HUNTINGTON BEACH : Golden West Offers’College Boot Camp’

Teachers and students at Golden West College call it “college boot camp.”

In a one-semester course called College 100, students learn the skills needed to survive college life: how to take tests, answer essay questions, write research papers, give speeches, enhance creativity and apply for scholarships.

Students also learn to build self-esteem, time management, listening skills, communication strategies, and how to deal with cultural, racial and gender biases.

Since instructors Lou Ann Hobbs and Dean Mancina developed the course in the fall of 1988, it has grown into one of the most popular offerings on campus.

Students say the course is among the most useful and practical offered. Some students even say that the class has improved their grades.

“In a lot of ways, it’s like going back to elementary school,” said Nellie Weber, who is back in college after a 14-year hiatus. “I’m learning things that were never covered in elementary school but should have been.”

Because of the class, Weber said she has dramatically changed her study habits and retains more of what she has read.

Mitch Honig, a 1987 Ocean View High School graduate, said he stumbled badly through his first two years in college. “But now I’m getting A’s.”

By learning techniques to discipline himself, he said that he is better able to deal with stress and avoid being overwhelmed by the demands of school and work.

“I enjoy this class a lot, more than any class I’ve had,” Honig said. “I think this should be given to all college freshmen.”

Mancina said that he and Hobbs devised the course by trying to condense into one class the study techniques each had learned while attending college. Hobbs recalled that she was in her 30s before she finally discovered some of the study habits she now teaches.

“I thought, ‘Why didn’t somebody tell me these things before?’ ” she said.

The instructors say they try to make the class as useful as possible by employing offbeat teaching techniques. Students solve puzzles to challenge their creative abilities and play a game simulating two fictional cultures to learn to identify and conquer cultural biases.

To encourage students to eliminate bad habits, Mancina tells them to write the habit on a piece of paper and tie it to a balloon. The class then releases the balloons in a group-therapy ritual.

“But the real reward is to see the self-esteem on their faces,” Mancina said. “It’s what we fantasize that teaching is all about.”