6 tips for success from U of A’s Academic Success Centre

The start of a new semester is always overwhelming. To get advice on how to combat this The Gateway interviewed Associate Director of the Academic Success Centre, Stephen Kuntz.

With 30 years of experience as a teacher, Kuntz has had the chance to mentor students. Here are six tips he believes will allow students to gear up for academic success.

1) Learn about time

Kuntz said students should learn how to organize, manage, and control their time instead of allowing themselves to be pushed and controlled by it. 

“I think one of the biggest thing students don’t understand is much of university is about learning how to prioritize time,” he said.

For example, students can prioritize their activities and decide when or if they participate in each of them. In his view, students should balance activities and limit time spent on less urgent and important tasks or activities.

2) Make small choices count

Second, students must understand the small choices they make every day to make them count. 

“If a student chooses to go out with a friend on study night, it is a small choice which affects how they do in their exam the next day.” 

He added that small choices create a ripple effect affecting their relationships, emotions, and so on. For Kuntz, by watching our daily, small choices, other factors like studying or assignment deadlines become easier to manage.

3) Stretch yourself

Kuntz encouraged students to challenge themselves and say yes to choices they’d normally not agree to. 

Although some students think success is choosing the easy professor, Kuntz believes it ultimately hurts them. 

“Choose professors that are going to be tough, but fair and are going to push you to become better.” 

He said you might fail, but treat your failures as doors to success and adopt the growth mindset by using your failures to help you grow. 

4) Acquire perspective

Kuntz recommended to sit in different seats, both figuratively and literally. Furthermore, he said getting to know the different kinds of people around you who represent several countries allows you to better understand different perspectives and enables you to better debate.

“[There is] huge opportunity that we have in university,” Kuntz explained. “We’ve got 4,000 people around [us] from hundreds of countries, different language, different culture, and different perspective.” 

Kuntz said you might not change yourself; nevertheless, take your opportunity to immerse yourself in new perspectives.

5) Less is more

Kuntz said that if you do less, you do more in those areas as opposed to trying to do everything and anything. While participating in extracurriculars is important, Kuntz said over-participating becomes overwhelming and counterproductive by increasing the possibility of missing small, important things.

6) Be professional 

Kuntz said we should all be “professional” students, meaning students should approach schooling as they would a job. For him, this means coming to class on time as if students would do for their job. That way they do not miss anything or create extra stress by rushing.

Additionally, Kuntz said another way for students to be professional is by using their resources to become good communicators and asking for help if they need it.