<p>As soon as you don’t understand something, go for help. Don’t wait for it to get better (it won’t). Go to the professor. Go to the department for tutoring. You are not the first underprepared student to go to college or CMU and it often takes a year to catch up. Stop beating yourself up and get over worrying about what people will think of you. You didn’t learn the material when some other kids did–that’s okay. Learn it now.</p>