Freshmen at Large - Cristine Mayer

All I’ve ever heard is how much harder college is than high school. Do well in high school so you can do better in college.
In college you don’t have cushion grades. Extra credit is a thing of the past, and don’t even think about getting all A’s.
Well, the first round of tests came and went. Fearing that I would fail miserably and thus be kicked out of college, I spent more than a few hours each day studying. And you know what? The tests weren’t that bad… not that bad at all.
So what’s the big fuss? Why does everyone always make it seem like college is this huge academic adjustment? Who knows? However, I guess I should credit in part, the fact that I graduated from a school on block scheduling, making the transition to 75-minute classes much easier.
Then the semester really started to get rollin’. And I finally experienced “the class,” the class everyone tells you not to take — after you’ve already registered. The class where everyone likes the professor but the tests are impossible… and lets just say economics was never my thing.
Slowly, my motivation began to get drained as the classes got more challenging. Soon, I found myself spending hours on end at Evans Library trying to make friends with my not-so-inviting textbook.
Lo and behold the second test wasn’t very pretty, and that 4.0 just doesn’t seem as reachable as it did before. But now I believe people who said that you study and you study hard, once you get to college. Cramming the night before may work for some tests, but for the most part, if you don’t start studying weeks in advance, just forget that A.
But, all in all, the academic experience thankfully hasn’t been anywhere near as scary as expected. Then again, it’s only the fall semester of my freshman year, lets see how I feel in the future.