To the one who stressed a bit too much,
Congratulations, you survived your first semester of college! I know you don’t see this as being a big accomplishment, but you should give yourself a pat on the back. If anyone tells you that the first semester of your freshman year of college is a breeze, they either don’t remember, don’t understand, or are lying to your face. The hardest part may not even be academics; the biggest challenge is learning how to balance your social life while maintaining strong grades. Many students, including myself, went from kindergarten to senior year of high school with the same group of kids. Here’s how that goes:
First of all, you knew everyone in your grade, even if you never actually spoke to them. Since the beginning of high school, you’ve sat with the same group of friends at the same round table in the cafeteria; you made a mental list of people to avoid in the hallways, and you established which teachers were your best friends and which were your enemies. My point is, you couldn’t tell the days apart because life was pretty much the same every day for four years.
All of the sudden, you were thrown into a sea of new faces, challenging professors, and a tiny dorm room. Those cute family photos hanging on your cinder block wall remind you of how much you miss the warm hugs from your mom before bedtime, the home cooked meals, endless snuggles with your dog, and Sunday football gatherings with your family. College really makes you grow up.
I am sure by now you have realized that studying is your job and caffeine is your best friend. To the one who struggled academically, you are capable of getting straight A’s. Is it a challenge? Yes, but all of the hard work and late nights and Netflix sacrifices are worth the 4.0. If you’re someone who got very good grades in high school but didn’t study, you’ve learned by now that the key to getting a solid GPA is studying. You just have to figure out which method of studying works best for you.
I am someone who is not the best test taker. However, that is not an excuse to not get at least a B on an exam. I know that if I have a big exam coming up that’s worth a large percentage of my grade, I need to study every day for at least 30 minutes starting exactly one month before the exam date.
Cramming will not make you successful. If you cram for 12 hours the day before a big test, all of the concepts start to blend together. Not only that, but the pressure of trying to remember everything with such a short time span really weighs you down emotionally and mentally. Then test day comes and you just want to get it over with because you’re sick of thinking about all of the information you just jammed into your head. It can cause you to rush through the test and make careless mistakes. Plus, why study for 12 hours the day before a test when you could have just studied for 30 minutes every single day for a month? Or maybe just an hour two weeks before the test. If you do that you won’t have to relearn a ton of information.
That being said, you want to make sure your studying habits are top notch. Making your own study guides can be very beneficial for two reasons. First, you are designing what is on it, so you’re going to put the most important information on it. Second, by rewriting what you learned in class you are also teaching it to yourself again.
If the class is extra challenging, don’t be afraid to stop by the tutoring center. The tutors want students to work with them. If you’re feeling lazy and don’t want to walk all the way to the tutoring center, ask a classmate for help. Or even better, ask your professor. Remember, your professors want you to pass and succeed. They are rooting for you even if they don’t seem like they are.
College is all about balancing and time management. It is very important to have a strong social life. To the ones who struggled socially, making friends is hard. The key to making friends is putting yourself out there. Try going to the dining hall with someone new once a week. If you run into the girl you live next to in the communal bathroom, say hello.
Make sure you get involved. Try every single club on campus that sounds like it could be fun for you. You will end up meeting people you have things in common with. It gives you guys something to talk about. Not only will you see each other at the weekly club meeting, but maybe you’ll decide to grab a few meals a week together.
Even if you didn’t do as well this semester as you wish you would have you should still congratulate yourself. Be proud of how hard you worked, but don’t stop now. You’re going to figure it out, and you’re going to find yourself!
It just takes time,
A college freshman
