This is a guest post by Stefan Knapen from StudySuccessful.com, a site about how to study. Stefan is a Dutch graduated high school student who will join the University in September. His site is full with study hacks and random study knowledge.

One of the biggest fears in a full college class is asking questions to a teacher/professor. But is it really that hard? Is asking a normal question that tough for a university student? No it isn’t.

Why asking questions

First, let’s make the importance of asking questions clear, just in case you think: ‘well, let’s just don’t ask questions.’ If you don’t know something, and you say to yourself that you will look it up after class, you will forget it or you don’t find it. Let that be clear. Further, a question means a response, so you have an explanation on a subject from the teacher himself. He is an expert in that area, so you get a good answer. And he gives the answer in class, so you have visuals with it also! Asking questions is also a way to show you are interested in the subject, which means the teacher will know that you are putting effort in your education!

How to ask questions

What are we trying to reach here? A question, which is good enough to be considered a good question. It can’t be a stupid question, because your fellow students will laugh and you will be ashamed, which means your face will be red again! Another thing, it should be related to what the teacher is talking about, or your classmates will dislike you for interrupting the teachers story.

• Prepare your question. This means, write it down or say it in your head before you ask him. Does it look stupid? Is it related to the subject? Is it something you can look up in your textbook? If the answers are ‘no yes no’, you can ask the question.
• Be polite. Don’t ask your question right away. ‘So, that is some sort of relativity?’ That isn’t a good way of asking something. First raise your hand, begin your sentence with sir. ‘Sir, does this mean there is some sort of relativity?’ sounds much better, right?
• Listen to the answer, until the teacher is finished. I have seen it, classmates asked something, listened to the answer and began talking with someone else, while the teacher wasn’t even finished answering the question.
• Write things down. This is even better than just listening, write things down when the teachers is answering.
• Thank the teacher. ‘Alright, thank you sir.’ means a lot to teachers. They don’t get much gratitude from students, stand out of the crowd by a short thank you.

Now you know how to ask questions without looking stupid or annoying teachers/students! Any questions?

This post was written by Stefan from StudySuccessful.com, visit his site to read more!