This guide includes ★some strategies to chart your path, plan out your study and coursework, and maximize the time you spend in college (whether on or off campus); ★successful methods we’ve seen students use to stay on top of their classes; and ★ways to reduce anxieties of coursework or class time, and to foster habits of mind and body that make the learning process more fulfilling.
↓ Use the buttons below to view tips and resources for different parts of the semester. ↓
Students: There’s no one right way to learn! It’s about listening to yourself, and thinking about how you work, what constraints you may have to overcome, and how you remember and can respond to key ideas you encounter. We view the learning process as part of the overall ecology of being a whole human being who happens to also be a student, and we encourage you to think about your whole self when you approach these materials.
Faculty: You are welcome to reuse and remix this guide in your materials, including on your syllabuses or course websites. It is also available for you to add discipline-specific material as you see fit, and we’d love to know what you add!
Want to distribute this guide to students as a single file? Just click below to download the full guide as an editable Word document. Feel free to add your own tips and resources, or better yet, make it a class assignment by asking students to remix it for each other!
>> Download the full guide as a Word Doc
This content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Feel free to remix!
Credits
This guide was produced by the Baruch Center for Teaching & Learning. Content contributors include Hamad Sindhi, Seth Graves, Tamara Gubernat, and Allison Lehr-Samuels. Thank you to Alfred Waller, Katherine Tsan, and Pamela Thielman for review and support. We would like to thank the cohorts of our Summer and Fall 2021 Student Engagement Seminars, who provided feedback on working drafts of this project and have helped shape its growth.
This guide was created to help all Baruch students in their learning: it is based upon a mix of research-based best-practices and reflections on how we have learned to be “better” students.
In addition to the materials provided in our Student Guide, we recommend these CUNY-wide student resources:
The Baruch Undergraduate Student Government Survival Guide for 2022-2023, created by Baruch students, where you can read about many Baruch resources, and find out what the USG has to offer too.
A comprehensive third edition of A Guide to Surviving and Thriving at CUNY, co-authored by CUNY students, faculty, and staff and sponsored by the university-wide initiative Healthy CUNY. The 93-page guide identifies resources, services, and support for students’ needs in the areas of mental health, academic standing, school success, and the material and emotional realities of pandemic recovery.
The CUNY Student Survival Guide, where you can find life hacks, resources, college-specific advice and other tools to help you thrive this semester.
