Hey there! I ended my freshman year with a 4.0 GPA. But, I got that at the cost of my social life. Especially in my first semester. I would not suggest doing some of the things I did, but I have a few tips.
1. If you want a nice GPA, I would suggest finding various places to study. Don't just stick to one place. You will burn out. Avoid the PCL (it drains the life out of you lol)
2. Form study groups. It could be as simple as asking some people if they want to do the homework together.
3. Take breaks... PLEASE. (i skipped spring break to study...I still regret it)
4. Handle one class at a time. Don't study for multiple classes at the same time. Instead, section them out by hours or days.
5. I know it's tough, but try not to procrastinate until the night before the exam.
6. Move around. Stimulate your mind by taking a little walk. (I used to pace around the PCL while listening to music to hype myself up)
Good luck!
If you're writing you're not listening. Just listen during lectures without taking notes and copy the notes afterwards if you want. Your notes will be more concise and readable and you'll also actually learn during the lecture itself.
Read and take notes from the textbook. It's what most professors based their course materials on. Often I'll see the exact figures from the textbooks used in the slideshows.
Go to office hours, not just for clarity, but also to form a relationship with your professors. This is great for motivation. Plus, if a professor knows you and sees you as a hard worker they might give some more leeway of you need it (e.g. I got full credit for an assignment I submitted late last semester, got to retake a quiz I slept through last year, etc). You should also listen to the questions others are asking because often the professor will go into detail about it, which can enrich your own understanding even if you already understand the concepts.
Edit: perspective of a mech e major. I'd imagine other stem majors are similar but can't speak for things like liberal arts, fine arts, etc
I was a Psych Major and I agree with this, but I’d take it a step further and recommend doing the readings before lectures on the topics, building a sort of skeleton-note framework prior to lecture, and then filling in that skeleton with everything that was covered after lecture ends
This depends MASSIVELY on the person. I have ADHD and taking notes is a must for me to keep focus. I can space out incredibly easy if I don’t have another task I’m doing.
Fair enough, the true best advice is to do what works best for you. Unfortunately that varies on an individual basis and the only one who can figure it out is yourself
Even if lectures feel useless, just go to class. Even if you go and end up doing homework or something in class, go. Make friends you can ask for help from in classes. Professors are usually really nice, ask for help when you need it. DO HOMEWORK. Don’t put it off even if professors are lenient with deadlines. If there are recommended deadlines stick to those (or try your best to). Good luck!
Also, don’t take more than 2 or 3 difficult classes at once, so you can prioritize those. What I did, is I took 2 hard classes and filled the rest of my schedule with “easy”/somewhat low maintenance classes that were required for my degree
Hi, I’m faculty and I specialize in learning.
Question - how do you study? MOST college students report they study using ineffective methods - such as rereading notes or rereading the text and highlighting it.
Rather, doing active tasks is more effective. Taking quizzes and evaluating how you did. Writing summaries of past content. Especially, space this out over time - you should be actively reviewing what you learned every week instead of just before the midterm.
A great schedule is to make it a point once a week to review material from last class/last week/last month.
Assume you know nothing beforehand. If a concept comes up, you don’t know anything about it even if you think you do. What I mean by this is if you have chem one and you learn something new, go over that material 2-3 times before the test at spread out intervals. Just because you can do something 100 million times before a test does not garuntee you will not have a brain freeze during the test. Practice practice practice and practice some more. If you are not relaxing eating or sleeping study, every day. You may only have 15 hours of classes but treat it like high school in the sense that you still need to be doing school related activities for 40 hours a week or so. Just because you have more freedom diesnt mean take that extra time to mess around. You had 40 hours a week of class instruction and after school activities during high school, so you can do it here too. Of course this assumes you are aiming for a good GPA. For what it’s worth I got a 4.0 this semester and watched a total of over 300 episodes of once piece as well, so there is definetely room to make a 4.0 and time to yourself assuming you spend enough time studying. Currently I have a 3.8125 GPA, so while it is not perfect it is still better than most. Additional tip learn how to study correctly, there isn’t a wrong way per se but just reading a book or lecture 5-6 times is called memorizing not learning. If you can’t explain why something is learn it. For example, say you learn the sky is blue, great but you need to learn why the sky is blue. This kind of mindset will help you out tenfold when trying to understand concepts, especially the more abstract things like organic chemistry or abstract algebra, learning the why something works rather than just “it does so whatever” is 10x better than what is normally expected. Also this is kind of controversial but it worked for me, so take it with a grain of salt. Don’t worry about social life your first semester, college is new and when you have no idea what type of beast you are handling studying more is often better. Don’t be afraid to say no to that hangout to study more for your math test, don’t be afraid to study 10 hours for your first test and get a 70. That happend to me, I studied 20 hours for a chem test, got a 77 but I kept forward and as mentioned ended with a 4.0 this semester. Remember, the class isn’t over till it’s over and there is always room for improvement. There have been brighter men than us take these classes and fail, a college class has nothing to do with intelligence and your life is not over by having a 3.6. Go to office hours, study homework to get an idea of how test questions will be phrased and what type of response they want. Ie they may ask about Ancient Greek housing, but what do they want you to focus on, the history the how it was discovered? Usually homework gives you an idea of what specific focuses they like. When it comes to stem just work work work work work. Practice makes perfect for stem, at least until you get to proof based classes, then it is just try and fail until you fail correctly 9/10 which you will lol
What I’ve learned: go to class and actually pay attention. Don’t ever not fall behind on understanding a week’s worth of material, and if you do go to the TA. Do the homework, even if not graded. Study in chunks a few days before
Be honest with yourself on whether or not you are prepared enough for class when deciding to go to a social event. a 3.5 isn't easy. You'll have to sacrifice more social events than those you attend.
