Sara is a first-year student taking 12 credit hours in college. She lives in the dorm, and it is her first time away from home. Sara was a very good student in high school and didn’t have to study much to get A’s and B’s. Now she is doing exactly what she did in high school and is struggling even to pass. She listens in class and reads her assignments unless the instructor is going to lecture on them anyway. Then she thinks it isn’t necessary to read the assignment. Sara does her homework at night in her room and usually finishes it before visiting her friends or watching TV. Her roommate suggests that Sara needed to take notes in class. Although she never had to take notes in high school, Sara decides it is worth a try. Her history professor talks so fast that when she tries to write down what he says, she can’t write fast enough. Fifteen minutes into the class, Sara is so frustrated that she quits writing. She starts to take notes in her psychology class, but gets so interested in the discussion that she forgets about taking notes. Sara takes notes in biology class but is unable to read what notes she did manage to write when she is ready to study for a test. Although she reads all the assignments her English professor assigns, she has yet to pass the daily reading quiz.

You are sitting at Sara’s table at the campus café. She is almost in tears and ready to give up and go home. Using what you have learned in this and previous chapters, can you help her make a list of things she might do? She has not had the benefit of taking this class and needs more instruction than a list. In addition to your list of what to do, you should suggest to her how to do it.