<p>Night and day. Back in the olden days, when I was in high school, I didn't need to study. Just attend class, listen and write the notes once. I barely ever needed to look them over. And I had the highest average in the entire school (about 320 students in my year). Got to university in math, and suddenly just taking the notes and listening wasn't sufficient anymore. I had to work my rear end off to keep a decent average (I managed to make it to grad school...).
Mind you, university math is nothing like what most have seen in their high school classes, and in other fields the difference might not be so great. Also, the peers you have in college are no longer the neighborhood kids but chosen from a much bigger pool (in my case, top students from 140+ countries according to the brochure), so the pace is set accordingly. Finally, it depends on what high school you went through and what college you are going to. In some places, you'll still be spoonfed and pampered (at least according to a friend of mine who now teaches in a LAC).</p>
<p>I find college to be a lot more difficult than high school. In high school, I rarely studied and I aced all of my tests. Here, at BYU, I have to study A LOT just to get a 75% on a test. It's hard to get used to getting those percentages. Luckily, though, most of my professors grade on a curve and a 75% is an A. If I run into a professor that hates curves, though, I may be in a bit of trouble.</p>
<p>Would you guys mind adding what school you attend when you post? :) Thanks</p>
<p>I go to the University of NH. It's not the number one public school, but it ranks pretty well. I went to an average high school, graduated 23/460, with a 3.69 unweighted GPA (weighted was closer to 3.8), took 3 AP's (in one year), and at least one honors class each year. In other words I worked my tail off in high school.
Now I've only completed one semester, so my feelings may change. However it wasn't as bad as I expected. Granted the stories I'd heard were from my engineer father (who also went to UNH). I did have to work. But it wasn't a foreign concept to me. I spent junior and senior year not sleeping as much as I would have liked, by a long a shot, because I had so much work and a few time consuming ec's. I had more time to do the work, and aside from the last two weeks of school didn't feel that out of control stress that I felt throughout high school. The papers were a little more difficult. The tests took more studying, but it wasn't terrible. I felt well prepared, despite the fact that it took a bit more work. BTW: I have a 3.91 gpa now.</p>