Ok, I'm kinda in a rut, been at my school for 4 quarters now and have been getting B's and C's. What the hell does it take to get A's? Do I literally have to have no life and not party at all? I'm a CSE major so my class schedule is pretty rough, plus I'm not that great at Physics or math, but am excpetional at every CS class that I have taken. Should I be worried that I am not doing well in physics, since i'm a CSE major?
How to get A's in college?
- Thread starter OneOfTheseDays
- Start date
Nocturnal
Lifer
- Jan 8, 2002
- 18,927
- 0
- 76
Originally posted by: rbloedow
I don't study and this semester was totally different from last, where I actually did good. I dropped one class, failed my Statistics class, gto a D in my religion class, and a C in my literature classYea, that was fun.
Are you paying for school or do you receive financial aid?
I just don't get physics, i really can't see it in my mind. I just took E&M and was never more confused in my life. My crap professor didn't help much either, with his worthless experiments that never worked and the numerous sick days he had. I basically had to learn it all on my own, and I didn't exactly do a great job of it. I find that I can study my ass off and know how to do every type of problem, and still do poorly. I guess I need to start understanding what I learn.
Ryan
Lifer
- Oct 31, 2000
- 27,519
- 2
- 81
Originally posted by: Nocturnal
Originally posted by: rbloedow
I don't study and this semester was totally different from last, where I actually did good. I dropped one class, failed my Statistics class, gto a D in my religion class, and a C in my literature class
Are you paying for school or do you receive financial aid?
75% Scholarship and 25% + Books from my money. It didn't hurt my GPA much - I've always gotten A's and B's in the past, so I'm not worried about my scholarship. Next semester I'm reataking the stat class so my passing grade will replace the failing one. I guess that's what I get for maintaining a full time job and going to school, next semester I won't be doing that again
If you are exceptional in your CSE classes, then you should be getting atleast 1 A per semester. I was a CSE (now an EE) and had a minumum of 1 CSE class per semester.
That said, go to class, pay attention, and take good notes. Just these 3 things will help immensly, so you dont have to learn all the material the night before the exam. Understanding the homework helps too.
getting As in college has nothing to do with being smart.
it has everything to do with going to class, taking meticulously good notes, basically writing down a professors every word and knowing his testing style. that is what it takes at ucla anyway.
find 900 sample tests. go to office hours and know exactly how professor would answer a question. when you get the test write that down. TADA. its about working in the system and tailoring yourself to functioning in a flawed system known as college. they do not have very good means to evaluate your performance. as paper tests rarely can even express your knowledge of most topics, especially engineering.
sadly, i failed miserably at working the college system, and decided not to go to class 3/4 of the time. i'd say i knew the material very well. I also would consider myself a good programmer. result = 2.6 gpa.
it has everything to do with going to class, taking meticulously good notes, basically writing down a professors every word and knowing his testing style. that is what it takes at ucla anyway.
find 900 sample tests. go to office hours and know exactly how professor would answer a question. when you get the test write that down. TADA. its about working in the system and tailoring yourself to functioning in a flawed system known as college. they do not have very good means to evaluate your performance. as paper tests rarely can even express your knowledge of most topics, especially engineering.
sadly, i failed miserably at working the college system, and decided not to go to class 3/4 of the time. i'd say i knew the material very well. I also would consider myself a good programmer. result = 2.6 gpa.
Well.... didn't you ever think there might be "exceptional" people in those other subjects... just like you're "exceptional" in your CSE classes? Unless your school has horrible grade inflation--you SHOULD be receiving mostly Bs with a smattering of Cs and As... IF you're working hard. You shouldn't be getting As in every class--unless you feel you're in the top 10 or 15 percent in all of them.
If your question is "how do I get better grades in class?", then here's some advice (that's really redundant, based on what others have said): go to class. go to every class. take good notes. participate if possible--ask informed questions to the professor. Most importantly, do all of your homework. Go see your professor with questions. A little "face-time" with your prof never hurt--it can definitely help when you're in a subjective class... or you need that 1 point bump to jump a grade. Professors like effort. Or at least I do/will when I start teaching Statics next fall.
Or you could just sleep with the prof. Just kidding. Anyways... good luck... put your nose to the grindstone and work hard. Keep in mind that you probably won't get As in everything. There aren't a lot of 4.0s out there. But do the best you can and you'll be alright.
