I’m a student of Duke University, class of 2011. In my time at college I’ve learned little tidbits of things here and there. These will be good things to remember if you’re in college and even if you’re not in college they can be beneficial.
I did a piece similar to this before from collected lessons from my freshman year. At the time of writing I’m a rising junior so the third piece will have to wait a while, but in the mean time the sophomore installment has more profound lessons that I’ve learned during my second year at Duke.
1) Plan ahead.
I ran into some trouble with school supplies in that I thought I had something but turns out I had something else. I thought a bit more into it and realized that if I had been careful to prepare the supplies that I tend to use in every class, I would have avoided this whole mess and probably saved money too instead of buying things at expensive university store prices. Here’s an example of what I mean by supplies used in every class (for me, at least):
1) 1.5″ D-ring binder
2) 1-subject college-ruled notebook
3) a nice pen
4) A folder
Not much, but if I don’t have it for all my classes it messes up my rhythm. That’s precisely what happened last week. I thought I had college-ruled notebooks, but turns out they were wide-ruled. I loathe wide-ruled notebooks; they just don’t work for me for some reason. But aside from my personal preferences, if you ensure that you have the basic supplies you need for every class you would take, you will save a lot of effort. It may mean packing a few more things when moving in but it’s well worth it. Also it will ensure that you are more prepared mentally to get right into the class instead of trying to figure out where and how you’re going to store your notes.
On a grander scale, planning ahead allows you to use your time more effectively and do more things you enjoy instead of being a slave to deadlines and commitments.
2) The to-do list.
Keep a to-do list and life becomes a lot simpler. You don’t have to follow it religiously, but at least make the list. Taking the time to make the list puts things you need to do in your conscious, even if only for a minute. It’ll help you remember it in the long run, and if you ever forget it you won’t be left scratching your head because you can just look at the to-do list and read what you wrote. Initially the list might take a little longer than you’d like and have a little less than you’d like, but you’ll get better at it. It’ll take you less time and you will cover more and more things in the list.
It doesn’t have to be a written list necessarily. I keep my to-do list as a text file I can easily access. This makes it convenient for me because I spend a lot of time with my computer near me, even if I’m not using it. Also, the digital format allows for quick editing and changes that are not easily done on paper.
Use the to-do list to make use of your time efficiently. Take 15 minutes to figure out what you need to do and that will save you time later as well as give you a framework of how you will spend the time available. By spending time efficiently in doing what you need to do, you will have more free time available. You like free time, right? This goes hand-in-hand with planning ahead.
3) Analyze your definition of time.
I was thinking a little bit about what happens when I think about doing an extra activity outside of class. I begin to wonder about how much free time that will leave me with. It’s how I’ve been thinking for ages now. However, it just hit me now that my entire approach to using time has been flawed. Not necessarily incorrect, but it’s not the most efficient way of approaching it.
The original way I’ve looked at time up to freshman year of college is on a strict free time vs. work basis. Classes, and basically anything related to school was work and anything else was free time. This left me pondering about how to best use my free time and how to maximize my free time. This, of course, leads to a minimization of work. I’d figure out ways I can put off assignments, not do as much work, or not do work entirely if it meant I could have a bit more free time to “enjoy.” This put a limit on the quality of my academic performance. Also as time went on other commitments became part of work as well because they had strict time schedules and deadlines. As such free time evolved to being time with no strings attached to it. Initially it worked out well, but again with the attempt to maximize free time came a decrease in the quality of my participation.
From about second semester freshman year to now I considered class-related activities work, and other commitments as channels to use my free time. This is a bit better I feel but it also leads to that same attempt to maximize free time.
The problem with both of these methods is that it leads to a subconscious aversion to anything considered work. I would rather justify not working on an assignment now to play a game than thinking about completing the assignment as something I wanted to do. Projects, labs, reports, classes, problem sets, papers… they all became things I had to do and not things I wanted to do. From there even things you wanted to do before start falling into that category, like practices or meetings for clubs. And of course being the selfish creatures we are, when we are faced with things we have to do and not want to do, we will slack off. Even if you can force yourself to work through that it comes at a much higher cost than if you committed yourself to do the work to begin with. Trust me on this one here.
Take all the time you have. Every hour of every day. And consider it all equally. Fill it with things that you want to do and need to do. More specifically, put yourself in a situation where you can want to do most – if not all – of the things you have to do. Even if you can’t want to do something, commit yourself to it instead of leaving yourself open to thoughts along the lines of, “I’ll do this as quickly as possible then play some games.” It’ll only make it tougher if what you don’t want to be doing is keeping you from something else.
