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TheTruth for DetentionSlip(DS): The kids on the street tell me you are coming out with a new book on student success in college. A lot of students are graduating high school right now and entering college, what are a few tricks to make things really happen in college?
Arel: Well there are a lot of things students can do. As I mention in my new book, Your Starting Point For Student Success, the first thing or what I call the first pillar to success is realizing the only person responsible for your success is you. You have to be proactive and do the things that other student’s won’t so they can have the things that other student’s don’t. Here is a perfect example:
On the first day of class go to the professor’s office hours and say this : “Hello professor, my name is X and I’m a student in your Y class. I want to make sure I do the best I can in your class, if you were me what would you do to make sure you got the best grade in your class?”Here’s why you ask this question. Most people forget that professors are human. They are all different and expect different things. By understanding what exactly each particular professor is looking for you can just give it to them. So whether your professor says “Well, I wouldn’t be late to my class, I absolutely hate that or I don’t care if you come to class or not, just make sure you are getting good grades on my exams” you’ll know what to expect from each class and know how to respond accordingly. And this same approach works for test time too. Ask the professor “If you were me, what points would you make sure to study for on this upcoming exam or what things would you make sure to include in this paper?” then just shut up, let them talk and take notes.
DS: Interesting approach. Couple that with what Tim Ferris (Four Hour Work Week) said about bringing several hours worth of questions for the proff or TA if you ever get anything less than an A on a test -- to really "encourage" them to serioulsy consider giving you anything less -- and you're 4.0 bound.
So what are some of the biggest mistakes you see students make and how can they avoid them?
Arel: Well, that’s a good question. In all of my travels speaking to over 50,000 students in 37 states I started to notice some patterns. Again there are a quite a few mistakes but one of the biggest mistakes has to do with what I call Average of 5. The Average of 5 is one of the 5 pillars discussed in my book and it states that you will become the average of the 5 people that you spend the most time with. So if you hang out with 5 knuckleheads then you are probably a knuckle head, if you hang around 5 dean’s list students then you are probably on the dean’s list. Surrounding yourself with people that hold you down and don’t l push you forward is a huge mistake I see students make.
I won’t ask student’s to believe me on this one, test me. Try this on for size. Make a list of the 5 student’s that you spend the most time with. Find out what all of their GPAs are. Add them up and then divide them by 5. I bet your GPA is somewhere around there plus or minus 5 points.
Finding the right people to be around and avoiding dead weight is something you must do if you want to succeed in school and in life really.
DS: One more question before we go back to stalking ex's on facebook, what’s the craziest thing that has happened to you while holding one of your speaking engagements?
Arel: Haha, well I remember this one time when I was speaking I had given a hand out to all the students, there was about 500 of them at this one particular high school. After it taking 20 minutes in the beginning to quiet them down, I only had about 20 minutes to do my entire presentation. After going through it and getting to the end, all of the students thought it would be a great idea to roll up the hand out and proceed to whack each other in the head with it. So basically at the end of the presentation it turned into all heck breaking loose and student s were all throwing or hitting each other with the hand out. What’s worse is that there were 10 teachers at the assembly and all of them did nothing. They just stood there and let it happen. I was like “Wow” I can clearly see who is the boss in this school. It got a little more crazy before I was able to calm everyone down but I’ll never forget the look on the teachers’ faces who just sat there unemotional and detached as world war 3 was breaking loose.
DS: Nice! Well we are about to wrap up here, I hear you want to do something special for DetentionSlip.org readers, what is that?
Arel: Yes definitely, I am on a mission to get my new book Your Starting Point For Student Success into the hands of as many college students as possible to help them make the right choices in and outside of the classroom. When your readers decided to join the mission they can go to http://www.yourstartingpointonline.com/Detentionslip.html where they not only can get over $1,000 in free bonus and a 200% more-than-your-money-back-guaranteed but they will also be able to get a free email consultation with me on any topic related to student success. All they have to do is pre-order one or two books before June 25th, after that date ends the bonuses and special gifts disappear with it. This is to help your readers take massive action right now!
DS: Well thank you so much and take care!
Arel: My pleasure, take care as well.
