<p>I just got back from orientation and i've talked to my Advisor/Counselor or person.
And he's said to study every single day little by little.
But from what I've seen, people party thursday-sunday.
I'm not saying I'll party thursday-sunday, but I want to have fun in college while studying,
I don't want to be a book nerd or anything.
However, I plan to read before class, and review after class.
Some of my classes start at 8:30 and some are back to back.
Should I read before class the day before, then review everything at the end of the day?
Or should I review at the breaks i have between classes, etc.</p>
<p>Also when would you start studying for your tests and stuff?
Two weeks ahead?</p>
<p>I’d say definitely study or do something every day. It depends greatly on how hard your classes are for you, though. For some classes, studying two weeks ahead will be more time than necessary, and for others it may not be enough.</p>
<p>I don’t party but that doesn’t mean I’m not social and that I don’t have fun. Just so that you know that parties aren’t the only way to be social or have fun in college.</p>
<p>You’ll get into a rhythm. I for example don’t study at all from day-to-day but review the night before a test and I did just fine. Depending on your classes and personality you might need to study constantly or whatever. No one way works best for everyone. I partied thurs-sun and it was just fine, but not everyone can do that, whether that’s due to the difficulty of their classes or their personality or whatever.</p>
<p>I don’t think a lot of people study much at breaks between classes unless they’re long or they have something really important due. It’s okay to just take a break (naps were my personal favorite).</p>
<p>Two weeks before test C, I would be studying for test A that was two weeks before test C, and a week before test B (which I won’t start studying for for another week). Probably a few days at most, depending on how comfortable I felt about the material. Then again, I personally like cramming, because it’s closer to the exam, I retain information better when I’m under pressure and am studying intensely, and I hate doing things on a regular basis (except sleep), but like to do something for a while and switch off.</p>
<p>A lot of successful students treat studying like an 8-5 job. They plan to study when they have breaks during the day (maybe go the library or study room after lunch, instead of back to the dorm if they don’t have afternoon classes, for example). That gives them some free time to do other things on evenings and weekends. Although to get good grades at any decent school you will have to study some during those times. And if you are hung over, studying/classes won’t go so well the next morning.</p>
<p>You’ll find a schedule that works for you. You don’t have to be a ‘book nerd’ but you don’t have to be a party animal either. Successful students find a happy medium of studying and partying.</p>
<p>One other thing is I don’t think you can make a concrete plan until you get to college. There’s no way for you to understand the workload or what you’ll be interested in or who you’ll be hanging out with. Think about what you might want to do, but don’t assume you’ll do things a certain way - you have no idea since you haven’t experienced that life yet.</p>
<p>I guess it depends on your classes, as STEM major I tend to actually not read all that much unless Im not getting certain topics but I usually find going to recitation or lecture to be enough for me. I would recommend going a little overboard until your first rounds of midterms then adjust as needed. I personally do all my assigned work (graded or not) and try to put forth a honest effort into those problem sets. </p>
<p>As far as studying for tests I think 2 weeks in advance is not going to help you all that much since you will probably be tested on information leading up to the week before. My suggestion is to start studying the weekend before and leading up to the actual test that way most of the information is fresh. </p>
<p>A final suggestion I have is for papers and reports start on them early and work on them about 30min to an hour a day. Your paper will end up better and you wont be up until 5 am writing it.</p>