One of my greatest accomplishments in life so far was being a valedictorian in high school. There were nine of us. I take great pride in how hard I worked to get straight A’s (specifically, anything over a 92.5% in a class. That number was drilled in my brain). Even the last semester of high school, when my grades didn't factor into being a valedictorian, I still worked for nothing less than an A.

And then I got to college. I was fully prepared to carry over my study habits from high school—flashcards, flashcards, and more flashcards, highlight a few things here and there, and then make more flashcards.

I was quick to realize the difference between high school and college. In high school, students are told to memorize. Memorize vocabulary words, dates, historic people, formulas, and chemical elements. Students are tested on what they have memorized. Then, teachers move on to the next chapter and the process repeats. Occasionally there’s a cumulative final in which the teacher tests students on everything that they have “learned,” and students re-memorize everything, just to forget it a few minutes after they turn in their test.

In college, students are told to read and comprehend. Students generally aren’t given a list of vocabulary words to memorize. A professor will lecture, and students have to take notes good enough to be able to study them and be tested on them. Information in college consists of concepts, theories, ideas, and teachings. It’s learning things that will hopefully be applied to college students’ careers after graduation. These are real-life topics; there are no Spanish color-by-number pages for extra credit in a college course.

Let’s be real here, college exams are hard. I had a professor last semester who never gave us study guides before exams. “Your notes are your study guide,” he told us. His lectures were 80% unimportant information/stories about his unbelievably strange life and 20% economics. His syllabus said there would be 12-15 quizzes throughout the semester to cushion our grades; there were no quizzes whatsoever. That’s totally not cool, but professors do things like that.

Have I gotten straight A’s in college so far? I’ll be the first to tell you that no, I haven’t. And that’s okay. No one compares GPA’s in college. I don’t even know what my GPA is right now. Of course, I don’t get all D’s or anything (or else I wouldn’t be in school right now) but a C in college won’t kill you.

The moral of the story is that college academics are so much different than high school academics. There are too many differences to name, but I’ll leave you with this: if you worked hard in high school, you’ll do okay in college. If you enough in high school just to get by, college may be a rude awakening. So go to class, try your best, and everything will be fine.