I thought high school content was fairly easy to me. I did only receive average grades, but that was due to a lack of effort. I have now been putting 100% effort into college, yet the transition into college has still been rough to me. The classes that I’m taking that are really difficult are; geography, philosophy, sociology. I think the content would be a bit more easy if I actually had a college level vocabulary and could understand the textbooks. Homework is nearly impossible for me, I can barely interpret the question and it can take me a few hours to finally find the answer. The professor/my classmates all just seem way more intellectual than I do, once they open their mouths, I feel like a complete dumbass.
There is tutoring services offered on my campus, but are they willing to assist you with every subject? I don’t have that much time on my off days to go seek help since I’m currently working a part-time job. I don’t know what to do… My parents would kill me if I failed one of these classes.
Last semester I was taking 5, and my guidance counselor recommended me to take only 4 this semester (bare minimum to be qualified as full time) since I was struggling. My parents said that’s not enough credits and that I’ll have too much free time, so they made me get a job to compensate.
My advice would be to investigate tutoring options, and to go set up meetings with your professors to ask what advice they have for doing well in the class. Are you going to office hours? That might be useful for questions about the homework.
Last resort: quitting the job. If things aren’t going well, map out how much time you’re spending on each activity and bring it to your parents. “Look, see how I’m spending my time? I actually don’t have ENOUGH free time – I’d be using it to study, and my grades aren’t high enough without that time available to me.”
Have a little conversation with your parents and let them know that you are struggling.
Quit your job, you need every minute to catch up and learn how to study for college coursework.
You need to understand your syllabus and the dates and plan your studying accordingly.
Go to tutoring. My daughter’s UC provided free tutoring, and each building had a different subject being taught with different levels. She went to every session she could get into, and ended up graduating with a top GPA.
If there is a writing center on campus, find out their appointment rules and use them for papers. Can you find a study group with others in your classes?
College isn’t meant to be easy. It seems to me that you genuinely want to succeed. That’s great, because I think you have the will to make it happen.
I think a frank discussion with your parents is in order. Maybe the advisor at college can email them explaining that you really need to attend tutorials, etc… Schoolwork really has to come first. You can’t get a degree if you can’t first learn how to adapt to the rigors of college. Ask your parents to give you some time to adjust and assure them you will get a pt job next school year. Explain that you cannot succeed without the extra effort you need to put in.
Or, quit your four year college and spend a couple of semesters at CC. For many people, this is a good way to ease inot the transition of college life. I agree with the advice from others too.
GO TO CLASS, BUY THE BOOK, READ THE CHAPTERS, AND DO THE HOMEWORK!
Go to Professor’s office hours early in the semester and Ask this question: “I know this is a really difficult class-- what are some of the common mistakes students make and how can I avoid them?”
If you have problems with the homework, go to Prof’s office hours. If they have any “help sessions” or “study sessions” or “recitations” or any thing extra, go to them.
Form a study group with other kids in your dorm/class.
Don’t do the minimum…for STEM classes do extra problems. You can buy books that just have problems for calculus or physics or whatever. Watch videos on line about the topic you are studying.
Go to the writing center if you need help with papers/math center for math problems (if they have them)
If things still are not going well, get a tutor.
Read this book: How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less by Cal Newport. It helps you with things like time management and how to figure out what to write about for a paper, etc.
If you feel you need to withdraw from a class, talk to your advisor as to which one might be the best …you may do better when you have less classes to focus on. But some classes may be pre-reqs and will mess your sequence of classes up.
For tests that you didn’t do well on, can you evaluate what went wrong? Did you never read that topic? Did you not do the homework for it? Do you kind of remember it but forgot what to do? Then next time change the way you study…there may be a study skill center at your college.
How much time outside of class do you spend studying/doing homework? It is generally expected that for each hour in class, you spend 2-3 outside doing homework. Treat this like a full time job.
At first, don’t spend too much time other things rather than school work. (sports, partying, rushing fraternities/sororities, video gaming etc etc)
If you run into any social/health/family troubles (you are sick, your parents are sick, someone died, broke up with boy/girlfriend, suddenly depressed/anxiety etcetc) then immediately go to the counseling center and talk to them. Talk to the dean of students about coordinating your classes…e.g. sometimes you can take a medical withdrawal. Or you could withdraw from a particular class to free up tim for the others. Sometimes you can take an incomplete if you are doing well and mostly finished the semester and suddenly get pneumonia/in a car accident (happened to me)…you can heal and take the final first thing the next semester. But talk to your adviser about that too.
At the beginning of the semester, read the syllabus for each class. It tells you what you will be doing and when tests/HW/papers are due. Put all of that in your calendar. The professor may remind you of things, but it is all there for you to see so take initiative and look at it.
Make sure you understand how to use your online class system…Login to it, read what there is for your classes, know how to upload assignments (if that is what the prof wants).
If you get an assignment…make sure to read the instructions and do all the tasks on the assignment. Look at the rubric and make sure you have covered everything.
If you are not sure what to do, go EARLY to the professors office hours…not the day before the assignment is due.
These feelings are totally natural. It can be a transition from HS to college work. Many students go thru this same transition. Do not doubt yourself, I am sure you are a bright and wonderful student. It will get easier, just keep putting the effort and it will come.
More than just tutoring in subjects - you should see if your college offers help with time management and study skills. If you coasted through high school (as I did) you might not have developed the type of study habits you need to survive in college.