Also, everything you take on should become a commitment, whether it is simply to complete a problem set or to go to rehearsals and shows. This will also help you decide against doing things simply for the sake of doing things. Every decision that involves you spending time will be more carefully thought out. The ultimate conclusion of this is that the choices you make will reflect more of what you will voluntarily do rather than what you are forced to do. Sometimes this may conflict with other forces in your life, such as parents, but that’s a good thing. It will allow you to re-evaluate the value of these forces. That’s not to say go against all other forces… just simply think about them a bit more.
All this commitment seems like it’ll take up all your fun, right? WRONG! When you put yourself 100% toward any given task at any given time, whether you work in short bursts and switch off on tasks or focus on one for a long time, you’ll get more enjoyment out of it (if it’s an enjoyable task) or you’ll be more efficient and actually finish it faster (if it’s work or something). This will result in MORE time for you to spend doing things that relax and de-stress you in the long run.
4) Watch your grades carefully, and take it seriously.
I had a very rough two semesters academically and one of my realizations out of those circumstances is that every single point matters. To explain, I’ll use a set of grades from one of my classes. The columns are as follows: assignment, scores, point total, average, and weight of final grade.
HW 1 66 120 115.07 2.22%
HW 2 89.5 130 125.79 2.22%
HW 3 96.5 110 106.54 2.22%
HW 4 86 110 107.4 2.22%
HW 5 85 90 88.27 2.22%
HW 6 95 100 98.48 2.22%
HW 7 65 70 66.7 2.22%
HW 8 84.5 90 88.6 2.22%
HW 9 – 90 86.88 2.22%
Lab 1 83 100 90.58 3.75%
Lab 2 68 100 87.44 3.75%
Lab 3 – 100 90.33 3.75%
Lab 4 45 50 48.73 3.75%
Quiz#1 71 100 86.02 5%
Quiz#2 85 100 85.08 15%
Quiz#3 95 100 75.96 15%
Final 91 100 79.56 20%
First of all, my grades on the exams steadily improved. In fact I dominated the last exam (Quiz #3) and the final. However, my grade was still a B-. The real issue here is that I was 1 percentage point from a B on the curve. That’s a .3 difference in GPA for this class in this semester. Now, ignoring the fact that I didn’t turn in a lab and a problem set, it’s clear that I could have still gotten that B quite easily had I done better on the other assignments. The easiest and most overlooked section is homework.
Do your homework correctly. Homework is the first place people make cuts because it’s often the smallest percentage of the total grade. That’s the exact same rationale I used to basically goof off on my homework and get points taken off. Why? I didn’t follow directions. I had about 5 points taken off each problem set on average for not following directions – namely, writing out what the problem was asking for when I did the problem. Assuming an average of 100 points per assignments, 8 assignments with a 5/100 increase where each assignment is 2.22%… that’s 8 * (5/100) * 2.22%… gives me an increase of .888% in my final grade. That’d be enough to round up the B very, very easily.
Now, that’s just one aspect of it. If you noticed I also had other points taken off and also one problem set I just didn’t turn in. The issue is that we had the answers to all the problems, so it would have been easy to keep trying again and again to get the answer. Also, partial credit is awarded so even if I did 1 problem in the last problem set and turned it in… I would have gotten .2% on my final grade, which at this point is very, very significant. Of course, had I turned in all of it… well you get the idea.
So do your homework and do as well as you can on it. Even if it’s seemingly unimportant or insignificant, you’d be wrong… it is vital. I’ll give you another example. In my math class the homework grade wouldn’t count at all if it hurt you (aka – you didn’t do the homework). There were numerous opportunities to get a near-perfect homework grade and get 10% free (with the exams adjusted down percentage wise). Two problem sets would be dropped for low scores even. I lost track later on though and forfeited that 10%. This meant my two exams were 30% each and the final was 40%. I did fine on the first, but did poorly on the second (90% and 68%, respectively). I don’t know how I did on the final but I ended up with a B for the class grade. I know it’s curved and such, but just look at how much of a boost having the homework gives to my final grade before the final is taken into account.
Without homework: .30(90%) + .30 (68%) = 47.4
With homework (and percentages adjusted): .10 (95%) + .25 (90%) + .25 (68%) = 49
1.6%. Does that seem insignificant to you? Sometimes maybe it is. But sometimes it could mean a difference between a B and a B+, or a B+ and an A (or perhaps a D and a C-).
Now, I’m not generally an advocate of going for GPA points, but here’s the thing… doing the homework helps you learn the material. If you’re going to argue against it, then maybe you’re the exception… or you’re just providing yourself a rationalization to be lazy. I would wager it’s the latter (be honest). Either way, doing the homework helps you learn and a handy side effect of it is the increase in percentage points. Even if you don’t care about the GPA, you care about learning right? Though if you really are looking for the GPA, then this is vital to you anyway.
