Hi -- I went back to school at 40, and stayed in FT for 8 years, completing 3 degrees.

I always took the lightest FT courseload that my funding allowed, unlike the younger students. I was there to learn, not to get a degree, and I tried to suck all the juice I could out of the learning experience.

I think the students will drop the ma'am once they find out that you are accessible. You may never be "one of the crowd" or want to be, but asking how they are, sympathizing with school stress, etc., goes a long way.

As for focus, I don't have trouble with that. I am rigorous about the way that I set up my study schedule.

For example, in some graduate courses, I had to read as much as 80 pages a night!!! Every night, 7 days a week. That meant that if I missed a night, the next night I had to read 160 to catch up. And if I missed two nights, 240 pages -- which no way I could catch up at that point. So I was highly motivated to put my studies first, and to block out periods of time for each assignment.

I never cram for tests. I review the notes for each class immediately after the class, filling in various shorthand abbreviations, words omitted, and scrawls. And I spend 10 minutes reviewing the notes again before the next class. This means, I am ready to pick up where the last class left off.

If you don't already have a shorthand way of taking notes, develop your own code. For example, I use "t' for "the"; w for "with" and wo for "without." I have little squiggles that I've invented for the "ing" ending and the "tion" ending. I find abbreviations for frequently used words in a given course: MM for mass media; HH for houshold; P for persuasion; and so on. If I find I forget what an abbreviation means, I can fill in the whole words after class.

I also use odd moments of down time -- such as waiting in a physician's office, eating lunch, to continue to review my notes. That way, the beginning of the course and where we've been is always fresh in my memory as we move on.

I try to anticipate test questions. In stat, these should be self-evident, as you will have certain formulas to master for each test. You may have a project to learn to use one of the computer analysis programs. Pick something that you might like to know the answer to, to stay motivated.

I break every reading assignment, every term paper, every project, into all its steps, and budget time for each step. I plan ahead. I keep my eyes on due dates.

There are even books on how to study, hopefully available in the school library. (And yes, I have flipped through them.)

I am a very good student, and I guess some people would say I am obsessive reading this.