In Spring 2013, Hanover College's Learning Center invited students to submit essays for a contest on "how to succeed during your first term at Hanover." 
This personal narrative was the winner. 

N.B.: The paragraph numbers provided are not part of the original documents.

Jennie Dumaine (Hanover College, Class of 2013)

{1} Before I arrived on campus, I was well aware of the reputation of Hanover College and had mentally prepared myself for four grueling years of a language arts curriculum. Despite the fact that I was a straight “A” student in high school, I convinced myself that A’s were impossible at Hanover; I would just settle for the best I could do. The first weeks of classes only reinforced my fears.  I had never been given so many reading assignments, lab worksheets, and Spanish exercises. The work never seemed to end! Eventually I developed a method to complete everything, but it usually involved skipping reading assignments for my science classes because the professor would cover the material in class anyway. My classmates weren’t reading the textbook either, so we were all in the same situation. In our minds, we never had a quiz, so there was no point.

{2} I was able to get by with this mentality until about halfway through the first semester, when the material in my Chemistry class expanded beyond my background from high school. Each night before class I thought, “Why waste time reading when I could be doing something else more productive?” I received my wakeup call after failing two consecutive chemistry quizzes on acids, bases, and buffers. I had never before failed a test and was shocked! In preparation for the quizzes, I had done all the homework problems and even some other practice problems, but apparently this was not enough. I met with the professor and the first question he asked was, “Well, did you do the reading for class?”

{3} I decided to give the reading thing a try, but it didn’t seem to make a difference at first; however, over time, I noticed I could follow the class lectures much better. Instead of just simply reading the material, I began to make my own outlines as I read. For me, handwriting the material was beneficial because I could draw figures, rewrite formulas, and include example problems from the book.  I really liked using different colors to distinguish between sections in the book, so it was easier to find the material later when using my study guides for the exam.  Although reading was more time consuming, the resulting study guides I made were more useful later. Occasionally I could even recall material for the exam based upon the colored figures I drew. Reading the textbook was truly the key! Despite failing two quizzes, I was able to do well enough throughout the remainder of the semester to earn an “A” in the course because of my new found study strategy. Now, looking back as a senior science major, I attribute my accomplishments to reading my textbook and making homemade study guides. If you wish to be successful in the sciences, READ YOUR BOOK AND TAKE NOTES! Just try it and see what happens! Receiving “A’s” in the sciences is certainly an attainable feat and using your textbook will only make this goal more feasible.