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To Improve the Academy

Professional and Organizational Development

Network in Higher Education

1-1-1985

Academic Counseling Techniques

Robert G. Pierleoni

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Pierleoni, Robert G., "Academic Counseling Techniques" (1985). To Improve the Academy. Paper 88.
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Academic Counseling
Techniques

Robert G. Pierleoni
Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, Chicago

Academic programs in the health professions tend to

place greater time demands on students, because the
schedule includes long clinical practice sessions in addition
to the usual lectures, seminar and laboratory sessions
common to other college and university programs. The
fact that many of these clinical practice sessions are away
from the home institution further adds to time constraints.
These time demands require a major reorientation by
students whose previous academic experiences have been
in very different university or college settings. The transition is difficult for some who find that study skills that
had served them well in college are no longer adequate.
More deliberate attention must be paid to priorities, and
tighter schedules require more careful planning if even the
most important tasks are to be accomplished. Happily,
the caliber of most students in the health professions is
such that these necessary adjustments can be made quickly
once a few basic planning tips are pointed out.
The guidelines here grew out of academic counseling
sessions over a three-year period with students in medicine,
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nursing, and the allied health sciences. Often, students

came after reading about the service in the student handbook or hearing it described in student orientation sessions. Most sought counseling because they believed their
poor test results were due to weak test-taking skills or
test anxiety. Although these factors frequently played
a part, poor study skills and inefficient time management
practices more likely were the basic causes of poor performance.
Although these guidelines were developed for health
professions students, they can serve other students in
higher education who need to adjust their modus operandi
to meet the new challenges of their academic careers.
The guidelines can be used by academic counselors as they
work with individuals or groups of students. The following
handouts may be used to reinforce major points and for
future reference.

Handout No. 1
TIME MANAGEMENT SKILLS: GUIDELINES FOR
STUDENTS
There are those who believe the true professional is
the person who always has time to do everything there
is to be done. There are others who believe that never
running short of time indicates a failure to function at
full capacity. Truth lies somewhere between these two
points of view. Learning how to manage time in order to
carry out responsibilities and reach desired goals in the
limited time available is an important part of becoming
a professional. Effective time management promotes feelings of accomplishment and success and contributes to
overall emotional stability and peace of mind.
The remaining paragraphs suggest specific techniques
for managing your time better as you wend your way
down the path toward a career as a health professional.
Obviously, the demands of your program, your course
schedule, and your specific needs will affect how you
apply these techniques.
Perhaps the most basic concept in time management

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is commitment, or the resolve to manage time more

effectively. Such commitment stems from dissatisfaction
with what has been happening-or not happening-and
the feelings of frustration, helplessness, inadequacy, fear,
and self-doubt which accompany this dissatisfaction. It
quickly becomes apparent that effective time management
does not just happen; it requires planning. Planning implies
scheduling. Scheduling suggests routine. Time management
can be seen as the process of deciding, ahead of time,
what will be done and when. Decisions about what will
be done necessitate the listing of tasks, preferably in the
context of larger objectives or goals. Just when these
tasks are to be completed is a separate, albeit related,
issue. Knowing specifically and clearly what is to be done
makes it easier to determine when it will (can, should) be
done.
As the preceding suggests, it is not enough to generate
a list of tasks to be accomplished. Determining when the
tasks will be completed is essential and requires that you
assign priorities. All tasks are not equally important or
due at the same time. In order to decide upon priorities, you need to consider factors such as the task's external deadlines, the time and effort needed to do the task,
its sequential relationship to other tasks, your interest and
motivation, and the availability of necessary resources
(to name just a few). It is neither efficient nor effective
to perform tasks in some chance order such as "first come,
first served". That kind of priority may work in the butcher shop, but it seldom will work for you when you are
dealing with several tasks in one time segment, all of
which are affected by qualitative variables.
It is important to be realistic in planning. It is very
possible, perhaps likely, that on some occasions you simply will not be able to complete all of the tasks listed. You
will find such times less stressful if what you leave unfinished has relatively lower priority than what you completed
and if your schedule is flexible enough to permit the
unfinished task to be reassigned to another time. Such
adjustments are likely, especially as you are attempting
to gain experience in estimating how long it really takes

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to perform certain tasks. Initially, you may have trouble

estimating how long a task will take if you have not consciously kept track of the relationship of time to specific
tasks before. As more effective time management skills
develop, the accuracy of your time estimates will improve.
The type of planning referred to in this discussion is
the antithesis of the concept of "crisis management,"
especially as this occurs in the health care industry. Sometimes, in a health care setting, events and time must be
managed with a crisis orientation or approach. The emergency room or the intensive care unit are obvious examples. Health professionals are likely to encounter such
situations in their practice. Students in clinical or practicum courses may also face or, at least, observe them.
However, too often the health professionals extend such
spontaneous responses to non-crisis situations. For your
own well-being, you should resist the temptation to
convert your responsibilities as a student to an endless
series of "crises". Too often, these are fabricated to cover
a lack of planning.
In practical terms, how can you improve your time
managment skills? Begin by developing a detailed weekly
schedule which includes school (e.g., classes, labs, clinical
assignments) and non-school (e.g., weekly appointments,
part-time jobs) time commitments. Collectively, these
represent a major part of your weekly routine. Enter this
information on a weekly calendar form-a two-way chart
with the seven days of the week across the top and hours
of the day (in one-hour modules) down the left side.
Then, indicate time for personal morning preparations,
meals and, if applicable, travel time to the Medical Center. The remaining time should be listed on a separate
sheet of paper by the day of the week, with total time and
specific hours associated with each day. Then decide
which tasks are to be accomplished during those hours.
Your choices should be based on the priorities you establish.
It is perhaps most manageable simply to associate
a particular course or courses with these "free" (free for
you to decide) hours. Keep in mind that you are planning

