Questions for those who successfully passes difficult courses

Be really smart or really dedicated. Be both for optimal results.
 
Time. Plenty of dumb people get through med/law/engineering school just because they put it an insane amount of time to overcome the intelligence gap between their fellow students.
 
Time. Time is like everything.

The best thing in my opinion is to avoid at all costs taking hard classes with a full schedule unless you absolutely must but in that case don't expect a 4.0 unless you are on your A game basically 24/7 or you have like a damn near photographic memory. Of course some people just naturally grasp and or can plow through the necessary practice needed to 'master' the topic.
 
Set major goals. Divide them up into minor goals in which you can take baby steps to achieve. Put in the time and sacrifice fun for output. Think about the prize that comes with all of your hard work and use that to stay motivated and focused.
 
also, spend lots of your free time posting, or even just lurking, on sherdog.
 
Visit your prof too if having problems, and/or set up with someone good to get help.
 
Bang the professor.
 
jmag said:
Visit your prof too if having problems, and/or set up with someone good to get help.
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As a prof my self, I can say that this is very good advice. I have very flexible office hours and make myself available for students and I'm even willing to go to the lab to let students re do their work.

Almost nobody takes advantage of it, maybe 1-2 students a year come to office hours.
 
YoVenice said:
Time. Plenty of dumb people get through med/law/engineering school just because they put it an insane amount of time to overcome the intelligence gap between their fellow students.
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This is the correct answer. I used to put in 14 hour study days in my more difficult Computer Science classes.

Edit: Also talk to the professors. Even if you have a shitty grade, some cool professors will bump it up a level if you just talk and put in work.
Edit 2: Actually in my experience, most professors will do a lot to help you out. I think I only had one professor who didn't help me much, but I had a handful that bumped my grades up when I talked to them.
 
Just studying I guess. Ive always known Im a very intelligent person and my biggest flaw when I was younger was that because I knew I was smart I became lazy because I knew I could just put "a little bit" of effort studying and it was enough to get away. Incredibly how you get used to that pattern and it carries through the rest of your life. Fortunately Ive grown and corrected that to a certain degree but it took a long time to break the pattern. But to answer your question I just studied, I never felt I was not capable of learning something I put my attention to.
 
Time, as has been repeated over and over, and don't be afraid to take advantage of office hours. Make a serious effort at completing the work beforehand, and on anything that's giving you trouble, ask for help or clarification. The exercises are there to train you on the concepts on the exam, so if the assigned exercises show you what you don't know, and you seek out clarification, they're doing as intended.

A lot of people do poorly because they assume they'll be able to figure it out on their own, then find they were wrong when it's too late to make corrections. Procrastinating and trying to work in cram sessions is a recipe for failure, if you're really trying to test yourself with your course load.
 
Reading the book and working the examples until it finally made sense.
 
ironwolf said:
As a prof my self, I can say that this is very good advice. I have very flexible office hours and make myself available for students and I'm even willing to go to the lab to let students re do their work.

Almost nobody takes advantage of it, maybe 1-2 students a year come to office hours.
Click to expand...

My professors had "office hours" but they were almost never there. Instead, we got to speak with the foreign TA's who hardly spoke a lick of English and were generally unable to answer a single question. It was one of the most frustrating things about being in the engineering discipline. We had a professor, from China, who was literally was the dean of a school in China, but also taught 3 or 4 classes here in the states. His entire research group was comprised of Chinese students who spoke no English. You can imagine how well his English was when he taught classes. haha

TS, school is tough and you need to look at yourself and see who you really want to be. As others have stated time and dedication are what's going to get you through a tough course. I had a few courses I had to re-take because I wasn't dedicated enough and just wasn't grasping all of the material. I made sure that when I re-took those courses I had adequate time to study specifically for them.
 
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