<p>at my high school, the top 20 twenty students of my senior class are pretty competitive. i'm not so much of a "omg, don't look at my answers" kind of girl, but some of the others are. let's just say that unless its assigned group work, not many of us work/study together (unless its not for a grade)
now, at the college where i take a chem and calc class, my classmates are the opposite of what i experience at high school that same day. its common for my calc class of college juniors to get together to throw around calculus problems and whatnot. same for chem.
im generally an independent student, but ive discovered that studying together isnt so bad sometimes. what should i expect at columbia? does it just depend on which group of friends i make? or will i always be studying alone in butler?</p>
<p>in chem and calc, the smart strategy is to do work in a group of 2 or 3 but not larger. In certain physics classes you might want to try a group of 6 or more :). This way work gets done quickly, but more importantly you catch silly mistakes, and get through hurdles quickly. Catching silly mistakes and making sure you have the right answers is important because kids tends to get near perfect scores on problem sets, and if you can’t do this you will be at a disadvantage. It’s also time saving and you make friends. I work in groups as much as possible, the faster you pick this up the better, and others will be happy to work with you, even if your partner is a slacker there is marginal benefit to working with him/her.</p>
<p>collaborating on problem sets is typical for those who don’t simply work better alone. I tended to do my freshman-year physics psets in a small group, and I absolutely HAD to do my quantum mechanics psets in a group, because there was No Fing Way it was getting done solo.</p>
<p>Columbia students are competitive but not jackasses about it. There is no backstabbing and people generally understand that one’s success does not come at the expense of someone else’s. I mean, yes, some classes are curved, but you get the grade you deserve in all cases.</p>
<p>Your friends and your study buddies may overlap, but not always. You’ll get the hang of picking out a few people during the first week of classes every semester who you want to work with in a given class.</p>
<p>Hint to my fellow bros, as a sidenote: This is, without a doubt, the easiest and best way to meet girls while in college. “Hey, I’m looking for study partners, would you like to work together?” is the easiest in, short of being a celebrity.</p>
<p>Lol..don’t expect any miracles though…</p>