<p>I'm a freshman in College right now and am already extremely stressed out over my GPA. I have A's in all of my classes but one: Calculus 1... I just don't understand why (I put in the work, do the HW, study everyday, sometimes for hours, get help from tutors, etc) but I just cannot do well in this class. It just doesn't click like it should, and as of now I'm pretty sure I'm failing the class or borderline passing.</p>
<p>I really have NO idea what the hell to do right now. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>You mentioned everything but office hours with the prof to review your graded materials to see </p>
<p>1) where your errors are coming
2) how to avoid them in the future
3) where you really stand on your current grade as you may be pessimistic</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Oh. BTW. Don’t whine. Don’t complain about grades. Focus on mastery of the material. It will go much better with the prof. And whatever you do, do NOT mention pre-med.</p>
<p>Good point, I’ll go to my prof during office hours when I get my test back.</p>
<p>I honestly don’t think I’m being pessimistic though, more realistic since I barely passed my first exam, and just had one today that ended up with straight up guesses for answers.</p>
<p>Important lesson here, and in every other course: more time does not equal better grade.</p>
<p>You absolutely must be adaptable to different study methods, and you need to willing to abandon methods that aren’t working. Simple things I’ve seen students get tripped up on include focusing on the text when the prof teaches and tests entirely from lecture or vice versa. It may also mean focusing on the wrong types of problems. Many math teachers (and profs in other fields as well) give problem sets out of habit/tradition, not because that’s what they actually want you to know. Further, many times in math based fields (gen chem, physics), the desire to get the “right” answer means you ignore how you actually got there, and worst case scenario, you make the numbers work anyway you can to get the right answer, rather than following the actual steps needed.</p>
<p>Also, are you practicing extra problems on your own and getting these right on your own and finishing them in decent time?</p>
<p>You absolutely must be adaptable to different study methods, and you need to willing to abandon methods that aren’t working. Simple things I’ve seen students get tripped up on include focusing on the text when the prof teaches and tests entirely from lecture or vice versa. It may also mean focusing on the wrong types of problems. Many math teachers (and profs in other fields as well) give problem sets out of habit/tradition, not because that’s what they actually want you to know.</p>
<p>I think that sums up a very very excellent well-rounded advice. After your first test in every course you should analyze the test and understand how the professor tests and then study with this in mind. If your teacher happens to test entirely from lecture (which you should now know after test 1) then studying both text and lecture when you don’t have the time to is just a waste of time. If you’re a stresser and have the time & will to do both then go for it (or if you’re like me, I read the text regardless because I enjoy it and find knowledge empowering but only if I have the time). As well, if you’re studying on your own then focusing on the wrong types of problems could be a huge issue (even though ideally if you understand the concepts well then it shouldn’t be one). Profs do usually create exams in the same manner year after year (same exact types of problems) and so if you could get your hands on a prior exam that could help.</p>