I need help with Time Management? Scared of failing my classes :(

Hi guys! I am a freshman in college right now. I am taking Calculus 1, Mandarin, and General Chemistry. I always go to office hours and tutoring mainly for Calculus because I am not great at it but it doesn’t always help. There are usually many students there so I don’t always get the help I need or I’m stuck waiting because the tutors are helping other students. Some of the tutors aren’t that great too so I feel like I am wasting my time. I’m feeling pretty stressed right now and it has only been 3 weeks of college. I think if I worked on better time management too, things would go better.

The class that is stressing me out the most is Mandarin. I feel like it is distracting me from doing Calc and Chem because of the workload. But maybe I just need to get better at time management and then I can handle it all.

My friend helped me make a Time Management weekly schedule on Excel which included my classes, eating, studying, and free time. Can you give me any other tips on how to successfully navigate college life? I have 8 am classes 4 days a week and a 9 am on Tuesday and I sleep at 1 am because I’m usually up doing homework or studying. I go to office hours and tutoring combined for like 5 hours everyday but it isn’t super helpful. I feel burnt out by the end of the day. Help please!! Thanks!

Deep breath. College life presents a steep learning curve at first. It sounds like you are trying to work out the time management issues. In addition to friends, consider going to your school’s academic support center. They can help you to fine tune your plan. For calculus, you might also search for online resources. Some YouTube explanations helped my daughter when she didn’t understand in her Calc 4 class.

Have you considered forming a study group with some classmates? That might be a helpful way to study, especially in Mandarin, because you could practice speaking with one another. (And it could also end up providing a nice social group for you.)

You are right now like a car stuck in the mud furiously spinning its back wheels and not really moving forward.

You honestly should consider a private tutor. I bet that 5 hours has a lot of “Empty time” in it.