It took me at least 2 years of my undergrad to finally realize what I need to do to learn hard material. The difficult classes kept getting harder, and the curriculum was becoming ever more impossible to do alone. I believe that is the story of many college students who are in hard majors and aren’t naturally good at school. It can be intimidating especially when it seems like everybody around you understands the material. Acquiring more efficient study habits has saved me hours of unproductive toiling. And once we figure out what works for us, it is a game changer.
The biggest hurdle for me in my academic career was reaching out to my professors, I felt intimidated asking questions and going to office hours because I felt like I would be judged for not knowing anything. Somebody then reminded me how much we are paying for tuition, and I realized that as students, we are entitled to getting help from our professors, it is what they are getting paid to do! I also stopped caring what my professors may think because most of the time they are happy to help! For example, in my Atmospheric physics class, my professor would sit with me for hours at a time until I understood the material. It was bitter work but I ended up getting a B in the class which to me was a serious accomplishment. In another example, for my data structures class, the only reason I did so well was because I spent most of my time with the TA getting help.
Even as little as 20 minutes of good productive learning is so much better than hours of confusion and frustration. If I spent more than an hour trying to work out a problem with no progress, it is definitely time to get help or switch up how I’m doing it. After all, doing the same thing every time and expecting a different result eventually is the definition of insanity. Lets not go insane doing our homework, lets get smarter instead!