How to be a Successful Student

What Makes a Student?
A student must possess a number of qualities in order to be really considered a person dedicated to study and the acquisition of knowledge. Those traits include: motivation, organization, and dedication. Without these three traits, an individual will not be a student, let alone a good one or one who succeeds in academic advancement at any level. This paper will analyze why motivation, organization and dedication are three positive traits that a student will have, no matter what the discipline is or where the study is taking place.
The idea that motivation is the driving force of human behavior was first put forward by Maslow in 1943. Maslow identified a hierarchy of needs that explained the motivation of human behavior: people acted according to whatever level of needs had to be met at a given time. There was a basic level of needs—i.e., the need for shelter, food, love, etc.—and a higher level of need that culminated in self-actualization, the ability to be self-motivated for no other reason that the individual desired to achieve something positive. This sense of self-actualization—this ultimate motivational drive—is what a student requires in order to succeed in education. Without the right drive, there will be no force powerful enough to propel the student to engage with material that he or she will be expected to learn. Motivation is the most crucial quality that a student has to possess and it is crucial trait in academia.
An ability to be organized is just as necessary. An organized person is one who knows how to sparse out the time. Disorganization leads to chaos—running about at the last minute to try to finish an assignment; missing classes because of late nights; an inability to prioritize and schedule time effectively. In order to be a good student, one must know how to organize the day, plan one’s tasks, assess the requirements for each class and prioritize accordingly. Student life requires setting aside time for study, time for reading, time for going to class, time for doing homework—and also time for recreation, which allows the mind and body a bit of rest so that both can be restored and refreshed enough to get back to work when it is time. Organization is the skill that allows the student to do all these things and to do them well. A successful student will always be one who is able to organize appropriately.
Finally, being a student requires dedication (Dunkle). This is not a time in one’s life that resembles a fly-by-night operation. This is a time that requires serious commitment. Consider it like getting married—except instead of marrying a spouse, one is marrying his or her textbooks, a discipline, a way of life which is study: one has to dedicate oneself to the pursuit of the goal—graduation. In order to see far enough ahead and persevere to the end goal, the student must have this trait—this ability to dedicate oneself to a mission and stick to it no matter what. In this case, the mission is education and the student has a one-track mind: getting to graduation day.
In conclusion, three traits that make a student are motivation, organization and dedication. Motivation helps propel the student: it is the drive, the engine, the gasoline that fuels the student and pushes him forward. If there is no motivation, there will be no student getting up out of bed to sit in class and soak up the learning. Organization is another trait that makes a student: it gives the student the structure needed to make it all work. Organization is like the lines in the road that keep the student in the right lane. Then there is dedication: unless the student is committed to reaching the destination, he might veer off and take a side road somewhere else.
Works Cited
Dunkle, Sue. “Five qualities of successful students.” Beyond Today, 2011.
https://www.ucg.org/vertical-thought/five-qualities-of-successful-students
Maslow, A. H. “A theory of human motivation.” Psychological Review, 50.4 (1943): 370.