<p>Some people were messaging me asking for tips on how to do well at Tech, so I thought I would post a thread. Tech is a hard school, but it is possible to succeed if you are dedicated to your studies.If you go into Tech thinking it will by like high school, you will most likely not do well at all. Putting in high school effort will work for some classes, but not for other. Still, do not be frightened,Tech gives you everything you need to succeed, you just have to make use of it. I tried my own strategies my first semester, and found them to be very successful,especially in my more challenging math and physics classes. I will continue to use them next semester. With these strategies, making at least a 3.0 should not be a problem for anyone no matter what your high school GPA was or your SAT score (mine was an 1840, low for Tech). </p>
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<li><p>Go to class. Obvious right? Even if the professor is not very good, go to class, try to understand, and ask questions about what you do not understand after class. If what you don't understand is "all of it".Schedule a one-on- one tutor. You have already paid for up to
3 hours of tutoring a week with your tuition, so you are actually wasting money not using this key resource. Some of them are great. You can look it up under Georgia Tech success programs. Also, they provide tutors for harder subjects such as Physics, Calculus, chemistry and computer science in the basements of the dorms. They can be very helpful.</p></li>
<li><p>Do extra homework. When you are studying, do not do the homework just to complete it. Take time and do the homework, and then do extra homework. The professor assigns it for a reason. Do it until you cannot get it wrong.</p></li>
<li><p>Two words: Office hours. My theory is if your teacher does not know your name, you are doing something wrong. It may be scary at first, but going really pays off and can really help clarify what you are not understanding. Do not go to office hours the day before a test and ask them to teach you all the material. That conversation will last 5 minutes.
Go to clarify and ask questions on homework problems.</p></li>
<li><p>Never give up hope. I did not score very well on tests in both Calc 2 and physics 2, but I treated every test like it was the the test that would make the difference. My teacher let us drop a test grade in Calc 2, so a lot of people bombed the last test. But I took it seriously and I am very glad I did because i got to replace a low score with a higher one. Even in physics 2,they weight the tests which make up 50% of your grade so your highest score makes up 15% of your grade while your lowest score only makes up 5% of your overall grade! I made
80,77,86,72,90, and then a 96% on the final(BTW, the averages were 72,65,76,59,59,and 70). I had 100s for homework, PRS, lab, and recitation, and I ended up with a 90(an A was probably 83-84 but I didnt know this for sure and you should never rely on the curve). I tried my best on almost every test no matter how demotivated I was from the previous exam. This was the hardest part. It sucks trying your best and not doing well. Which is what a lot of people's problem was in the class. </p></li>
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<p>I found these strategies to be very useful. Even in classes with under 2.5 averages. I took two challenging classes (physics 2212(classical) and Math 1502 w/ Geronimo (horseman)) and was in about the top 10% of the class for both. In case you were wondering, I was also in econ 2106 (joke) and english 1101(my teacher was kind of hard). I made a 4.0 for the semester.</p>