It's the new school year and you're probably trying so hard to be perfect. My advice to you is: Don't try to be perfect! Simply, relax. It is proven that perfection is impossible to reach but it's also known that you can always achieve your best work. Everything will be fine as long as you try your best.

Dear students,

I want you all to know that it is OK to fail, in fact, it's sometimes a good thing. Don't make a habit of it but you can fail once in while. For example, if you have a quiz and you studied and you tried your very best, don't be discouraged if you don't get the top score in your class. Ask yourself three questions: Did you study? Did you try your best? Did you put forth your best effort? If you did study, you did try your best, and you did put forth your very best effort then try harder next time but don't drag yourself down this time.

I have learned throughout my education experience that my first bad grade is often my worst bad grade. I don't know how many students that applies to but when it comes to me, I start sulking immediately. I feel that my bad grade has determined my entire college career and I'll never be able to make the Dean's List now that I didn't ace my 5 point quiz. If you haven't noticed by now... I tend to over-exaggerate. One bad grade is not the end of the world! When it starts to continue one after another, that's when you need to get your act together.

Relax! It may seem like the smarter idea is studying all night long until your eyeballs bleed. However, this is not the case...in fact, this is never the case. You need to get at least 8 hours of sleep, wake up a little early, have a decent breakfast, and then prepare yourself for class. If you haven't retained any of the knowledge before going to sleep the day before the test, you're probably not trying hard enough. Or perhaps, you don't know how to study so it sticks. A few tips for that are to study before you go to sleep and in the morning before the quiz. Don't wait until then to start studying, but make sure you fall asleep remembering questions that could be on the quiz and wake up refreshing what you went over last night.

Lastly, don't depend on someone else to make your schedule. It's college now and you are responsible for you. 99.9% of the time you will could probably think of a million other things to do other then studying. But do remember... you are paying for it so why not take it seriously? Take a few minutes after every class to go over what you learned that day and re-cap on what you learned the previous days. This way the knowledge keeps getting refreshed in your brain.

Think of it this way, college is a full-time job, you should put in a minimum of 35 hours per week if you want to succeed.

Overall, just relax and take it one step at a time. College isn't supposed to be stressful. Focus on what is important first and you will have plenty of time to do fun activities afterwards. Most of all though, make sure no matter what you're doing, whether it be school related or not, just make sure you do YOUR very best.

-Sincerely, a stress free college student