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Study Skills Counseling

The Study Skills Program of the University Counseling Center is designed to help students achieve academic success. While students who are admitted to the University have already been successful in their academic work, there are many factors that may require the student to further develop study skills. Among those factors are:

  • Advanced courses place higher demands upon students.
  • The highly competitive nature of the college setting is distressing to some students.
  • The college setting is much less structured than that of high school. Students have many free hours, and that freedom can result in less efficient use of study time. The ability to manage time becomes essential. For some students, the increased availability of time ironically results in too little time spent studying.
  • There is a shift in the ratio of classroom time to outside-the-classroom time spent on course work. Thus students need the self discipline to deal with demands outside the classroom.
  • Balancing work time and social time becomes a challenge. During high school, most students’ social lives were limited to weekends. In college, social time is available daily, and for many students it is difficult to find the right balance between recreational time and study time.

Individual meetings with the Study Skills Counselor are available by appointment (in person – 206 Health Services Building; or by phone 94050). These counseling sessions help evaluate strengths and determine what areas need strengthening. The counselor then works with the student to develop skills. And, the counselor may identify other factors that complicate the student’s ability to study – such as sleep deprivation, emotional distress, and difficulty concentrating.

Workshops

Workshops for groups of students are offered regularly on such topics as:

self-management, self-motivation, time management, effective study methods, test-taking techniques, overcoming test anxiety, improving reading comprehension, relating to instructors, and adjusting to the demands of the competitive Villanova environment.

We also offer self-help tapes on such topics as Concentration, Managing Stress, Memory Improvement and Overcoming Procrastination. Click here for more information on the workshop schedules.

Articles of Interest

Get Your ZZZ's if You Want A's  "Sleep difficulties" ranked third among students' "top 10 impediments to academic performance," according to the fall 2003 survey of the American College Health Association. ~ Suicide rates are higher in poor sleepers.  And Insomnia of more than two weeks' duration increases the risk of depression and suicide

Links to University Resources