If your question is "how do I get better grades in class?", then here's some advice (that's really redundant, based on what others have said): go to class. go to every class. take good notes. participate if possible--ask informed questions to the professor. Most importantly, do all of your homework. Go see your professor with questions. A little "face-time" with your prof never hurt--it can definitely help when you're in a subjective class... or you need that 1 point bump to jump a grade. Professors like effort. Or at least I do/will when I start teaching Statics next fall.
Or you could just sleep with the prof.
Just kidding. Anyways... good luck... put your nose to the grindstone and work hard. Keep in mind that you probably won't get As in everything. There aren't a lot of 4.0s out there. But do the best you can and you'll be alright.hans hit it right on the head.
1) go to every class regardless.
2) take good notes (don't doodle)
3) take time out each day to go over that days classes, do homework
4) get the old exams and study using those
5) repeat step 4 until you're blue in the face
This is how ridiculous college is: I was in a medicinal chemistry class (pretty intense organic chemistry). We had our second exam after spring break so noone really took their books along to spring break. Luckily or unluckily, whichever way you look at it, I was too poor to take a spring break so I went to the library to copy old exams. When the rest of the students returned from spring break those exams that I copied were gone!!!! I studied pretty hard for the test and went over the old exams multiple times. I remember sitting in the exam thinking that the test was fricking ridiculous because I knew all the answers because IT WAS THE SAME EXACT TEST AS LAST YEAR that noone was able to get a copy of but me and a select few people. I got a 90 but the average for the class was in the mid 40s. Did I know more than the rest of the class when it comes to med chem? Probably. Did I know twice as much as the rest of the class? No
1) go to every class regardless.
2) take good notes (don't doodle)
3) take time out each day to go over that days classes, do homework
4) get the old exams and study using those
5) repeat step 4 until you're blue in the face
This is how ridiculous college is: I was in a medicinal chemistry class (pretty intense organic chemistry). We had our second exam after spring break so noone really took their books along to spring break. Luckily or unluckily, whichever way you look at it, I was too poor to take a spring break so I went to the library to copy old exams. When the rest of the students returned from spring break those exams that I copied were gone!!!! I studied pretty hard for the test and went over the old exams multiple times. I remember sitting in the exam thinking that the test was fricking ridiculous because I knew all the answers because IT WAS THE SAME EXACT TEST AS LAST YEAR that noone was able to get a copy of but me and a select few people. I got a 90 but the average for the class was in the mid 40s. Did I know more than the rest of the class when it comes to med chem? Probably. Did I know twice as much as the rest of the class? No
I agree with you to a large extent..... and hans. But a LOT of profs don't do this.... the only classes that this ever helped me was extremely large ones (organic, physics, etc... especially common final ones). When it comes down to it, unless you get a freak occurence, he who knows the subject material the most fully will do well. Maybe not the best (everyone makes stupid mistakes... and profs tend to make exams with averages that are too high)... but you should do ok. Not to mention, isn't the knowledge the ultimate goal?
I got 1 A and 3 B's this term, my first official term here. Well, second because I took a summer class. I'm not saying that I tried that hard to read the material, but I did go to class EVERY single day, did not miss once. I think that's the key, if you go everyday, you should be fine.
yeah that used to be me too
play tennis for school, party a lot
work at night in the computer lad
not study much
and graduate with over 3.5 GPA in CS
huuum, college is not that hard you know
if you just go to class and pay attention it's enough for A
Siddhartha
Lifer
- Oct 17, 1999
- 12,505
- 3
- 81
"What the hell does it take to get A's? Do I literally have to have no life and not party at all? "
It has to do with your priorties. What is more important to you?
I was a Biochemistry major. From my experience, I got A's when I attended class, did the problems, and studied until I completely understood the subject matter. Yes this took time (not including class time), about three hours every night (including the weekends).
BTW, I found doing the assigned reading before the class so I knew what the prof was talking about and rewriting my class notes really helped.
TRENDING THREADS
-
Discussion Zen 5 Speculation (EPYC Turin and Strix Point/Granite Ridge - Ryzen 9000)- Started by DisEnchantment
- Replies: 25K
-
Discussion Intel Meteor, Arrow, Lunar & Panther Lakes + WCL Discussion Threads
- Started by Tigerick
- Replies: 23K
-
Discussion Intel current and future Lakes & Rapids thread- Started by TheF34RChannel
- Replies: 23K
-
-
Facebook
Twitter