<p>Hey, I'm a first year freshman at UWEC in Wisconsin. I've been feeling tied down with homework and studying while no one else in the dorms seem to pick up a book. Despite nearly always doing work I turn up lacklucster grades at best and failing ones at worst. I really don't want to flunk out but I'm doing my best and it's not enough. The only advice I'm getting for my profs is to keep working and that first semester is "hard." I'd accept this if any of the other freshman were having a hard time too but I really haven't met any who are. Any advice?</p>
<p>Well, it depends, are the people who aren’t working at all in the same classes as you? If they are, and you are doing tons of work but doing worse than them, then that’s a problem. I would suggest seriously talking to an advisor about it.</p>
<p>If not, I wouldn’t worry too much about it so long as you can manage to keep your head above water. Don’t assume that your difficulties will continue.</p>
<p>Sometimes you just get a bad combo of classes or professors. I guess you had the misfortune of getting just that during your first semester while you’re still adjusting to college.</p>
<p>Are you sure they aren’t lying about not having a hard time? It seems like a lot of the people in my building aren’t working as hard as I am, only to find out they are several chapters behind and it hasn’t caught up to them yet. </p>
<p>Maybe you’re not studying the right way, I’d have to assume if you’re working so hard and not getting results. Maybe you could try a different strategy?</p>
<p>I had difficulty adjusting the first month, too. But then, I discovered something called “time management”.</p>
<p>It’s not going to like this forever. Eventually you will get into the groove.</p>
<p>a lot of times the more you work the less efficient you are. try working less and see where that gets you. at the very least you’ll be less stressed</p>
<p>also talk to other people and see if they can help you on your homework, or if that doesn’t work they probably have free tutoring somewhere</p>
<p>“a lot of times the more you work the less efficient you are. try working less and see where that gets you. at the very least you’ll be less stressed”</p>
<p>That actually worked for me, though I can’t explain WHY. I don’t get it at all.</p>
<p>because if you work less you value your work time more so you use it more efficiently</p>
<p>well if you could only go on the internet for 20 minutes a day, wouldn’t you look forward to it and think about it all day? if you could only work for 20 minutes a day, wouldn’t you try to make the most of it?</p>
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<p>I agree, and this was my problem. I realized that I was studying very hard, but I wasn’t really learning the information. I couldn’t really walk away and repeat back to you what I had just gone over, and some of the time I never really understood it. Don’t just read and review notes for the sake of reviewing. Make sure you’re actually learning and understanding the information. Review each section of your notes until you know the information well.</p>
<p>One method I learned from someone in my classes that’s helped is to format my notes into questions. Before my biology test I’ll format each set of notes into questions like they would be asked on the test, and I made sure I could answer each of them.</p>
<p>Also, make sure you’re not leaving out anything while you’re studying. Don’t skip over something because you think it won’t be important.</p>
<p>Hmmm interesting advice. I too am a struggling freshman. I see a lot of other people playing around and having fun everyday while I am struggling over the sheer amount of my work… I hope this gets better, but I can’t say I didn’t expect it to be this hard…</p>
<p>Read Cal Newports’ blog. He knows a lot about studying efficiently.</p>
<p>Very overwhelmed. Really, I don’t have that much work but it feels like it…
The key is to know yourself and arrange study habits around how you work. I tend to work/read/study slower than most people so I have to be more concious about using time efficiently. I know that I have a tiny attention span (literally like 15-20 min) so breaks are common. My breaks mostly consist of doing stuff that I would ordinarily have to do anyway, such as cleaning, laundry, etc. so in the end it all gets done. </p>
<p>Maybe you should try different study methods to see what works. I tried taking diligent notes for my two science courses in which I practically copied the book…obviously that’s not using my time very well because it wouldn’t leave me any time to study. I don’t work very well with flash cards either. Because I really have no problem writing in books, I started underlining and the system works great for me now.</p>