Hey everyone, to give a perspective on what academics are like, I figured it would be helpful to give a glance into two areas: 1) My expectations of academics vs. reality & 2) How studying has changed.
Jumping right into my expectations vs. reality, I always expected the work to be a lot more similar to high school than it is. To be fair, I went to a college prep school, so I was hoping that they would’ve… you know, prepped me. And they did, high school prepares you well, don’t worry about that, but college is a lot more about what you put into it, and that’s what you get out of it. In high school, you are expected to perform perfectly, to turn in every assignment on time, etc. you know the drill. In college so far though, the professors, at least at Amherst, have focused on what you put into the class. Do you contribute through raising your hand and discussion? Do you put effort and time into the essays? Then you’ll get back what you put in. It won’t be easy, and it’ll take time, but it’s a lot less striving for perfection and more striving for your best, because you’re not expected to be perfect here. Obviously this isn’t the case in every class, but in my–relatively limited to be fair–experience, there hasn’t been that same pressure to be perfect and compete as there was in high school, which was a pleasant surprise.
Part of all that change I just talked about comes from adaptation. Coming into your first semester, there is bound to be some need for adaptation. You’re sleeping away from home, taking four classes instead of however many in high school, but those four classes are about half as long. That means things move quicker, but you’re going to have more time to study. That also means, you will actually have to study. Depending on the person, that might be a first. I don’t mean study vocabulary words or just memorize power series formulas, but like really do practice problems, reread notes etc. And, if you’re like me and rarely studied in high school, that means you also need to learn how to study… correctly. How to study will always depend on the class, whether it’s just rereading the textbook passages, or memorizing chemistry compounds. There are certain strategies I’ve heard, and here’s a few– they’ll be quick overviews, if you wanna learn more you can google them pretty easily for a better guide. The Pomodoro Technique, where you study for 25 minutes and take five minute breaks, I think this one works best for memorization and flashcard studying. Then there’s rereading slides/notes, which is great for concept focuses classes, like math/economics, you’re refreshing yourself on the concept and its usage, not just memorizing it in itself. Never sleep on YouTube and random online resources, if you’re confused about a concept, Heimler’s History and AC/DC Economics lessons still work in college. Finally, there’s the classic throwing yourself at practice problems. This is really only for classes with problem set based exams, ex. physics, math, (chemistry? I don’t know I’ve never taken it here). If you’re trying to really solidify your understanding for exams that need quick, consistent applications. Those are all the study methods I’ve used, but mileage may vary by user. Just know, studying is something that is dynamic, especially here when you might be taking two philosophy classes and Calculus II at the same time. Knowing what’s ahead and how you might approach it might help, and I hope it does.
If you want to reach out for whatever reason, you can email me at jdesmond28@amherst.edu
P.S. Yet again, thanks to my girlfriend who made the cover photo of this blog.