Please note: On a somewhat infrequent basis, Quintessential Careers asks noted
career experts five questions related to their expertise and publishes the interview
in the current issue of QuintZine,
our biweekly newsletter. Here is one such interview.
Gary Tuerack is a nationally known speaker, author of Better
Grades in Less Time, and founder of Tuerack Training
International.
Q:
You tell students how to get better grades. How important are
grades to success after college?
A:
The answer to this question depends on what career you go into.
In some occupations, getting better grades leads to more dollars in
your pocket. It also makes it more likely that you'll get hired in
this competitive workforce. However, in other occupations, such as
being a motivational speaker like myself, what mattered more is
communication ability. In my opinion, the key is making the most out
of college to develop yourself -- not just being focused, like most
students, on the grade, but rather on the education you're gaining.
Anyone who makes a priority of developing himself or herself (his or
her mind) wins in the long run. Besides, most of the stuff we learn
in school ends up, for the most part, regurgitated for the exam, and
then forgotten anyway.
Q:
Briefly, how do your methods apply to those beyond college? How do
they apply to success in the workforce?
A:
My methods help increase reading speed/comprehension and memory.
This skill applies to just about everybody in the workforce since it
helps us be more productive because we're reading every day --
emails, mail, memos, books. Anyone who can take in more information
in a shorter period of time has the advantage. We're in an
information overload-society -- and the winner is the one who can get
through, assimilate, and use the information most productively. Most
people, however, waste hours by reading slowly, re-reading, mind
wandering. My techniques make anyone a more valuable employee to a
company.
Q:
What is the most important piece of advice you feel you could offer
today's college student?
A:
I would suggest that students review their notes every day within
five hours of class. Studies and surveys continue to support that any
student reviewing his or her notes within five hours of taking them
is earning a grade-point average of between a 3.7 to 4.0. It's
simple; it ends up saving a lot of time in the long run; and it will
improve your grades as well as your understanding of what's going on
in class every day.
Q:
What's the biggest mistake college students make that your advice
could correct?
A:
The biggest mistake is that college students are pursuing money
rather than their dreams. That's a fatal mistake. And statistics show
that those who do what they love end up being the millionaires in
society.
Q:
What distinguishes your
approach to student success from everyone
else's? What make it different/better?
A:
My approach is simple -- find out what the most successful are
doing, and use those techniques to produce the same results. I made
it easy for students because I already did the research. What I
present to people are the strategies, and those applying the
strategies are seeing the results they wanted to see.
Gary Tuerack has spoken in front of hundreds of thousands of
students, from small groups to audiences of more than 1,600. He is
the author of Better Grades in Less Time, and founder of
Tuerack Training International. Tuerack frequently appears on
national television and radio talk shows. As a child, Tuerack was an
extremely slow reader and struggled in school. To overcome this
difficulty, he developed a way to triple his reading speed, increase
his grades, and is now an Ivy League graduate of Cornell University.
Tuerack Training International can be accessed on the Web at:
TotalSuccess.com.
