Many high school students are overwhelmed by their first semester of university or college. They may be in class, bum in seat for 11-15 hours per week and all the 'other hours' can feel like free time. Ummm… not so my young friends.

We need to talk about ratios. (See, math does come in handy). These ratios refer to the amount of time you spend out-of-class to the time that you spend in class. For example, for every hour in class, your out-of-class time working on learning that material may be anywhere from no time at all, up to maybe 3 hours. So the ratio would be, for an easy example a 1:1. That means for every one hour in class you are spending one hour out-of-class learning the material. If you have 12 hours of class a week, that means you are using up an additional 12 hours on learning the material for a total of 24 hours. If you have 15 hours of class a week, a 1:1 ratio means you are spending 15 hours out-of-class time.

I have had so many first year, even 2nd and 3rd year post-secondary students with ratios that look like this: 1:0.25, or 1:0.5. These ratios mean that these students are spending most of their time in class, but very little other time on that lecture material. Then exams come and YIKES, these students sink like rocks.

This IS THE RATIO if you want to succeed. 1:2. For every hour in class you are spending at least 2 hours out-of-class on the lecture material, per day. For heavier courses, such as Biochemistry, Calculus, or Embryology, the ratios increase, likely up to 1:3.

How are your ratios and how are your marks?