<p>I'm not sure how to phrase this question or if it will make any sense but I'm going to try anyways haha. I always hear people talking about how they were at the top of all of their high school classes and then they go to Berkeley and they're just average. Well, if everyone is "average," who are the students at the very top of their classes at Berkeley?</p>
<p>I'll be moving to Berkeley in a few days and taking a class over the summer before I begin my freshman year in the fall. How can I most easily make the transition from my AP classes in high school to Berkeley? I want to be at the very top of my classes at Berkeley and I'm willing to work as hard as it takes to do it. What separates the students who are at the very top of the class at Berkeley from those who are simply average but were considered geniuses in high school? What should I do during my first semester (and future semesters) to try to maintain the same level of academic excellence that I proved capable of in high school?</p>
<p>Go to class.
Read the books.
Do the assignments, including pre-lab and lab writeup for lab courses.
Start term projects early.</p>
<p>Yes, the above seems simple, but a lot of students procrastinate and end up cramming for the final exam.</p>
<p>Be aware that a lot of typically year-long AP courses cover only about a semester’s worth of college course material. So the actual speed of covering new material in a college course is likely to be faster than what you are used to.</p>
<p>Also be aware that courses with labs and term projects can be significantly more work than other courses.</p>
<p>Get rid of your computer games. Helps A LOT.</p>
<p>Make academics a priority over everything else. I know so many kids that are smart, but simply don’t study enough because they have way too much going on. It’s ok to have activities during the week (personally I do about 25 hours/week of research during the school year), but in that case you NEED to find other times to work. For me that means working almost non-stop over weekends. If I have a midterm the following week, I literally do nothing but study the entire weekend. Another option is staying up really late, but I prefer to sleep during the week. </p>
<p>Take a slightly lighter course load than you think you can handle, at least at first. I know some people who take pretty insane numbers of classes (like 5 technicals sometimes), and they get slaughtered grade-wise by those of us who have more time to give per class. I don’t know what your major is, but if it’s engineering/science, I highly recommend sticking to 3 technicals + 1 humanities (or even just 3 technicals + seminars if you have a lot of AP credit) until you know you can handle more. I know I could probably handle 20 units if I really wanted to, but I stick to 15-16 usually and it makes my life a lot easier.</p>
<p>Study hard, but also study SMART. I spend many, many hours just thinking about how to study, and thinking about what types of things the professor really wants us to know. Before I start studying for a midterm, I go through all my notes, textbooks, and homeworks and make a lengthy study guide with all of the important information from the course thus far and all of the hardest problems that could potentially be on the exam. Having this big picture view of the material I need to study really helps me out.</p>
<p>You might laugh at me for this, but make studying a big part of your social life. Most of my friends take similar classes to me and we spend a lot of time discussing the material over dinner or just while chilling. We don’t have to do this, but I really think it gives us a BIG edge. Thinking about the material as much as possible, especially in a “fun” setting helps SO MUCH. If I’m honest, I never stop thinking about my courses until the end of the semester.</p>
<p>Just relax for a few hours right before you take a midterm or a final. I see a lot of kids get super stressed out. If you have studied everything that you think you should have, then why should you worry? Confidence is a pretty important key to success. If you study hard and then expect to do well, you will do well.</p>
<p>It depends what your major is. As ‘singh2010’ mentioned above you just need to study hard/smart if you’re not a science/engineering major. But you’re in a hardcore engineering program such as EECS you need to be born smart in order to get a GPA over 3.90.</p>
<p>You have to be smart, yes, but not a genius necessarily.</p>
<p>Delete your facebook, your twitter and if intimacy is needed, I’d recommend one night stands since being engaged in a relationship will take huge amounts of time out of your soon-to-be busy, if not, busier life. Good luck! </p>
<p>Sent from my MB508 using CC</p>
<p>Suceeding here academically is something everybody wanted coming in as a freshmen, but unless you arr dead set on med/law school etc (most freshmen are/were), you’ll quickly realize that being average to slightly above average in the long run will be just OK. There are many things to do, places to see, and people to meet, so don’t waste your life away too much here just to attain a high GPA!</p>
<p>What’s your major? </p>
<p>A lot of people do badly because they overestimate what they can handle. I know it’s tempting to take a lot of classes to get requirements done quickly. Especially during your first semesters you should take as few classes as possible, you’ll need extra time to get used to the environment and explore things. Also, it’s inevitable that other things (social, clubs, research, personal, etc) will pop up and affect your schedule. If you don’t add room for those in your schedule then your GPA will suffer.</p>
<p>In general, doing badly has little to do with intelligence. Sure, you have to be moderately intelligent to grasp the material. But I’d argue that 95%+ of people at Berkeley are intelligent enough, or they wouldn’t have gotten in. You don’t need to be a genius to get good grades. People who do badly, given they have a decent schedule, either 1. Don’t study in the right way or 2. Are not mature enough and have problems with self-control and setting priorities. Here are just some examples:</p>
<ul>
<li>They waste many hours per day on Facebook or other social networks</li>
<li>They can’t get up in the morning and skip class. Or they come to class and sleep. Seriously, tons of people just sleep in class. How can you expect to get good grades if you don’t even have enough discipline to stay awake?</li>
<li>They procrastinate with classes and then start skipping other classes to catch up. In the end they fall behind everywhere and never catch up anywhere ;)</li>
<li>They think studying is some kind of “social” activity. That’s a big one, SO MANY people do this and it’s a fatal mistake. They study with their friends in some kind of loud coffee shop and end up talking 80% of the time and not getting much done. Study groups can be effective, but only if done in the right way. A great way to have study groups is to let everyone work on the assignments alone, and then compare and discuss results in group.</li>
</ul>
<p>Even if you’re in one of the most “difficult” majors, you’ll have <em>plenty</em> of free time to be involved in lots of activities and social events if you do things right.</p>
<p>That’s also one the reasons transfer students often do just as well, or better, than freshman admits. I don’t want to offend anyone, but on average, transfer students are less “intelligent” than freshman admits. However, they are more mature, know what they can and can’t handle, and have their priorities right.</p>