Let’s say every semester you ease off on homework. (Going by Duke’s system) You lose .3 GPA points for that, let’s say. So for all 4 class per semester for 8 semesters (assuming standard 4 years) that’s a total of 9.6 GPA points lost over 32 classes. If I am calculating this right… that means you’ve lost .3 from your GPA, meaning the most you could have is a 3.7. If you do it for 3 classes, you lose a total of .225. For 2 classes per semester, .15 and for 1, .075.
Does any of that seem significant to you? Maybe it doesn’t and if you aren’t striving for a certain GPA it really doesn’t matter. However, most people are looking to get a scholarship or maintain one, get into a honor society, frat, or other group, or look good for grad school. In some cases, just pass. I’d argue that even for those that are just cruising along, it’s important to watch this.
To put it simply, you never know what to expect. For me, I overloaded this year and my classes slammed me to the ground (along with other commitments). As such I began to make sacrifices that I shouldn’t have because I got frazzled. That really dropped my GPA and I could have saved myself at least .6 more points this semester by doing my homework… and that hurts me quite a bit. My ambition is to graduate with honors and this really hurts my chances of doing so.
Maybe you’ll get a bad case of senioritis Maybe you’ll have a class that turns out to be a lot tougher than you thought it’d be. Maybe you get caught off guard with a club or activity being more demanding than you expected. Whatever the reason, I would argue that it’s always better to give yourself as much room for error as possible, and keeping your GPA as high as possible is a way to do that. There are other things to do too, for sure, but this is another measure you can take to prevent unnecessary stress later on. To relate this directly to homework… do your homework and you’ll do better on exams. Thus you’ll do better in your class that you would have otherwise slacked off in, which gives you room to slack off later, say, in senior year. I’d say it’s better to slack off knowing it won’t kill your grade because you worked hard (by doing homework and such) and giving yourself a large margin of error rather than slacking off but then spending nights studying while your friends are out hanging out because you can’t afford to slack off.
5) Check your batteries.
In one of my engineering classes some time ago the final project was to create a team of SportsBots that accomplished a task. They weren’t really bots because everything was hardwired, but the idea was to have 3 machines interact with each other to complete 2 rounds. That isn’t the important part, however, that I learned a lesson from. It was the night before our project when – conveniently – our SportsBot decided to stop working. The idea behind our bot was to have an arm and a bridge in one. In the first round through the arm would grab the ball and transport it by rotating and drop it into a receptacle. In the second run through, the ball would be launched into a funnel at the top of what used to be the bottom of the arm, but now a bridge… if that makes sense at all. In any case the rotation depended on a motor that was powered by 4 D batteries before it broke down. I had tested it the night before and it worked fine, but then the night before it was due, it stopped working! We tried everything to fix it, but nothing worked, so we ended up completely reworking the bot. This took up many hours, late into the night. It still didn’t work. In the end, though, out of a lack of ideas, we decided to change the batteries. That… is when it worked. We realized then that in all our testing we had worn the batteries down. If we had just changed the batteries to begin with, we could have avoided the hours and hours of extra, unnecessary work. On one hand, this was just a really really frustrating night. I didn’t get much sleep at all and well. It was terrible. On the other hand it dawned upon me that I could be doing the same thing in other aspects of my life. When something goes wrong, I could be completely changing myself or my actions when all I needed was to change the batteries, so to speak. I don’t know how this will play out for every individual, but I can give you a personal example that relates to the idea. A while back I used to be pretty unmotivated and tired. I didn’t go to classes that I rationalized were unnecessary (they really were necessary, though) and just didn’t do much. I kept thinking that class just didn’t interest me, or that life was terrible, or that I was just a loser. I tried something one day though. I decided to go to bed at 11 pm and wake up at 7 am. That’s 8 hours of sleep. The first day I tried it, I felt a bit better. I kept at it. Eventually I was pretty happy, actually, and I was doing my work quickly with enough time left over to hang out with my hall mates and hang out with my fraternity. It was a complete change of my life for the better, really, and it was all because I got more sleep. It seemed counter intuitive to me at the time because I used to think “oh if I stay up later I’ll get to do more” but really, that didn’t work out for me. That’s not to say I slept at 11 every night though. Just school nights. Friday nights? I’m out doing stuff like hanging out and partying. Saturday night? Same. But 2 “bad” nights, so to speak, won’t ruin the good rest I get the rest of the 5 days of the week. That’s one way this lesson played out for me. Take a look at your own life and see what you can do. In short, when something is wrong try to find the actual cause of it and fix that instead of trying other fixes that only waste your time.
