Disclaimer: This is how to pass a college class, not necessarily ace it...
1. Go to class. This should be common sense, but my 300-person lectures normally only have about 100 people in them. You have to learn the material at some point, so you may as well learn it in class from a professor! You scheduled the class times, so you really shouldn't have anything better to do…
2. Sleep. At night. One reason people skip class is because they stay up late doing who knows what and use class time to catch up on sleep. Then you stay up late trying to catch up of things you missed while you were sleeping! When you're in college, attending class is like your job. Eventually, all those missed lectures will get you fired in the form of an "F".
3. Have friends. Yes, you need friends for social reasons, but friends in your major are also valuable for study sessions, homework help, moral support, catching you up on missed material when you skip class against my advice, and countless other things.
4. Turn off your phone. Or *gasp* leave it at home during lecture. Today's phones are colossal distractions. One minute you're half-heartedly writing notes on nitrogen fixation, the next you're playing Candy Crush while simultaneously stalking celebs on Twitter. Turning your phone completely off will take away so many temptations and help you focus on what your professor is saying.
5. Buy index cards. Regardless of course or major or topic or difficulty, you can make some sort of flash cards to help you study. Using flashcards is a type of self testing method, and testing yourself is way more effective than mindlessly rereading your notes for the millionth time. It makes you have to recall the information, which is exactly what you'll have to do on an actual exam.
6. Get a planner. Find a pretty one, fill it out, and treat that thing like it's your child. You're in college now, you are an adult, so professors aren't going to remind you of every homework due date or exam time. They give you this magical thing called a syllabus, and it's your job to keep all your classes straight and schedule out your semester.
7. Think positively. It may sound cheesy, but if you go in with a positive mindset thinking that you will succeed, you will be motivated to follow through and do what you need to do in order to actually be successful. If nothing else, heyyy, it's only one F, right?
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These things have improved my semester dramatically, and if you have any other tips, please let me know in the comments. Lord knows I can always use the help... And if you found this list helpful, share it with your friends and we can all pass our classes and be awesome together!
Best of luck,
Shelly
