty, make an appointment with your instructors to talk about your academic performance.
Be Present and Prompt
Avoid being absent or tardy. You are required to attend classes from the first day that classes begin for the semester. Good attendance will give you first-hand knowledge of your instructors’ comments and responses to questions. Also, good attendance shows
Don’t Quit
Do not stop coming to class because of a personal crisis, problem, or frustration. AMSC faculty and staff can help you determine how to manage or cope with these situations. The Coordinator of Academic Advisement can tell you the best resource on campus to help you. If you stop coming to class you will earn an “F,” which will lower your GPA.
Communicate with Instructors
If you cannot come to class because you are ill, notify your instructors. Try to make arrangements to make up your missed assignments.
Do Your Best
Only your best is good enough. Strive for “A’s” and “B’s,” even if you have never earned “A’s” and “B’s
Diligently Work Until the End
Do not slow down after mid-semester. Work harder than you did at the beginning of the semester. Sustain your hard work until the end of the semester.
Use Support Services
Find out about AMSC’s support services and use them. (i.e., Academic Support Center, Student Support Services, Office of Academic Advisement, Office of Counseling and Testing, and Learning Support Counselors.)
Prerequisites
A prerequisite is a course that must be successfully completed prior to enrollment in another course (See the AMSC catalog for prerequisites.)
Stay Focused
Focus on your academic goals. As far as possible, eliminate negative influences and distractions that may prevent you from reaching your goal.