get organized before hand. IE have binders, notebooks, pens, paper, etc and have your study area set up. Especially if orientation run straight into classes.
Prepare some meals that you can freeze, store, and reheat easily and have those ready before orientation. That can help a ton on the nights when you have nothing in the place to eat and you really don't have time to go out and get something or money to order in. I also keep stocks of convenience food around (minute rice in a cup, soup, microwavable frozen meals/veggies, etc.)
Sometimes it is the little things that can cause you to flounder; getting behind in bills because you have an insane week or two and just forget the date.
If you routinely need something like prescriptions, dry cleaning, delivery, photocopying, shipping, etc, track those places down before you start. Again, life's details can just create unnecessary frustration.
Accept that what worked for you in undergrad may not work for you in vet school, and be willing to adapt. Try to stay with the class; ask students from the previous class what is most important in which class; some the reading may be critical, others doing anything other than listening and taking notes in class is pointless, and in others, the powerpoints are essential.
Make sure you KNOW the academic policy. You don't want to come in front of a review because your school requires a C average and you have a C- average. Keep track of your grades. You might be able to track on the schools' computer system, or you may not, or it may be mixed. You don't want to be suprised by being a half point off of a passing grade.
Get help sooner than later if you have any question about how you are dealing with a class. There may be alternative strategies that you can try. I found a site about learning anatomy that said there tend to be 3 ways people learn it..and I realized I had tried 2 and had just gotten to the third before I felt comfortable.
Try to schedule some exercise/fitness activities in from the beginning, and try to keep some balance; it will help, even when it doesn't seem like it.
oh, and spend more time on the stuff htat is toughest for you...it is easy to focus on the stuff you like and let the other stuff get buried.
Something I do is I buy a large dry erase, year long calendar. At-A-Glance makes an academic year one (july-june) and I mark all exams, projects, events, etc on that at the beginning of the semester. It has saved me a number of times, because it is on my living room wall and it keeps me very aware of exams and such that are coming up, especially when a week is divided by two months...people will forget that Thursday and Friday will be on NEXT months' calendar!
