College and University is a time where you learn a lot about yourself and who you are becoming. Its a time where you grow, get stressed to the max and make wonderful memories. Here are my op 5 tips for people who are starting college, trust me they do help as I learnt the hard way from all these experiences. I thought i'd share my tips, so you don't have to go through what I did.
1. RATEMYPROFESSOR.COM
I learned about this site after my first year at university and let me tell you its a lifesaver. All you do is plug in your university/college and search for your professor, it will show you reviews of the prof. Its basically just reviews from others that have had that professor before it gives you information on how hard a marker they are, how they teach the material, cares about student, participation matters, and if you skip class will you pass. Trust me this has saved me from some pretty awful teachers
for example: if you have speaking aloud in class then I would choose a prof were participation doesn't matter.
2. Use a planner
Yes your mom was right, you should use a planner. Now this was no problem for me as I use a planner to keep me organized with school and work. A planner helps you keep things organized and know when assignments are due. Once you get your syllabus I would go to my planner and put in all the important dates like midterms, quizzes, tests, papers or readings were due. Its just good at keeping you on top of things.
3. Its OKAY to ask for help
This one took me a while to learn trust me I learned the hard way, and I wouldn't wish that on anyone. Most time profs are there to help you and take advantage of the office hours, if you have a question or want to go over something they gave you back, they are more than willing to. I was so nervous to go talk to my profs and would avoid it, I would do anything to not go and see them. Its better to just bite the bullet and go speak to them and hey if you go see them and they get to know you it can make a difference between a pass or a failing grade.
Another thing is don't be embarrassed to get a tutor. They know the material and in most cases know what to expect in an exam. Most tutors have taken the course and for some it was barely recent, and might have even had the same prof which is a massive bonus as they know what your teacher concentrates on for tests. At my university there was a business that would put off tutorials for first year math, physics and chemistry classes before any midterm or final. If they had enough interest they would even do them all year round. Now it was $20 a class but for me for one semester it was totally worth it, I would get more out of that tutorial than I would a class.
4. GPA is important, but it won't make or break you.
Getting good grades in university is kinda important as it allows you better opportunities and allows you to gave better registration time, but its not life or death. Trust me school has never been a strong suit for me I struggled especially in my first few years at university. I'm not gonna lie I might have failed a course or two, i'm not proud of that but it is what it is and I learned from that. Its normal for most people to have lower grades in there first year of university than what they had in high school. Its okay if your grades are not what they use to be going from high school to university is a big change and it takes a while to get use to it. Sometimes you learn university isn't for you, or that you need to change your studying techniques or finding courses that you like. Once you get into the routine of university your marks will go up. From speaking of personal experience my last year was my year of somewhat good grades, I didn't get the best grades for the first 4 years and it wasn't until my last year that I got my gpa up a little.
5. Its OKAY to change your program.
A lot of people change their mind on the program they are studying or their major or minor and this is no big deal. I changed my mind and it was no big deal. People learn at different times when they realize a program isn't for them, and sometimes you have to try other courses to figure out what you want. You might go to college and have no idea what you want to do and thats fine to it just takes a little time.
I figured out after 3 years that a program wasn't for me. At my university you basically do courses that can help you into a certain program or do a year of general studies. I did courses to get me into education, I applied 3 times and never got into the facility. After my 3rd time applying and not getting in I was crushed, I had no back up plan, I wasted 3 years at university I thought . I took it as a sign that meant that the program wasn't for me. So I started talking some other courses to figure out what I liked, I ended up taking a geography class with one of my friends and loved it. I ended up getting all my courses done for that major in just 2 years. I also changed my mind again as I had math as my minor, but that quickly changed. After my 5th math course I realized university math is totally different than high school math. Its now about proofs, and proving why an angle is 90 degrees. I could do math problems but not proofs. So i changed my mind to psychology and just added on a course here and there and my minor was done in no time.
