Not everyone is a natural learner, thriving in educational settings and absorbing all learning materials set before them. Effective learning requires a set of skills that students can use to their advantage inside and outside of the classroom.

Focusing on how you’re learning can be necessary if you’re struggling to work toward your career goals in an educational setting. Refine these essential skills, and you might improve your chances of success:

Technology Literacy

While pens and writing paper used to be the only learning materials you needed in an educational setting, we’re now in a much more advanced era. Technology is crucial for success, especially computers and tablets with presentation programs, software, and web browsers.

Technology can help us research, communicate, and share information. We can even use it to receive help when we’re struggling. For example, many people working towards degrees in accounting and economics utilize online tutors. Online ACCA tuition can help candidates focus and improve their test performance.

If you’re not technology literate, you risk not achieving as highly as someone who uses all relevant facets of technology for their education program. Fortunately, there are many ways to improve your technology literacy, such as:

1. Participating in online courses and webinars
2. Asking friends and family for help
3. Experimenting with different digital tools
4. Watching tutorials

Communication

Just as you need excellent communication skills in your personal and professional life, you also need them for learning at a secondary or tertiary level. Communication skills can help you articulate your thoughts and share ideas. Being an adequate communicator may also help with relationship-building, especially on group projects.

Learning communication skills to reap educational rewards can seem daunting, but it might be easier than you think. That’s because there are multiple communication types, and you might already be adept at some of them.

1. Writing
2. Speaking
3. Active listening
4. Presenting

Try some of these helpful tips, and focus on your weakest areas first:

1. Make eye contact
2. Use the most relevant communication method for the situation; in person, text, or email
3. Be self-aware
4. Be concise
5. Be approachable
6. Invite feedback

Problem-Solving

Having problem-solving skills can mean processing information and possessing critical thinking skills. You can use a unique systematic approach to break down large problems into smaller pieces to make the overall problem easier to solve.

Problem-solving skills can be crucial in the academic world for completing assignments and solving complex problems. Fortunately, lacking problem-solving skills now doesn’t mean you will in the future. You can refine your skills by taking these steps with each situation you face:

1. Identifying what the problem is
2. Finding the root cause
3. Devising multiple solutions
4. Planning and implementing the best solution
5. Measuring your solution’s success

When you take this approach with all real-life and education-related problems, you may become the master of problem-solving in no time!

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Self-Management

No one is holding your hand when you enter tertiary education. You’re expected to be a self-learner who attends class and works hard to achieve your educational goals. Some students can struggle with this independence and self-management. They may find it challenging to manage their own responsibilities and motivate themselves to achieve what they set out to do.

A lack of self-management skills can have devastating consequences for someone in a tertiary education program. That’s why it can be essential to learn them. Sometimes, it can be as easy as trying these tips:

1. Setting goals for yourself
2. Being patient
3. Keeping your promises
4. Prioritizing your health and well-being
5. Focusing on one task at a time

Time Management

Tertiary education can be an overwhelming experience for many people. When you have a demanding workload, it can sometimes seem like you’ve never got enough time to dedicate to everything important to you, like your health and well-being and course content.

That’s where time management skills come in. Having time management skills means you can prioritize your tasks and deadlines and budget time for everything important in your life, like work, study, friends, and family.

People with poor time management skills can typically be easy to spot. They are often easily distracted, late, and have low productivity and performance. Such people can also be at risk of burnout and struggle with a decreased quality of work.

Not having the best time management skills today doesn’t have to mean you’re doomed to poor educational and career outcomes. You may improve your skills by:

1. Focusing on important and urgent tasks first
2. Compiling to-do lists
3. Taking micro-breaks
4. Prioritizing tasks before you begin
5. Creating a calendar for yourself
6. Starting early

Organization

Most people in educational settings have more than one course or program to focus on. This is often necessary when they have a specific career in mind. For example, students working towards becoming accountants might take economics, finance, business management, and marketing classes.

Multiple classes can mean multiple course loads, and it’s easy to find yourself overwhelmed with how much you have to learn and the preparation you need to do for assignments and exams. That’s where organization skills can come in handy.

Organizational skills refer to how well you can manage your time, prioritize tasks, and develop systems to improve your chances of success in whatever you put your hand to. If you’re struggling with your workload and organizational systems for managing it, take note of these tips:

1. Identify the goals you want to meet
2. Organize your materials
3. Create to-do lists
4. Devise organizational systems
5. Use apps and technology

Creativity

A great deal of problem-solving can be involved in the average educational course. You’re required to get creative, think outside the box, and produce original work that’s uniquely yours while relying on information obtained from other people.

In essence, you often need to have creativity skills to maximize your learning potential.  Not everyone is naturally creative, but that doesn’t mean you can’t refine and enhance your creativity skills. You might be surprised by what you can achieve when you take these actions:

1. Immerse yourself in new experiences
2. Ask questions
3. Seek out alternative perspectives
4. Read books
5. Talk to other people

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We’re all capable of achieving great things in colleges, universities, and other learning institutes. However, there’s always room for improvement. If you don’t believe you have some of these essential student skills above, now might be the time to start refining them to begin excelling in your chosen field.

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