Abstract: The basic principles of Marxism are the ideological essence and theoretical core of Marxism. The course The Basic Principles of Marxism focuses on theoretically equipping and practically guiding the college students, aiming at the “effectiveness” and “timeliness” of the basic principles of Marxism. The paper focuses on the current fruits and difficulties in realizing the “effectiveness” and “timeliness” of this course, and discusses the methods to improve the effectiveness and timeliness from the aspects of raising the integration degree of theory and practice, improving college students’ critical thinking, cultivating their lifelong learning ability, strengthening social responsibility and cultural self-confidence, and enhancing the matching degree between teaching methods and political consciousness establishment.

Key words: The Basic Principles of Marxism, effectiveness, timeliness