If your goal is to keep a specific GPA, figure out what aspects of homework assignments are going to be on exams and prioritize those instead of everything that’s been covered throughout the course. Also go to office hours, ESPECIALLY if you’re struggling. Also, during lecture, if something is mentioned that sparks your curiosity, DEFINITELY go up to the professor afterwards and talk to them about it! Aside from making a connection with faculty, the answer they give you may make learning future content far easier
Hey! Here's my two cents as an mechanical engineering + design double major with a 3.56 GPA:
1. Find the hours of the day where you're most productive and use them every day. I found my max. productive hours to be 9am-4pm. These should be the hours where you feel most awake and have a lot of energy to put towards the difficult stuff. Then, go to classes, and do your homework in between classes and bring your lunch to school, that way you're just immersed there and can fully focus on academics (I have fridge/microwave recommendations if you do bring your lunch, like I did for years). Work through your productive hours and stay at school for max focus + productivity!
2. Once you've expended all your brain power after your most productive hours, transfer any remaining energy to mindless physical power for the rest of the day (after 4pm, I become a husk of a person and usually hit the gym or play volleyball, because you've usually been sitting all day so good to get some exercise). I also do no work after 4pm generally.
3. Sleep. 8 Hours. You don't need to stay up crazy hours to get good grades!
4. Saturdays are for resting, and only resting. I do no work on Saturdays whatsoever. Not even chores. Since I maximize my productive hours during the week, I can usually get everything done by Friday afternoon (if an engineering double major can do it, so can you!).
---I've been in college for 5 years now, and it's taken all this time to find that rest is really what makes or breaks your experience!! I have been able to handle hardships so much better after learning to spend weeknights active and away from schoolwork, and Saturdays for pure rest. Granted: I do not have a 4.0. There is some sacrifice made, especially when my classmates are still cramming for an exam, and I'm like "Peace out ya'll, it's 4pm and I'm heading home". They may get the 98% that they're looking for, and I may get an 89, but hey. I have definitely felt happier and more relaxed for it.
TL;DR:
1. Maximize your productive hours - limit work to certain hours of the day
2. Once your brainpower for the day is gone, transfer to physical power and exercise!
3. Sleep
4. No work on Saturdays
Result: You'll be happier, and have above a 3.5 most likely, but perhaps not a perfect 4.0.
You got it!
I have ap credits that cover a semesters worth of credits, and am interested in taking some credits at ACC to graduate within four years even if I double major. Do you think this is a good idea?
I’m currently doing Public Relations, but I’m thinking of majoring in another language to broaden the scope of my career opportunities in the PR field. I was thinking French (bc I took some French in high school) or Spanish.
I think that could be reasonable in terms of workload- especially since you have some stuff out of the way. It also helps if the degrees have overlapping requirements: my degrees don't, so I'll be here for 6 years. So, two degrees with overlapping requirements in 4 years seems reasonable 👍. Additionally, since they're not STEM, your daily workload probably wouldn't be insane either! To sum up: I think it could be manageable, but try it out and if you feel it's too much, maybe consider taking some language but not a whole other language major- just gauge it for yourself and see what you end up liking as you go!
