Tips for First-Year College Students

Nowadays, studying in college looks a little different because of COVID-19. Those first-year college students need to adapt to the new normal adjustments and changes due to the pandemic. If we are one of the incoming first-year college students this year, it is essential to prepare for this new normal trend. But how can we do the preparations to have productive or fruitful day-to-day study with our subjects properly?

Here are some things that we need to bear in mind if we want to ensure that we can successfully learn from the subjects and finish our courses with great understanding:

1. Make our classes our top priority — Being a college student is quite difficult than those in high school days. We may have different opportunities that come our way. Lots of things and activities should be made and done — both for academe and for household chores. Well, it’s high time to prioritize things based on our expectations. Remember that we cannot simply hit two birds at the same time. So, if we want to understand every subject that we have and finish our chosen course, it is crucial to prioritize our classes by complying with the requirements needed in school.
2. Maintain good grades and achieve a good performance level in academics — I’m not saying that we need to be super-geniuses to finish our goal or studies. Just be attentive in learning the topics for our subject and do an exceptional performance level to impress our teachers or professors. We also need to comply with all the requirements which are needed to submit. This is one of the prerequisites for obtaining good grades and even getting a “flying color” during our graduation. Ensure to submit these requirements and finish all activities on time because these are also criteria for having good grades.
3. Let’s study hard for the upcoming quizzes and long exams — Of course, there’s always a quiz or exam after the discussion in an academic setting. Sometimes, our professor announces that there is a summative exam that will be conducted next meeting. So, if this will be the case, we need to be prepared for this big day. Let’s exert our effort to study hard and gather all our learning from our previous lessons. It is quite hard to memorize all the terms and situations in our discussions. So, it would be better to learn everything by comprehending the situations and key terms. If needs memorization, we need to exert an effort and try to put all those key terms in our mind. In this way, we will be confident enough to answer the exam because we are well-prepared.
4. Never plagiarize an output from someone — If we are given a task or an essay by our professor, we can simply research on the internet to understand the terms, situations, or anything about the topic. However, let’s always make sure to write our own piece as if that we are writing our own “Obra Maestra.” Remember that plagiarism is just like cheating. If we cheat and copy from the outputs of others, we cannot simply learn and grow independently. That’s why the best advice that I can give to all incoming first-year students is to learn how to prepare original academic outputs by thinking imaginatively.
5. Take active approaches and raise concerns in our classes — Let’s be proactive during class discussions. If some things make us confused, then it would be better to speak so that our professor can elaborate the discussions well. Let’s not be afraid of raising questions, especially if there’s something that bothers us. Remember that asking questions about the topic during discussion would give us enlightenment about certain things.
6. Seek some help before problems exist — Sometimes, we may find the subject difficult to understand since the learning skills and knowledge of everyone are different from one another, right? And this is what we call “individual differences.” So, if we think that we hardly understand the discussions or lessons, then take time to read or study after classes. If we need some assistance from others, let’s seek help from them to make sure that we can learn more about the courses that we have chosen. In this way, we can avoid having a failing grade because we’ve done our part, which is to study well.

These tips and suggestions that are mentioned above are just some important things that first-year college students should do. Just make sure that we, as students, are the architects of our own future. So, if we exert an effort to study and learn more in our present days, we will surely reap the fruits of our labor in the future.