On a campus full of intimidating professors, insane clubs and gross amounts of homework, I'm here to do the impossible: create a guide to help you survive college. *Que "Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide" theme song* Okay now that we've all had a flashback to our 11-year-old selves sitting on our living room couch scarfing down a fruit roll-up after another exhausting day of fifth grade, let's finish what Ned started: a guide to survive college.
1. Go to Class
No attendance no problems, right? No. Seriously go to class!! You're guaranteed to miss information that will be on an exam and hurt your GPA in the process. Finding motivation to go to class can be really difficult sometimes, but drink a bowl of coffee, (yes, an entire bowl; I did it the other day and it works I swear) put on your shoes and go to class.
2. Do your Homework the Day it's Assigned
This is real too. The sooner you finish your homework the less likely you are to forget about it amongst all of the other stuff you have to do during the week. You'll love yourself when all of your friends are scrambling to finish their assignments two hours before they're due.
3. Study
Oh, you didn't study in high school? Congrats, neither did the other 90 percent of people in the world. College is not high school. Studying is essential if you're going for that A or even B. There might be a couple cases where you can get away with skimming your notes for ten minutes the night before your exam, but the majority of the time studying is a must.
4. Manage your Time
I'm sure we've all heard the same spiel from our teachers and parents, "Join a club! Get involved! Be a leader!" I'm not saying that they're wrong, however, it's important to make sure that you have time in your schedule to take on extracurricular activities and join multiple clubs. Remember that the academic aspect of college is a lot more demanding than it was in high school, and you might not have time to do everything you were able to in the past. Get a feel for your school and the homework load before you start going club-crazy. After that it's up to you to decide what you can take on. My advice: keep a planner and invest in about 15,000 post-it notes to juggle everything you have to do and you should be fine.
I'm not sure why Ned thought that we'd have a harder time figuring out middle school than college, but it's definitely a transition from high school and these are the best tips I can give you to survive it.