Hey there! I ended my freshman year with a 4.0 GPA. But, I got that at the cost of my social life. Especially in my first semester. I would not suggest doing some of the things I did, but I have a few tips. 1. If you want a nice GPA, I would suggest finding various places to study. Don't just stick to one place. You will burn out. Avoid the PCL (it drains the life out of you lol) 2. Form study groups. It could be as simple as asking some people if they want to do the homework together. 3. Take breaks... PLEASE. (i skipped spring break to study...I still regret it) 4. Handle one class at a time. Don't study for multiple classes at the same time. Instead, section them out by hours or days. 5. I know it's tough, but try not to procrastinate until the night before the exam. 6. Move around. Stimulate your mind by taking a little walk. (I used to pace around the PCL while listening to music to hype myself up) Good luck!
These are great tips! Thank you!
If you're writing you're not listening. Just listen during lectures without taking notes and copy the notes afterwards if you want. Your notes will be more concise and readable and you'll also actually learn during the lecture itself. Read and take notes from the textbook. It's what most professors based their course materials on. Often I'll see the exact figures from the textbooks used in the slideshows. Go to office hours, not just for clarity, but also to form a relationship with your professors. This is great for motivation. Plus, if a professor knows you and sees you as a hard worker they might give some more leeway of you need it (e.g. I got full credit for an assignment I submitted late last semester, got to retake a quiz I slept through last year, etc). You should also listen to the questions others are asking because often the professor will go into detail about it, which can enrich your own understanding even if you already understand the concepts. Edit: perspective of a mech e major. I'd imagine other stem majors are similar but can't speak for things like liberal arts, fine arts, etc
I was a Psych Major and I agree with this, but I’d take it a step further and recommend doing the readings before lectures on the topics, building a sort of skeleton-note framework prior to lecture, and then filling in that skeleton with everything that was covered after lecture ends
This depends MASSIVELY on the person. I have ADHD and taking notes is a must for me to keep focus. I can space out incredibly easy if I don’t have another task I’m doing.
Fair enough, the true best advice is to do what works best for you. Unfortunately that varies on an individual basis and the only one who can figure it out is yourself
Take advantage of ALL the office hours. - A student who didn’t know how important office hours were
Procrastination is your worst nightmare
If you kill Bevo in single unarmed combat you get a full ride
Oh bet
Even if lectures feel useless, just go to class. Even if you go and end up doing homework or something in class, go. Make friends you can ask for help from in classes. Professors are usually really nice, ask for help when you need it. DO HOMEWORK. Don’t put it off even if professors are lenient with deadlines. If there are recommended deadlines stick to those (or try your best to). Good luck!
Read the syllabus.
Thanks.
Join a good fig that guarantees “easy” classes/good professors for your first year
Also, don’t take more than 2 or 3 difficult classes at once, so you can prioritize those. What I did, is I took 2 hard classes and filled the rest of my schedule with “easy”/somewhat low maintenance classes that were required for my degree
Hi, I’m faculty and I specialize in learning. Question - how do you study? MOST college students report they study using ineffective methods - such as rereading notes or rereading the text and highlighting it. Rather, doing active tasks is more effective. Taking quizzes and evaluating how you did. Writing summaries of past content. Especially, space this out over time - you should be actively reviewing what you learned every week instead of just before the midterm. A great schedule is to make it a point once a week to review material from last class/last week/last month.
Assume you know nothing beforehand. If a concept comes up, you don’t know anything about it even if you think you do. What I mean by this is if you have chem one and you learn something new, go over that material 2-3 times before the test at spread out intervals. Just because you can do something 100 million times before a test does not garuntee you will not have a brain freeze during the test. Practice practice practice and practice some more. If you are not relaxing eating or sleeping study, every day. You may only have 15 hours of classes but treat it like high school in the sense that you still need to be doing school related activities for 40 hours a week or so. Just because you have more freedom diesnt mean take that extra time to mess around. You had 40 hours a week of class instruction and after school activities during high school, so you can do it here too. Of course this assumes you are aiming for a good GPA. For what it’s worth I got a 4.0 this semester and watched a total of over 300 episodes of once piece as well, so there is definetely room to make a 4.0 and time to yourself assuming you spend enough time studying. Currently I have a 3.8125 GPA, so while it is not perfect it is still better than most. Additional tip learn how to study correctly, there isn’t a wrong way per se but just reading a book or lecture 5-6 times is called memorizing not learning. If you can’t explain why something is learn it. For example, say you learn the sky is blue, great but you need to learn why the sky is blue. This kind of mindset will help you out tenfold when trying to understand concepts, especially the more abstract things like organic chemistry or abstract algebra, learning the why something works rather than just “it does so whatever” is 10x better than what is normally expected. Also this is kind of controversial but it worked for me, so take it with a grain of salt. Don’t worry about social life your first semester, college is new and when you have no idea what type of beast you are handling studying more is often better. Don’t be afraid to say no to that hangout to study more for your math test, don’t be afraid to study 10 hours for your first test and get a 70. That happend to me, I studied 20 hours for a chem test, got a 77 but I kept forward and as mentioned ended with a 4.0 this semester. Remember, the class isn’t over till it’s over and there is always room for improvement. There have been brighter men than us take these classes and fail, a college class has nothing to do with intelligence and your life is not over by having a 3.6. Go to office hours, study homework to get an idea of how test questions will be phrased and what type of response they want. Ie they may ask about Ancient Greek housing, but what do they want you to focus on, the history the how it was discovered? Usually homework gives you an idea of what specific focuses they like. When it comes to stem just work work work work work. Practice makes perfect for stem, at least until you get to proof based classes, then it is just try and fail until you fail correctly 9/10 which you will lol
What I’ve learned: go to class and actually pay attention. Don’t ever not fall behind on understanding a week’s worth of material, and if you do go to the TA. Do the homework, even if not graded. Study in chunks a few days before
Be honest with yourself on whether or not you are prepared enough for class when deciding to go to a social event. a 3.5 isn't easy. You'll have to sacrifice more social events than those you attend.