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a standard, essentially generic, schedule. Consider identifying some time just before and after each class to prepare and do immediate follow-up activities such as relating
lecture notes to other sources or looking up difficult
concepts or unknown terms. If possible, try to schedule
"catch-up" time each week for the tasks not finished as
originally scheduled. If you do not need the time for
that purpose, you may choose to get a head start on the
following week's work, or you may use it for some social
activity.
you should provide time for social activities in the
schedule. If your classmates are involved in such activities,
perhaps you all can agree on a common time each week
and plan your individual schedules accordingly.
Once you have made these time-related decisions, it
remains for you to generate specific tasks for each course.
Some of these will be as generic as textbook reading and
lecture note reviewing. Others may be specific to a given
week, such as preparing a report or studying for a quiz.
These task lists define the specific activities you will be
engaged in when the scheduled time for a specific course
occurs.
In the final analysis, effective time management means
developing a plan which makes the best use of the limited
time available while also reflecting individual priorities.
It is being responsible. It is being professional. Greater
success surely will result.
Handout No. 2
TEST-TAKING SKILLS: GUIDELINES FOR STUDENTS

A. Getting Ready
1. Learn the material. Obviously, nothing better prepares
you for taking a test than learning the material that will
be tested. Some basic suggestions about how to do that
are offered on the next page.

2. Create a review plan and follow it. Leaving review

activity until two days before the test is unwise. While,
ideally, review activities are an ongoing part of the learning
process, it is useful to create a specific review plan for each

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test. The essential elements of such a plan include a

prioritized list of tasks and a schedule which not only
identifies time slots for review work but associates specific tasks/activities with each session.
It is useful to set aside a block of time, perhaps two
or three hours, each week for review work. It is advisable
to supplement this by additional review sessions as the
test date approaches. Added review sessions are most
valuable if scheduled at least a week before the test.
Starting sooner is advisable if the volume of material to
be reviewed is extensive, if other tests are scheduled at
about the same time, or if other assignments or commitments come due at that time.
If a reasonable review plan has been established and
conscientiously followed, the temptation to cram will
be reduced. While cramming may have helped in other
educational settings, it. is less likely to work in health
professions schools. The accelerated pace of the academic
programs, the amount of material to be learned quickly'
the heavy schedule of classes, laboratories and clinical
assignments, and the pressure to make rapid social and
psychological adjustments to the medical center environment will all make cramming ineffective.
3. Review with other students. By explaining ideas,
describing procedures, asking and answering questions,
and discussing material with others, you can strengthen
your learning. Periodic review sessions with one or more
students can be helpful if all approach their commitments
responsibly. For such sessions to be effective in meeting
everyone's needs, there must be a clear agenda of topics
for each session and each participant must conscientiously
prepare for selected topics by attempting to learn the material and preparing discussion questions. Drill on basic
facts also may be included in these sessions. Participants
are advised to alternate asking and answering questions.
B. Organizing Content for Review

1. Make lists. Perhaps the simplest way to start organizing

content for review is to develop lists of things to be learned.
Examples include lists of key terms, major concepts or

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ideas, and main messages. At this stage, there is no need

to be detailed. These lists should be relatively brief but
must encompass the content to be learned.
2. Produce information sets. Using these lists, produce
a series of "information sets" that will promote learning
and facilitate future retrieval. The most effective sets are
relatively simple with little detail. They contain key
elements of a concept, elements which when recalled
trigger the detail necessary to flesh out the concept. These
information sets, when collected in a series, should cover
all of the main messages to be learned, but without all
of the detail; these are inferred and are retrieved through
associations with the elements in the information set. It
is useful to create information sets which represent the
material graphically. Flow charts which represent sequence
and direction, anatomical drawings or sketches, charts, tables, and diagrams showing interrelationships are examples
of graphic representations of content. These information
sets may be modified, added to, or divided as you increase
your understanding or acquire new knowledge. Your most
important task is to learn the main messages and concepts
first, the details later. This helps you avoid not being able
to see the forest because of the trees. Using these information sets for review better assures learning and retrieving
content in manageable and logical units or chunks.
C. Building Confidence During a Test
1. Determine what you control and what you don't. Once
this is accomplished, focus on the former. For example,
devise strategies for answering difficult questions, rather
than expending energy thinking about how the questions
should be edited.
2. Plan alternative relaxation techniques to use during a
test. Make a list which includes such items as slowing the
pace of breathing, changing position to reduce tension and
relax muscles, sipping a cool drink, resting eyes, shaking
out writing hand, etc.
3. Provide positive self-reinforcement. Do not dwell on
how much there is left to do but on how much you have
already accomplished. First answer questions that are

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easy for you, skipping more difficult questions to return

to later.
4. Let the percentages work for you. For example, on
five-option multiple choice questions, every option you
can eliminate increases your probability of getting the
correct answer by 20%, even if you just guess in the end.
For many questions, it is possible to reduce plausible
alternatives so that the probability of being correct is 1
in 4, 1 in 3, or even 1 in 2. Over several questions on an
exam, these probabilities improve chances for correct
answers and have a positive impact on the total test score.