What are your best study skills?

What are the key skills that students from China are lacking when they arrive to study an undergraduate degree in America / Britain / Australia?

• This could be specific study skills (how to structure an essay, western attitudes to plagiarism) or personal skills (how to work with a team, communication skills, participating in tutorials).

• Answer:

  I only know about studying in the US, although I would imagine most of this applies across all three countries you mentioned (as different as they are from each other in many ways). I wouldn't say there are skills that Chinese students are lacking.  There are certainly things that take adjustment, as there are for students from any country who come to America for college. The biggest adjustment is probably going to be the language for most students from any non-English-speaking country. Even for very good English speakers, there will be tons of cultural references that are hard to pick up on.  I was in a design class where the teacher used Dr. Seuss as an example of someone who thinks creatively, and she chose that example specifically because it was someone who everyone would be familiar with - but many of the international students in the class didn't get the reference. My sense is that group work is more popular in the US than in most other countries. I also think the workload is often more spread out through the semester in the US, compared to other countries that rely largely on one big final exam. You mentioned differences in attitudes towards plagiarism, and that's definitely something that can be quite different.  But it's not too difficult an adjustment, once you know the rules to follow. Here is what one Chinese student had to say about the academic adjustments she had to make: http://blogs.voanews.com/student-union/2010/12/01/succeed-academically-at-american-universities/ I think the social adjustments are probably harder for most people, or at least have a bigger impact on daily life.  You might have seen that New York Times article last year about how much difficulty some Chinese students have in adapting to life in the US (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/education/07china-t.html).  Of course, I know plenty of Chinese students who have adapted just fine as well. (By the way, a Chinese student at the University of Illinois wrote an interesting response to that NYT article: http://www.dailyillini.com/index.php/blog/on_the_town/2010/12/life_as_an_international_student_cultures_colliding) The main thing that seems to be different is that Americans are more outwardly friendly and open, but also more independent and solitary.  I know one Chinese student who said that Americans give more compliments but less sincerely than back home.  Another said that Americans share much more about their lives than Chinese people do, and cited the American tendency to display photographs of their friends and family. Here are two really interesting perspectives from Chinese students about the social/cultural differences they encountered: (1) http://blogs.voanews.com/student-union/2011/10/05/take-a-tour-around-my-typical-american-dorm-room/ (2) http://blogs.voanews.com/student-union/2011/01/28/whos-nicer-americans-or-chinese/ I'm obviously not Chinese, so I'm only speaking from what students have told me, but these are some of the things I've heard. I'll be curious to hear what others have to add to this list, or if any Chinese students disagree with anything on it.