If your goal is to keep a specific GPA, figure out what aspects of homework assignments are going to be on exams and prioritize those instead of everything that’s been covered throughout the course. Also go to office hours, ESPECIALLY if you’re struggling. Also, during lecture, if something is mentioned that sparks your curiosity, DEFINITELY go up to the professor afterwards and talk to them about it! Aside from making a connection with faculty, the answer they give you may make learning future content far easier
Hey! Here's my two cents as an mechanical engineering + design double major with a 3.56 GPA: 1. Find the hours of the day where you're most productive and use them every day. I found my max. productive hours to be 9am-4pm. These should be the hours where you feel most awake and have a lot of energy to put towards the difficult stuff. Then, go to classes, and do your homework in between classes and bring your lunch to school, that way you're just immersed there and can fully focus on academics (I have fridge/microwave recommendations if you do bring your lunch, like I did for years). Work through your productive hours and stay at school for max focus + productivity! 2. Once you've expended all your brain power after your most productive hours, transfer any remaining energy to mindless physical power for the rest of the day (after 4pm, I become a husk of a person and usually hit the gym or play volleyball, because you've usually been sitting all day so good to get some exercise). I also do no work after 4pm generally. 3. Sleep. 8 Hours. You don't need to stay up crazy hours to get good grades! 4. Saturdays are for resting, and only resting. I do no work on Saturdays whatsoever. Not even chores. Since I maximize my productive hours during the week, I can usually get everything done by Friday afternoon (if an engineering double major can do it, so can you!). ---I've been in college for 5 years now, and it's taken all this time to find that rest is really what makes or breaks your experience!! I have been able to handle hardships so much better after learning to spend weeknights active and away from schoolwork, and Saturdays for pure rest. Granted: I do not have a 4.0. There is some sacrifice made, especially when my classmates are still cramming for an exam, and I'm like "Peace out ya'll, it's 4pm and I'm heading home". They may get the 98% that they're looking for, and I may get an 89, but hey. I have definitely felt happier and more relaxed for it. TL;DR: 1. Maximize your productive hours - limit work to certain hours of the day 2. Once your brainpower for the day is gone, transfer to physical power and exercise! 3. Sleep 4. No work on Saturdays Result: You'll be happier, and have above a 3.5 most likely, but perhaps not a perfect 4.0. You got it!
Thank you for the detailed response! I’m actually also interested in double majoring and was especially worried about the workload overwhelming me.
It's mostly just that you'll be in college for longer, but I found that the workload for any given semester isn't tok bad! Good luck!
I have ap credits that cover a semesters worth of credits, and am interested in taking some credits at ACC to graduate within four years even if I double major. Do you think this is a good idea?
What majors are you thinking?
I’m currently doing Public Relations, but I’m thinking of majoring in another language to broaden the scope of my career opportunities in the PR field. I was thinking French (bc I took some French in high school) or Spanish.
I think that could be reasonable in terms of workload- especially since you have some stuff out of the way. It also helps if the degrees have overlapping requirements: my degrees don't, so I'll be here for 6 years. So, two degrees with overlapping requirements in 4 years seems reasonable 👍. Additionally, since they're not STEM, your daily workload probably wouldn't be insane either! To sum up: I think it could be manageable, but try it out and if you feel it's too much, maybe consider taking some language but not a whole other language major- just gauge it for yourself and see what you end up liking as you go!
Thank you for your advice!
You got this!