Study Tips for First Year Freshman

I got news for you, there's a lot of memorization in college studying too. As for me, read over lecture notes, look at figures in the textbook when confused, and do practice problems/practice tests! It's all about the practice tests.

The best thing you can do to help your studies is to stay the hell away from SDN.

This place is the devil's playground.

How you transition is highly dependent on which major you're in. (eg, if you go into math, you'll need to understand the derivations, do practice problems...etc. If you go into english, you'll need to practice good essay writing.) We can help you more if you tell us what major you'll plan to be in.

don't go out every night and drink beer.

Manage your time and you'll be fine

Office hours. Wish I'd done that.

PingPongPro said:

The best thing you can do to help your studies is to stay the hell away from SDN.

This place is the devil's playground.

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Yep stay away until you already have the GPA and MCAT you want -- should aim for GPA 3.8+ and MCAT 33~35+ to feel secure.

After taking your MCAT is an appropriate time to come back to look at ppl's app experiences to help gauge your strategy... but since this is SDN (where ppl don't know your personal situation as well as those at your school), take everything on here with a grain of salt.

Study smart... not just hard.

Don't torture yourself if something is not working.

So get help early. Scope out the high scorers in the class before you.

ASK THEM for tips. They know your situation much better than SDN.

Good luck

3.8+, 35 MCAT+ to feel secure??? r u seriously more like 3.6+, 30+

wlee43 said:

3.8+, 35 MCAT+ to feel secure??? r u seriously more like 3.6+, 30+

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All of those are fine numbers. But always better to aim higher as a freshman. As long as it's not obsessive, can't hurt ...
Something about if you aim for the moon and your rocket doesn't have enough fuel, you'll still be among the stars?

And I gave a range ! 35 is on the bomb stellar side of that range.

But those are all secondary issues...

Freshmen should start building their network of phone-a-friend peeps early on.

And as awesome as some other peeps may be on SDN, I still value live-person opinions from my school more... at the very least because they have more context.

muffeoniv said:

I will be a full time student (basically freshman) next year.... do you have any suggestions on how I can make the transition from high school studying (memorization) to college studying?? Any tips in general for studying would be greatly appreciated. Thank youuu

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Also remember that you wont always get the grade you want no matter how hard you study. You just gota learn to keep chugging along. And dont take more then 15 credits or you wont be able to handle it. This coming from a first semester freshmen.

wlee43 said:

3.8+, 35 MCAT+ to feel secure??? r u seriously more like 3.6+, 30+

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3.6/31 is the cutoff point at which things like EC's, LORs, and essays start coming more into play. but it's still mostly a numbers game until you get to

3.8/35, which is nice to have, but going past that shows markedly diminished returns - unless you must must go to one of the so-called research oriented schools, at which point the sky's the limit.

3.8/35 has a 7 in 8 chance of acceptance. i'm not sure if that's security. there's a reason they make you do all the other parts of the application and then appear for an interview.

<3.5/<30 is the red zone for MD admissions - from there it's an uphill climb.

[1] This is where high school = a clever joke! It fails to prepare "us" for college. I'm a first year first semester at my state school and I'm not doing "well". I've yet to shake off the high school mentality. High school's a real clever joke and in-fact they baby us compared to college. I know and have friends who graduated valedic's thinking they were so brilliant and they got a big awakening in college

As for how to study I don't know what to tell ya. About a month into classes and I still don't know how to take notes in Chemistry I. I hear it gets worse from here. All I can say from the looks of it is that in college, you're basically teaching yourself. I mean in some classes they say, "I'm only taking attendance for the first week". That's like a challenge to NOT come to class . It's not easy, man. I give about 80% of the blame to high school. If you're doing well in high school, please just remember the main point to all I'm writing which is HIGH SCHOOL IS A CLEVER JOKE!.

Oh, exercise is a big yes yes for studying. Doesn't have to be intense. I play a game of soccer or racquetball or I'll just go to the gym and work-out. It really helps a lot. Side from that, don't know what to tell ya except for don't let high school success get to your head.

nisarg2010 said:

Also remember that you wont always get the grade you want no matter how hard you study. You just gota learn to keep chugging along. And dont take more then 15 credits or you wont be able to handle it. This coming from a first semester freshmen.

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how encouraging I guess studying is useless then. Why work hard for a 4.0 and I can't get it no matter how hard I work when I could work hard at a party and I can get "it"