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My Fool-Proof Plan For Doing Well in College

May 29 '02 Write an essay on this topic.

The Bottom Line Follow my tips and tricks for sure-fire college success.

Although this might sound obvious, college is much more difficult than high school. Even if you got straight As in high school, you might need to change the way you study and prepare for class- especially if you are going to be attending a highly-ranked university.

For example, I went to Brandeis. In high school, my grades and test scores were very high and this is mostly what got me into Brandeis. However, good grades and test scores are what got everyone else into Brandeis took and this made us all "average." As in the average student entering Brandeis had a GPA of 3.5 and SAT scores of 1335. I had to find a way to distinguish myself from this "average" crowd because I found that instead of being at the top of my class, I was now in a class full of people who were at the top of their class. I was now "average."

Now that I have graduated, I am more than happy to share my tips and tricks with you. If you are willing to put in the necessary effort, you too can succeed.

I majored in English and History, so I can't say so much about science classes, but many of the tips can probably work for science classes too.

Bring The Right Supplies

Invest in an accordion folder. I purchased a lovely blue accordion folder from Staples for less than $10. It is made of a blue flexible plastic-like material and it has about ten pockets. It came with various folder tabs with the names of the months but I just flipped them over and wrote the names of my classes.

Now, each class has its own folder and everything is in the same place. Many notebooks also come with folders, but if you keep your syllabus and papers there, then you have to look in each notebook for each syllabus. When planning a study schedule, it is convenient to have all your paperwork in one place.

While you are at Staples buying the accordion folder, invest in an assignment notebook. It might be easy to remember things in high school, but it is a lot more difficult in college. Even if you write down assignments in the notebooks where you take notes, if you use different notebooks for each class (which is probably a good idea) then you might not remember that you have the big history test AND the paper for English class due on the same day. As soon as you get the syllabus, write everything in your assignment notebook.

Also, before we leave Staples, be sure to buy a notebook for each class. Try to get a study one that will withstand the abuse of being dragged to class and stepped all over in the dorm. Take notes in these notebooks.

Finally, purchase enough pens, pencils, highlighters, white-out, hole punchers, etc. The most important thing that you need is your own stapler. Preferably, you should have a big stapler for your dorm room and a small one for your backpack. Turning in an unstapled paper will only lead to academic disaster. Remember, your professors don't have a classroom like high school teachers- they might not have a stapler with them.

Pace Yourself

In college, you will probably have between 3-5 classes which meet two or three times a week. At least that's how it was at Brandeis. Needless to say, even if you were meeting every day, the workload is a lot heavier in college. For example, if you are taking an English class, your professor might tell you on Thursday to read Hamlet for Monday. In my opinion, you have three options.

a)You don't do any reading at all and then you embarrass yourself in class on Monday when the professor calls on you. This is very possible, especially if you are enrolled in a class with less than 50 students in it.

b) You leave the reading until Sunday night and then you spend half the night reading in addition to doing all the other work you ignored over the weekend.

c) You pace yourself by dividing the reading into chunks that you read every day. This way, you can read your 50 pages of Hamlet and still have time to party.

When I was in college, I would make a list every week of things I needed to do. This list doesn't need to be anything fancy- just a scrap of notebook paper with everything that is due in the next week or two. When I finish something on my list, I cross is off and I re-do my list every week.

By dividing things into chunks instead of waiting until the last minute, you will have just as much free time if not more than waiting until the last minute.

Study in a Group

Whenever you are going to have an exam instead of a paper, you should try to study in a group. If you don't have any friends in the class, ask the people who sit around you- the ones that you make polite banter with before class. Not only will studying in a group help you understand the material better, but you can also make new friends.

Ask the Professor for Help
If you feel like you are not understanding the material, go to the professor or TA during scheduled office hours. They will be more than happy to help you with a paper topic or to understand why you got the grade that you did on a paper or test. They want you to succeed.

Avoid Heavy Drinking and Drugs
Sure, college is a place for experimentation, but how can you study if you had to spend the weekend in the hospital having your stomach pumped after you drank too much punch at the frat party? Needless to say, alcohol and drug use only impede your studying.

Get Enough Sleep
Even if you are lucky enough to not have class until 11 AM every day, you shouldn't stay up until 2 AM and sleep until 10:30. You are still getting 8 hours of sleep but you will feel sluggish by mid-afternoon. If you go to bed at a normal hour and wake up by 9, you will have some extra time to get breakfast and prepare for class.

Conclusion
Hopefully, following these tips will improve your grades an ensure success in college. Good luck!

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