"Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day; while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day. It is the accumulative weight of our disciplines and our judgments that leads us to either fortune or failure!"

~Jim Rohn

Practice, practice, practice! While listening to a motivational speech, I was reminded of the importance of consistency, practicing one's craft, and honing one's skills. The speaker expressed what many of us in higher education have heard our students or even staff say at one time or another. "I am not good at writing!" or "I am not good at math!" or any other challenging subject for them. The speaker responded, "Because you never do it, you don't practice it!"

Muscle Memory and Practicing the Military Way

Whether a student veteran was a private or a colonel, we can be rest assured that throughout their military tenure, their training, indoctrination, or missions were prepared with repetitive tasks, often accompanied by rehearsals of entire missions or operations. While it is not unique to military techniques and procedures, the use of repetition, along with its higher-level version of rehearsals, is evident in nearly every aspect of military life. For example, soldiers are regularly tested physically to ensure a fitness level conducive to undertaking and achieving their missions, especially in combat situations. However, to maintain an appropriate testing level, they do not wait until test day to do push-ups or run; in fact, they exercise regularly. Their fitness level and ability to pass the fitness tests are the culmination of months of daily workout sessions, ensuring they are prepared for the testing standards set by the military.

Similarly, when about to undertake a military operation, whether an attack on enemy forces or a non-combat ceremony or parade, rehearsals for such operations are done at various levels of detail and organization, depending on the time allowed. A military element can proceed with a step-by-step action filled with rehearsal, acting out and explaining every detail of the mission, including vehicle and troop movements; or if resources are not available or time restrictions limit this type of detail, a verbal discussion of such steps is also considered an abridged version of such rehearsal.

Practicing In and For College

One can agree that college itself is a rehearsal for life, and within it, lessons, quizzes, and assignments serve as practice and rehearsal for the end-of-course exams. However, this is based on the assumption that all students who enter college possess the necessary tools and understand the requirements and rigors for success. Moreover, they move forward at a set pace to retain or understand all the information provided to them. However, as current higher education retention, graduation, and completion rates suggest, many college students still require additional preparation to meet these requirements.

Most, if not all, colleges and universities offer a "first-year experience" or a similar course specifically designed to bridge the gap between the college experience, the skills required, and the preparation needed for incoming students. These courses introduce students to their respective schools' basic survival techniques, processes, and standards, promoting their abilities to study, brief, take tests, and conduct research, thereby entering each subsequent course with greater confidence.

Summer and Winter Bridge Programs

As effective as first-year experience courses are, a couple of equally important initiatives are summer and winter bridge programs or pre-semester workshops. These programs are an accelerated one-two week program (some as long as eight weeks) in many cases before the fall or spring semester, composed of 4-6 hour days of instruction, at times mimicking college orientation, but with an addition of topics such as writing workshops, study tips and techniques, computer skills, institution website and Management Learning Systems (MLS) familiarity, and overall school navigation. Across the nation, initiatives for similar programs can be responsible for an overall improvement of 20% to 30% or positively impacting topics such as academic preparedness for college, familiarity with support initiatives, forming friendships and a support network, and identifying resources.

The Test is Only the Culmination of Practice

Leadership speaker and author Simon Senik explains in many of his lectures that leadership is a process, just like fitness and learning. We do not become better leaders after attending a two-day seminar or seeing obvious improvements after going to the gym once. Similarly, our students and their success need to be aware that their development and success in a test, a class, and their eventual graduation are a process. The more they write, the more they will develop as writers; the more they read, the more they will develop as learners. The more they see the benefit of regular practice and rehearsal of their developing skills, the more they will develop as students and as leaders.

Article Topics

Military Friendly Institutions Research on Student Veterans Serving Military in HigherEd Veterans Academic Success Working as a Veteran in HigherEd

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