How to Use Mentoring For Better Results in College?

By Lianna Daren

Mentoring is a universal concept in academia that focuses on personal and educational development of students so that they can produce better results in college and find a lucrative career path. For students, it is primarily a way of getting a helping hand to excel in their studies. Students also seek mentorship to draw insights and inspiration from experiences of a mentor before embarking on professional journey after completion of their education.

For decades, students have been seeking mentorship from teachers and professors as a source of support to achieve better results. Nowadays, colleges hire professional mentors to counsel students about various aspects of college life. Some students even take services of online professional counselors, such as courseworkpoint.co.uk, to get insights on scope of their skills in professional perspective.

Revealing here are 6 ways students can seek mentoring at college and get better results:

1.     Build a Rapport With Your Mentor

Any relationship thrives on effective communication between people. This philosophy is equally effective in relationship between mentor and student. Therefore, it is first important to build a connection with your mentor so that both you and your mentor are on the same wavelength. Spend good time with your mentor and share your thoughts to build a good understanding with each other. The more you are open with your mentor, the easier it gets for you to share your concerns with him.

2.     Make a Plan

Any successful journey starts with a plan. For you to get desired results of mentoring, it is first important to put things in place. From mentoring details – learning approach, frequency of counseling sessions, objectives to micro details of your academic performance – weak areas, low grades and extra classes –you should make a holistic strategy with your mentor to get better results in less time.

3.     Set Goals

To reap true fruits of mentoring, it is important that you set desired goals with your mentor. Both you and your mentoring partner should set specific objectives based on your current academic standing. You should take help of your mentor to do a reality check on areas that need improvement and then set a course of action to overcome those weak points. Be honest with your mentor about weaknesses as it will help him come up with a plan that could complement your particular academic scenario.

4.     Be Direct With Your Mentor

Parents have an active role in college life of students. Some parents even interfere in mentoring affairs of their kids to the extent that it dilutes the essence of mentoring. To get desired results of mentoring, it is important to be direct with your mentor. You should be independent enough to have you say in every academic matter without allowing your parents unnecessarily poking their nose. By sharing a direct and clear relationship with your mentor, you can establish a deeper rapport with your mentor which will result in better outcomes.

5.     Work as a Team

Just like sports, both mentor and mentee are a team that works towards a unified goal. Both of you should feel that pinch to win that one goal and, therefore, you both have to work as one team. As a mentee, you need to understand instructions of your mentor regarding your weak areas and work towards it with diligence. In addition, you need to set a time for meetings and counseling sessions to work along with your mentor for upcoming tasks – assignments, exams and events- that you are going to participate in coming days.

6.     Be Independent

Mentoring is a reciprocal relationship that is based on mutual contribution. Therefore, it is not appreciated that you become completely dependent on your mentor. To make the process work, you need to be independent enough to take initiatives without you constantly needing support of your mentor all the time.

Mentoring only produces better results when both mentor and mentee work diligently towards a goal. To make your counseling a success, it is important to consider the above-mentioned guidelines as they define roles of both participants.

About: Liana Daren loves blogging and in her leisure time she dedicatedly updates insightful posts on the latest trends in education and marketing. She works as an academic consultant at a local community college.