I am not posting a whole bunch of tips, just tips that actually worked for me. So for my second semester my average went up by 7% by making some big changes. Some changes were probably too much for me, and I didn’t follow through, but some I did, and they definitely helped me.
1. Check out your classes before hand! If it’s one of those courses with a lot of sections, try and choose the professor who’s grading scheme fits you best. Eg. When I was chosing a Math 103 prof, i checked every prof’s grading scheme, and when I saw one professor doing some weird online thing for grades, and the other doing clickers, I chose the clickers! And checking ratemyprof is helpful but not COMPLETELY reliable. It does help you get the gist of the professor. I really liked my Math professor’s grading scheme, some quizzes to keep me on my toes, labs were 10% :D, etc.
2. GO to OTHER lectures. I actually said this during christmas break on a post. I said it’s something I wanted to do, and thought would help..and it did. I did this for math 103, only because I couldn’t do it for chem or bio(timetable conflicts). But even though most people do worse in math 103, i went up 15% from first semester math to second semester math. So a big jump. I can honestly say that the extra lectures contributed, especially because I set it up in a way that I was having math every single day. It also helped to reaffirm things, and most of all, each professor has their strengths, and if one professor was weak on a certain subject, the other professor seemed to be strong. My professor was Rolfsen, and my extra class was taught by Christoph Hauert.
3. Go to Office Hours. Going to office hours helps. It’s amazing how so many students are in a lecture, and how few of them come to office hours. Even if you know your stuff, in office hours I was able to find out about things to come before others, and also got a lot of things cleared up.
4. Take practice tests. I am the queen of practice tests. I have about 5 billion for each first year course. So if your a first year in science, and want something that WILL help you, contact me, and I will happily send them your way. For my first chem midterm I did the pratice test posted online + about 7 others that I had found. Result: My highest midterm grade EVER.
5. Dont get caught up with your great midterm grades…and start slacking off. After chem I was too confident, and Biol140 started distracting me and getting in the way (I regret putting so much time into this horrible course) and I for some reason put Bio 140 in higher priority and fell off the Bio 112, Math 103 and Chem 123 trains. Thus my downfall…I did well my second semester, I am very proud of how much I improved. But I do wish I wasn’t in Bio 140, I have a feeling my average would be atleast 4% higher.
6. Take some time for yourself. Sometimes constant focus on work will suck up all the energy you have…and then finals hit. You want to have gotten the fun out of the way when you have to study for finals. So don’t be the person in the library from 9am to 1am monday through sunday.
Great tips I’d try them as my 1st year is right around the corner
I was wondering where I could contact you to get in touch and get those resources you said in point 4. Also what were your grades like in High school , and how much did they drop (assuming they did) in university? I am also aspiring to become a doctor( like everyone else in science).
My grades in high school were straight A’s, with AP. I went to an American and Canadian school, and letter grades are used, if I had to turn it into percent itd be around a 93-94 average. My grades went down a lot by about 15-20%. I was able to bring them up second semester by a lot, and I plan to bring them up again with time. You can contact me at bintamustapha13@hotmail.com or on facebook -> http://www.facebook.com/binta.mustapha
Also should I start reviewing any of my high school material. Like if I reviewed my chem 12 material will it help me with Chem 121?
Um..actually I didn’t find prior chem knowledge to be of use for Chem 121, then again a lot of people in my class had learned everything already and that helped them, so reviewing some high school material wouldn’t hurt.
Also is university as hard as they say it is? I averaged around 97 percent in High school, and I know I won’t be doing that good but I still want to get straight A’s. My mom works for an ophthalmologist and he said I would be fine, but reading online there’s so many people going its going to crush your med school dreams.
Great tips! Thank you.. i’m going to try..
I am a first year science student so I would appreciate it if you could please let me know about the practice test you used, resources/links/just anything… also i am almost ideal in the summer so what should i do? i want to prepare my self for my classes/uni..please advice..
thnxx
veni
how did u get all the practice tests?
It’s a long process 🙂
plz tell me !
u can also message me if u want nik@live.hk
Another resource – the Science Peer Academic Coaches. I was one before, and we offered academic coaching to students who are struggling with their academics.