How does one make good grades in college?

[LW07]

Alright, I'm gonna be going off to college this fall, and it seems like I'll have like 5000 classes, and i hear if you want to make good grades you have to spend 2 to 3 hours studying for every one hour you spend in class.

How will I manage to make good grades and still have personal time for stuff like video games and parties?

 

[her209]

Sleep with the professors.

 

[frostedflakes]

Depends on the major. If it's engineering, you better forget about having any free time.

 

[KevinCU]

Pay attention in class, take notes and do the homework.

 

[Jumpem]

You skip the socializing and spend most of your free time reading text books, doing homework, studying, and working on porjects.

 

[joesmoke]

Have a good weed dealer? If you dont youd better get one.

 

[Deeko]

Don't worry about it - grades don't matter.

 

[esun]

Originally posted by: KevinCU
Pay attention in class, take notes and do the homework.

Simple as that. If you spend more than a few hours studying for a test, that means you didn't pay enough attention in lecture. If you pay attention and do the homework, the tests should be pretty straightforward (with a few exceptions, of course).

 

[irishScott]

Ignore the numbers and statistics. I've yet to meet anyone who fit them perfectly (after 3 years in college).

Pretty simple generally:
1. Go to every class. I don't care how easy it is or how little you get out of it, just suck it in and go. I've tried both ways, the latter works out far better.
2. Do the homework. All of it.
3. Take notes in whatever fashion works for you/the class.

Beyond that it depends on the class/professor. Some courses may have online components, some may require more reading, some may have a douchebag of a professor who won't give anything above a B to a non-major. In the end you have to experiment and figure out what works and what doesn't. There's no real specific formula. Kinda like, oh I don't know, life?

 

[wkabel23]

If you only follow one rule, make it this: go to class!

 

[episodic]

I never studied. Ever. I was 18 - married - and had 2 children within a year of each other - then worked 40 hours a week while going.

I had a 3.89 average.


In grad school, I had to study - nah study isn't the word for it - write papers. . .

3.9

Do you homework if assigned.

 

[dbk]

do all the little assignments and homework then cram for the exam or find some koofers.

 

[Crusty]

Originally posted by: wkabel23
If you only follow one rule, make it this: go to class!

QFT

 

[LW07]

Originally posted by: frostedflakes
Depends on the major. If it's engineering, you better forget about having any free time.

I plan to do information technology

 

[irishScott]

Originally posted by: esun

Originally posted by: KevinCU
Pay attention in class, take notes and do the homework.

Simple as that. If you spend more than a few hours studying for a test, that means you didn't pay enough attention in lecture. If you pay attention and do the homework, the tests should be pretty straightforward (with a few exceptions, of course).

I wouldn't say that. I payed attention in my Psych100 and Chem103 classes, went to every lecture, took thorough notes, did all of the reading. I ended up spending about 10 hours on each exam for these classes. Especially the finals.

It's entirely dependent on the class. A decent bit are straightforward, but sometimes the sheer volume of information blows that number out of the water. I know if you talked to any of the Chemical Engineering majors here in Delaware and made that several hour quote, they'd probably laugh at you.

Hell I spent up to 12 hours Computer Science labs, let alone the exams. Sure several hours will get you a C or B in most cases, but if you want the A it's going to take some serious time depending on the quantity of information you have to digest.

 

[thegimp03]

You just got to work hard in the library...as you mostly won't be able to get anything done in the dorms. Asking people who've previously had the class before would help you too. Take advantage of any resources your school might offer in the way of reviews of professors...good professors can make a huge positive difference as compared to bad professors teaching the same class. If a class is ever looking "too empty", there's a reason right there you should drop it and try to switch into another class. Especially when it comes to your GE classes taken in your first two years...there's always tons of people taking those classes at the same time so they'll have 3, 4, maybe 5 professors teaching the same class so you gotta ask around to see which ones are favorable.

However, the point of college is not to get straight A's like you did in high school unless you're looking to be a doctor and are applying to med school right after graduation. Getting a good college experience and having a social life are way more valuable than sitting in the library and being a bookworm. I'm not saying to party it up every night of the week (though that option is available), but you don't want to look back on your college experience 25 years from now and think that you didn't live it up when you had the opportunity to.

 

[matas]

Originally posted by: frostedflakes
Depends on the major. If it's engineering, you better forget about having any free time.

You are making me scared haha. I still got a year of high school but I am thinking about engineering of some sort.

 

[Crusty]

Originally posted by: matas

Originally posted by: frostedflakes
Depends on the major. If it's engineering, you better forget about having any free time.

You are making me scared haha. I still got a year of high school but I am thinking about engineering of some sort.

If you're doing something you are passionate about there's nothing to worry about.

 

[LW07]

My goal is to get like a 3.25 GPA, to keep my scholarship, but the higher the grades i get, obviously the better, but i don't want to be a hermit in the process.

 

[Inferno0032]

Originally posted by: frostedflakes
Depends on the major. If it's engineering, you better forget about having any free time.

This. 2nd semester engineering, and it blows. No free time at all, all my "free" time is spent playing basketball or lifting, and every now and then some videogaming.

 

[matas]

Originally posted by: Crusty

Originally posted by: matas

Originally posted by: frostedflakes
Depends on the major. If it's engineering, you better forget about having any free time.

You are making me scared haha. I still got a year of high school but I am thinking about engineering of some sort.

If you're doing something you are passionate about there's nothing to worry about.

Not 100% sure what I want to do tho. I am pretty good in math, but it's only AP calc, and I heard it is the first building block into advanced math courses.

 

[txrandom]

Be intelligent. It's fairly simple actually.

 

[miketheidiot]

if you need to study in college, you don't belong there.

except engineering and math/physics, where you might have to study a little bit.

 

[jman19]

Originally posted by: Deeko
Don't worry about it - grades don't matter.

Wrong.

Grades aren't everything, that's for sure, but to say they don't matter is silly - how do you know what this guy wants out of college?

 

[gorcorps]

Originally posted by: miketheidiot
if you need to study in college, you don't belong there.

except engineering and math/physics, where you might have to study a little bit.

This is complete bullshit. OP, most colleges are a wake up call and will prove a bit difficult at first. If you breeze through college than you didn't get anything out of it. Maybe I'm biased because I'm in an engineering focused college that whoops everybody's ass, but still.