Professor Jeremy Hyman offered some suggestions discussed in his book “Professors’ Guide to Getting Good Grades in College” to help better prepare freshmen for academic expectations:
1. Collaborate with professors on assignments and don’t be afraid to go to office hours. Hyman suggests being prepared with some questions beforehand and allowing the professor to speak.
2. Take at least a page of notes for every 15 minutes of lecture. Include illustrated points even if they seem secondary. They give the main point body and momentum. It’s better to be over prepared than under prepared.
3. Keep up the study momentum up throughout the quarter. Many students hit an end-of-quarter wall, but this is often the time that grades count the most.
4. Don’t disregard the first few weeks of class. Even though many classes do not have assignments during this period, the work done then sets the groundwork for the assignments later.
5. Take a break every day. For some, that may mean playing an hour of video games. For others, a swim in the Sunset Recreation Center pool is in order.
6. When taking a test, give equal time to all portions of a test. Students will commonly spend too much time on earlier questions, and by the time they come to the last questions, time is up.
7. Specificity and clarity – not a student’s ideas – are often the biggest differences between an A paper and a B paper. The better papers don’t just explore an area; they make a point and they present that point in a well-structured manner.
8. Choose a range of classes and those that spark interest. Students need not drudge through tedious prerequisites to get into majors quicker. Many students certain of their desired major in freshman year end up changing it later.