Student Survival Guide Tips and Best Practices

Student Survival Guide

Tips and Best Practices for Using the Internet for Academic Purposes

Be cautious when using sources like Wikipedia or other sites that have user-generated content. While these sites can contain a significant amount of useful, accurate information, they are also likely to contain misinformation. However, that does not mean that the user should reject them entirely. A well-written Wikipedia article will have a significant number of references, and examining those references can be a good starting point for research.

Using academic reference sites will lead to more reliable information. The university may provide students access to those websites. If unable to access these for-pay academic websites, a student may use free sites like Google scholar or PubMed to find academic resources.

The internet can be a great resource for books as well as articles. Many books are available for free on Google Books or similar sites.

Tips and Best Practices for using University of Phoenix's Technology Tools and University Library

1. Familiarize myself with the University resources prior to when I have an assignment.

2. Make sure that I can access all of the technology tools and the library, and address any problems immediately.

3. Use the available resources to check on work prior to turning it in to the professor.

Tips and Best Practices for Upholding Academic Honesty

1. Familiarize myself with the University's rules and regulations regarding academic honesty.

2. Familiarize myself with state laws regarding academic honesty; for example, some states make it illegal to purchase work with the intent of using it to help with an assignment, making even tutoring a questionable practice, if the tutor engages in assistance on specific assignments that are turned in for a grade.

3. When using secondary sources, ensure that the sources have properly cited their sources, to avoid inadvertent plagiarism.

4. Use a resource such as turnitin.com in order to detect and avoid accidental plagiarism.

5. Do not turn in anyone else's work, or work previously completed for another course, for credit.

6. Be prepared to deal with scenarios in which other students may be engaging in academic dishonesty and determine, prior to being confronted with that scenario, the appropriate way to handle the situation.

7. Group work presents a particular risk for a student wishing to uphold academic honesty policies; if a situation arises in a group-work scenario where a student has reason to suspect, but no proof that a fellow group member is engaging in academic dishonesty, the student should approach the professor.

Tips and Best Practices for Setting and Achieving Goals

1. Divide goals into long-term goals and short-term goals.

2. Ensure that the short-term goals will lead to accomplishing the long-term goals. If not, revise the short-term goals.

3. Do not set a goal without also having a plan for achieving that goal. For example, having a goal of maintaining an all -- A average is not sufficient; instead, the student must have a goal for how to maintain that average.

4. Allow sufficient time to achieve goals.

5. Evaluate strengths and weaknesses when establishing goals. For example, if an all -- A average is one of my goals, but I find math to be a particularly challenging subject, then success in that area may require hiring a tutor, taking a lighter course load, and more active involvement with my professor in that class.

6. Build goals sequentially. Make sure that all of the steps necessary to achieve a goal have been accomplished prior to trying to tackle that goal.

7. Devote sufficient time to self; make achieving goals the priority

8. Beware of the mental-health hazards of constant work; build recreational time into the goal-achieving schedule in order to avoid burnout.

Tips and Best Practices for Managing Time Wisely

1. Identify the things most likely to waste my study time. I find it difficult to concentrate on any task unless my home is clean. Therefore, in order to maximize my study time, I need to ensure that my home is clean before sitting down to study, or, if that is not possible, seek out a different study time.

2. Set aside a dedicated time for studying. Like many students, I have many other demands on my time in addition to school. Therefore, I am setting aside time for each class, and spending that amount of time studying for each course should keep me from falling behind.

3. Try to minimize distractions. An hour of distraction-free time may be sufficient for studying and homework, then the same tasks would take twice as long with other distractions. This may mean going to the library or a similar place for studying, or studying before the family has woken up in the morning or after they are in bed for the night.