Hard Classes

Do the best you can. What program do you want to get into? I know coming out of my school GPA doesn't count for a whole lot, since we're all engineering students taking hard courses. Just make sure you stay focused, and stay on top of things.

I'm pretty sure they won't be as much work as my 2D Animation class was. All semester, you work on a single animation and learn the ropes as you go. Hardly anyone finishes.

I'm currently taking two biology classes and next semester I'm taking 6 Spanish classes.

Well, my only tip is attend class!! I know it seems simple, but this one small step will vastly improve one's performance. As far as hard classes, I had an Anthro class I found exceedingly difficult, but that may have been my fault. Or mostly my fault, one of the two. Anyway, don't stress too much, college should be somewhat enjoyable!! God bless

Rejectreality is correct. Just attending class makes a world of difference. And yes, I speak from experience.

No doubt, attendance is necessary and meaningful. Most classes that I did poorly in, were due to lack of attendance. If you work hard, attend class and manage your time well you will do reasonably well. If you have a hard class, talk to the teacher. Often times, teachers or teachers assistants will help students who aren't doing as well. If it's a large class there are always other students to help you with your work.

To echo what everyone else is saying, just applying yourself to the class(es) and studying go a long way. Having a goal helps too.

The first time I took Calculus I many years ago, my only goal was getting out of school. I got a C which was good enough to get my Assoc. of Sci. so I didn't really care. Four years later, now that I want to get a BS in Civil Engineering, I'm retaking Calculus at my comm. college again, but this time I'm doing it right. I got an A in I and so far I've got an A in II. Hopefully III will go as well.

Have a goal and take it one step at a time.

Any tips? Just study like you are going to get an A.

Its somewhat harder than it sounds though.

faithgirl said:

Did you take any classes that you thought might be to hard for you? I am having to take some very hard classes next semester. I am worried I will not do very well in them. The thing is I have to keep an amazing GPA to get into the program I want.

Any tips or stories?

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I'd say my hardest classes were first and second year physics, and organic chemistry. The fact that I graduated in physics, and still found the first year to be tough, should tell you something about first year classes in general. And I'm telling you this because from your age, I can see that you are a freshman. In many disciplines, most of the subject material that you will ever learn is picked up in the first year or two; the rest is all details. As the saying goes: when you specialize in a topic, you learn a great deal about very little. It's OK if you find your first year classes difficult, because they are difficult. But pay attention, because this is the time when you're building a knowledge base that you will draw on for the rest of your college career (and beyond, if you go to graduate school).

If you want to get a good GPA, then the best advice I can offer is that you should study a lot. Not that you aren't an intelligent person, but the interesting thing about academics is that it doesn't take a lot of intelligence to succeed. It does, however, take a lot of discipline and perseverence. The key to success in any subject is extreme familiarity with the material. If you're in a reading-intensive class like biology, history, English, etc., then you should read and reread the assigned portion of your textbook well before exams. In classes like physics, chemistry, and math, you should do as many homework problems as possible (even problems that aren't assigned for grading), and you should form study groups. Also remember to take advantage of your professors' office hours.

Of course, you may need to tweak this according to your specific professors. In my freshman Classics course, for example, there were sixty pages of reading per week. I managed to get away with reading about 10 pages, and just taking good notes (it turned out that the professor lectured on everything that she intended to test us on). Anyway, these are just general guidelines. There really aren't that many secret tricks to getting good grades. There are a few, such as using websites like ratemyprofessor.com to choose your professors (I highly recommend this). But acadamics is a bit of an equalizer, since your hard work will pay off no matter how smart/not smart you are.

Wow...I'm starting to sound like my dad, and that's not good. By the way, what program are you trying to get into?

Oh my goodness, every one of my flight classes was extremely challenging. Thankfully I had great teachers who were passionate about their topics and made me actually want to study more. When I was having a hard time with a certain area I would attend study groups or just hang out with the teacher so they could explain a little bit more to me. One of the biggest motivations I had was the fact this information was the difference between life and death. lol

Get immediately involved in tutoring. In high school, I thought tutoring was only for the "dumb" kids. Wow, was I wrong! Tutoring is the absolutely best tool anyone can offer. It can even help you make friends/study buddies with students in your major. Most colleges offer some sort of peer tutoring walk-in sessions. Take advantage of them!!

The hardest class I've took was College Algebra

well i am in a Bible college called Life Pacific College and right now my hardest class is synoptic gospels

fuzzyh said:

No doubt, attendance is necessary and meaningful. Most classes that I did poorly in, were due to lack of attendance. If you work hard, attend class and manage your time well you will do reasonably well. If you have a hard class, talk to the teacher. Often times, teachers or teachers assistants will help students who aren't doing as well. If it's a large class there are always other students to help you with your work.

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Really good advice. Go to class, study hard, and if you don't have to work a job don't because it makes it that much harder to spend time studying.

I wonder what constitutes an amazing GPA? 3.7? heh.

In my experience, your hardest classes are going to be the advanced electives where you have no experience in. So, I would recommend you try to avoid those always. My absolute worst was "History of the Courtesans". It was nothing but a glorified English class, and because of that, I got my worst grade to date (a B+)

Oh goodness, I am taking 3 classes that I thought were going to be easy, and they are so hard for me this semester.
I don't know what to say, but I think if you work hard at it and you keep up on your reading and homework, you'll do fine! Hope it goes well for you!!!

Well, being a white male that speaks english and has always been around english speaking people with no accents: It's hard for me to understand the concepts discussed by my Economics professor. He's Indian and carries a heave accent and I have the hardest time understanding him. Not only that, but he also teaches a lot different that any teacher I've ever had. He's always putting people on the spot and yelling at them if they're wrong.

I have a test in there in 4 hours and I'm pretty much screwed, if I can put that bluntly. I understand everything in class and the stuff he goes over is pretty easy, but I looked over last years test and it's ridiculous! I have no clue what anything is on this test!

We don't have tutoring for Economics because it's an easy class. However, I have probably the worst professor that I'll ever have in my entire life so this class pretty much blows.

/rant

Going to class is definitely the number one thing. Also, actually read your text books (even the math ones) - they offer a lot more help than you'd think. My other piece of advice: don't be afraid to withdraw (so long as you do so before your actually failing a class). I started my first semester in Calculus I, but I just couldn't adjust to the different lingo that my school's math department uses, so I withdrew while I still held a very low C (because a D is considered failing - at least at my school). This (my second) semester, I'm taking college algebra, just because I know that taking this class will get me used to the lingo and concepts used in the Calculus classes that I get to tackle again next year.
Also: don't be afraid to add an extra year to college schedule. Taking a whole extra year of classes is a much better option than overloading yourself with challenging credits. I wouldn't reccommend taking more than 15 credits a semester if you have even one uber challenging class.

I had 18 credits last semester, 18 this semester, and will have 18 next semester. Classes are tough, but I like a challenge. Sometimes. Keep at it- the more you get done, the better. Even if the class is tough. But don't overdo it.