No need to make a comeback if you are already in the lead

I know it is May and it is the summer, but I thought it would be a good time to recap the second semester of my freshman year.

I got a wake up call on my way home for Christmas when I realized I would be getting a B in BIOL 110 whereas the other classes on my schedule would be A's. I knew that I had to change my study habits in order to improve for the spring, when I would be taking BIOL 111, a continuation of BIOL 110. High school study habits don't always cut it at the college level and especially not at Purdue. I realized that high school was a lot of spoon feeding answers compared to the self-learning that is expected for you to do well in most major classes in college.

I made a few changes my own to add more study time and attend review sessions, but the plan that my girlfriend Melanie (a bio major, score!) helped me with is what I believe made the difference. I took time the week before every exam to listen through all of Dr. Bos's lectures (which he posted on Blackboard; a very useful tool) and wrote down all the little things he said that might not be mentioned in the notes. I went through them all again as well before the final and it paid off with a 4.0 GPA for the spring semester, bringing my cumulative up to 3.87. Needless to say I took Mel out to a very nice dinner after that.

My advice to all new students is to take college seriously right out of the gate. No need to make a comeback if you are already in the lead.

--- Andrew Wiseman