This paper examines the multifaceted nature of academic success, moving beyond narrow definitions to explore six core components: satisfaction, achievement, competency, learning objectives, persistence, and career success. The paper argues that achieving academic success requires four key practices: setting meaningful educational goals, identifying one's personal learning style, developing effective writing and note-taking skills, and maintaining academic integrity. Drawing on research in motivational theory, Kolb's learning styles model, information literacy, and institutional ethics, the paper provides a practical framework for students seeking to maximize their academic and professional potential.
The definition of academic success is broad and complex; nonetheless, its misuse in educational circles is rampant, as it is often used to denote the achievement of all desired outcomes. A more comprehensive approach to defining academic success covers six components: satisfaction, academic achievement, competency and skill acquisition, attainment of learning objectives, persistence, and success in one's career (Travis T. York, 2015). Efficiently achieving academic success requires setting individual educational goals, implementing a learning style unique to the individual, utilizing all available resources, and maintaining academic integrity.
Having long-term academic goals — such as obtaining a Bachelor's Degree in Business and Accounting — enhances one's ability to complete short-term academic goals as stepping stones toward broader success.
Generally, research and motivational theory show that goal-setting, when done properly, is an effective way for students to increase their motivation. Students become motivated to achieve excellence in various assessments, and excellence itself becomes a goal toward which both students and their instructors work. It is not surprising that some students' only goal is to perform well in assessments. Richard Stiggins (1999) noted that the conventional way of spurring higher commitment and effort has been by warning students of grave consequences for failing to achieve minimum grades (Stiggins, R. J., 1999).
In a survey evaluating the impact of goal-setting, 40% of respondents noted overall positive changes in school and classroom climate, while 20% noted strong positive changes. There was also an increase in enthusiasm in the broader community: parents focused more on their children's academic performance and enforced stricter discipline at home, and some mentoring and tutoring programs emerged in the community. Having a particular endpoint to work toward is motivation enough for certain individuals. This explains why some students' motivation increases upon setting goals — whether short-term goals like doing well on a test or earning a particular grade, or long-term and less concrete goals like going to college (Alexandra Usher, 2012).
Knowing one's personal learning style — such as Reflective Observation and Concrete Experience — will enhance one's ability to succeed academically.
Learning style theories provide theoretical models of acquiring knowledge. Such models are necessarily approximations of what happens in real life, since learning is highly individual. In spite of this, studies indicate that models such as the one proposed by Kolb et al. (Kolb, A.Y. & D.A. Kolb, 2006) can be put to practical use, as they can help formulate concrete and specific action plans. These models help teachers recognize that students do not take the same approach to learning (Zorislava Zagorac, Ana Ivanis, & Sabina Nuhbegovic, n.d.).
Kolb's work reveals that the four types of learning vary according to adaptability and personality and tend to be associated with characteristic careers. It remains an open question whether such distribution occurs because of self-selection before professional and career training, or because of personal development and choices made during the training and educational process. For instance, sports coaches and teachers tend to gravitate toward active experimentation and concrete experience (AE/CE) in their learning style, while math teachers are more inclined toward reflective observation and abstract conceptualization (Pascal H. Burger & Michael Scholz, 2014).
Learning how to write effectively increases one's capacity to advance both educational and career goals.
"Note-taking strategies that improve learning outcomes"
"Finding credible information in the digital age"
"Values and honesty as foundations of academic community"
The Center for Academic Integrity. (1999). The Fundamental Values of Academic Integrity. Duke University.
Travis T. York. (2015). Defining and measuring academic success. Practical Assessment, Research and Evaluation — Peer Reviewed.
Turkay, S. (2014). Setting Goals: Who, Why, How? Harvard Manuscript.
Zorislava Zagorac, Ana Ivanis, & Sabina Nuhbegovic. (n.d.). Learning styles. Retrieved from BH Medical Manual: http://www.bhmed-emanual.org/book/export/html/44
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