How to do well in college
i am a freshman at a semi-target planning to study econ with a minor in philosophy. i went to an extremely competitive high school and was in the top 10% of my graduating class of around 300. now, I'm in my first semester of college and scoring extremely low on exams and overall just not doing as well as I want to. i don't feel too great about myself right now, because my parents are spending a lot of money on my education and I feel like I'm throwing it away. What are some tips for performing better in college? Is locking myself in the library everyday really what it takes?
Why do u say you're an AN1
Dude everyone gets their asses kicked first semester. It’s about mindset, work ethic, and initiative. Go to office hours - it really helps. Spend extra time going over notes so you don’t have to play catch up before exams.
you dont want it enough. your backround means shit when everyone in your class is taking the same exam. no one gives a fuck if you went to PEA or Stuvy you need to want it more than everyone in your class and when you make sacrifices youll see results
Think I needed to hear this. Thanks
you don't need to grind an endless number of hours in the library /// 1 - sleep - hate to sound like your mom but sleep is both anabolic as fuck and also ultra important for performance academically - get 7-13 hours /// 2 - scheduling - outside of your major you should just take the easiest classes possible - if that means your sitting in gender studies or sociology just to get gen ed credits so be it - for every class you should ask older people and see which professors are easiest/have the easiest class format and take that teacher - better to take a 7AM with a goat professor where you will get an A versus an 11AM with a professor who will make your life miserable for a semester - furthermore, most people do not spend enough time browsing the scheduling website and thinking about a schedule - your class schedule will be the next 3 months of your life, you should spend at least a few hours thinking about what it ought to look like - have contingency plans to a level where you know if you don't get A class you will take B and if you don't get B you will take C ect. /// 3 - organization - during sylly week you should rip all the dates of every single reading, assignment, quiz, project, paper and test and input them into google tasks - you should never ever ever ever miss an assignment - but instead of for not missing an assignment, this is more useful for time blocking which is below /// 4 - timeblocking/focus - i genuinely believe that tiktok/youtube shorts/instagram is a massive problem to the point where the ability to focus today is a super power - most people have a very bad awareness of how they use their time - i strongly recommend very honestly timeblocking or retroactively recording how you use your time in 15 minute intervals for at least a week - you can look online for some guides on how to do this in google calendar - it seems really autistic while you are doing it but after you map out your time you magically just find more of it - everyone knows that its better to spend 1 hour doing work and 2 hours having real fun but when you look around most students are spending 3 hours doing an assignment that would take 1 because they are jerking off to tiktok at the same time /// 5 - presence - our parents spend upwards of 86k a year on our education - never ever skip a class even if class is optional - sure there are people who are smarter then me and you and don't have to ever show up but if your struggling you should go to every class and that includes classes where you teach yourself because presence can be a deciding factor for subjective forms of grading - following that, even in useless geneds, you should try to ask/respond to the teacher in an intelligent way at least once per class - professors also just share what assessments will/may look like with students who go to class - on top of that you should to office hours at least once for every class a semester - in stem/business classes you should go if you don't understand a homework question or got something wrong on a quiz or test and don't know why - in libarts/bullshit classes you should review a draft of every essay due with your professor - it is better to go to office hours with the actual professor then TA meetings, a study group or your universities tutoring center - your professor should know who you are. /// 6 - work hard - you have to really want it in your heart - i don't believe in allah but he is on our side - work hard and grind - we are all going to make it
Where do I begin. Went to Emory for undergrad and I really messed up my freshman first semester like a 2.86 GPA. I was applied math-pre-med and considering business coming into college. My first semester I took Linear Algebra, Chem, CS, Financial Accounting, and a bunch of other 1 credits that were freshman requirements, I was valedictorian in high school and had a perfect ACT score so I was like I'm going to breeze through Emory. First midterms came by and I bombed the living crap out of all of them. I couldn't focus. I would sleep at 4 get up at 9-12 sometimes 2. I was eating like crap and I got sick. My lifestyle made it hard for me to be organized in any aspect of life and I barely made any friends. Second semester of college I decided that I needed to change my life. I started waking up early(by college standards at least lol). I got up between 7:30-9 on the weekdays and no later than 9:45 on weekends. You need to create study spots with unconditioned associations of high focus so you can reliably get work done there. Create an excel sheet and record how well you're keeping up with a task. Study actively. Write down what you learned. Get as much of your work done as possible in the day. Go to freaking office hours/LA sessions. Use an Ipad to create extensive notes and review them in spaced intervals. For hard classes stay on top of every lecture and review material on the day off. Look at every big topic and practice problems within every aspect of them. Practice problems and active learning>>>>. Excel sheet to record how you generally spend your time to see how you can be more efficient. Never stay up beyond 2:15 on weekends and 1 on weekdays. Be involved on campus. A big cause of procrastination is feeling like you have to much time and not being stimulated enough. Make friends that will keep you on top of things and you can relax with. Have a planner or something to keep you accountable. Always be on the move whether it be studying, ECs, or hanging out with friends. I ended up doing the finance and math. I broke into IB at a BB/EB so the sky is the limit if you can follow the advice
TLDR- Consistent effort, right study strategies, involvement, friends, sleep, and focus
Drop the philosophy minor. Pump that gpa with some easy electives
Jocko gave some of the best advice I've seen for a college students in this video. He's a little intense, but you will do well if you follow his advice.
I did well in college and it didn’t matter at the end of the day, still depressed
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