Be careful, those "high school" habits of yours will get you in trouble in the not too distant future.

Make sure you get A's right now when you'd just have to put forth a tiny bit of effort to get them. Later it is much much harder (add or subtract "much's" depending on your major).

In the end many "major" classes are 3 credits, whereas many GUR classes are 4 or 5 credits. So you can either set yourself up for having a great GPA when you graduate or a crappy one, simply on what you do with the “easy” GUR's.

I myself had a 2.5 GPA in the GUR's and it killed my overall GPA, which will end at about 3.1 whereas it should have been significantly higher had I just actually did any studying or note taking in the GUR’s. (Note: I actually got an A on a Psych 101 midterm without studying or going to class and I hadn't slept in 46 hours when I took it :-). So, needless to say eventually if you keep your current habits your GPA will take a dive.

Plus learning good study habits now is significantly easier than learning them when you start into your major.

85% on my pysch 101

Your old habits are "working"?

# Whatever
by Brandon | 24 October 2006 1:17 PM
High school habits work fine for classes like Psych, Polysci, English, and History. That is, until you get to the 300-level classes. So I presume you'll be fine for a while.
English 101 and 202 were the easier than my high school AP English classes. Political Science 101 and 250 were roughly the same as my political science / government classes in high school. For these classes, it's roughly about writing damn good essays and having the intelligence (background knowledge learned from great high school teachers, as it was in my case) to back up your essays or to pass you through the professor that favors multiple-choice questions.

Don't expect things to last. The university - or, rather, Western's strange assortment of professors - will surprise you, and the surprise may be devastating to your GPA (I know it was to mine). For example: History 280 is FAR more difficult than History 499. But this may have been merely a careless mistake on my part during the Final Exam in History 280. And as for Foreign Language, Philosophy, and some Computer Science classes... study skillz are a necessity, even at the 100 levels.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not here to lecture you and say things like "get your act together" and "take classes more seriously," because, for geniuses like us, taking 100-level classes seriously would only stress you out over matters that need not a "stress" attribute attached. Or, it would be good practice to get into study habits for when those nasty 300 level courses kick your butt. I don't know. Do what you want. Just don't take History 280.

If I could tell freshman one thing before they started college, it would be do develop good study habits EARLY. I know you hear that all the time, but it is so TRUE. I didnt, and I am suffering because of it.

No high school will ever prepare you for college. And first quarter 101 freshman classes hardly do the univeristy justice as far as academic rigor is concerned.

Freshman year is fun, but most will see that there is a time when it is neccecary to transition from a college kid into an adult university student. You will be met with more challenges soon. I hope you rise to the occaision!

Good luck with everything, and thanks for posting your thoughts!!

~M~

I found that in the first two years of college, there were a couple of quarters that left me with some extra time. I would suggest, if you are looking for a challenge or to futher your education in a new way, perhaps looking into internships or volunteer opportunities. Even as a freshman, there are several projects right on campus to become involved with. If psychology 101 isn't difficult enough, go to the prof and ask about other projects you could participate in (maybe to get more experience and at least get your name out there?). There is never enough time to network like that in the last year of school.

Anna

Sometimes when I start thinking about how easy my classes are and that I'll just be able to slide by it catches up to me. Although you're pulling 85%s on your tests there is still room to improve there. Pretty soon you're going to be pulling 80's, then 70's, and then what?