How did you do in high school vs college?

I graduated High School and will be starting college in the fall. I struggled in high school because I found the repetitive work boring. Now, I'm able to grasp concepts rather easily but lose interest and perform poorly when I have to do a ton of worksheets to "reinforce" the concept. Or like in math, where you have to show your work. I can do a ton of work in my head and I hate working backwards to show the teacher i know what i'm doing. Another thing i struggle with is when teacher's give you organizers to fill in when reading a material. I don't need those and can remember things quite fine without them. When i get those organizers, I find I just look for what i need to fill them in, get that done, then actually read the material.

There was a teacher I had in 4th grade. She was pretty old, and pretty old fashioned. But she was probably the best teacher I ever had. She was much more about actually teaching and learning the material, than doing worksheets to learn the material, which many younger teachers now do. I have to say, in her class I learned more than any other year in my K-12 life.

I've heard that in college, classes are more about learning the material and less about repetitive work, which could benefit me. What worries me is that the community college i'm starting at, supposedly the professors "care" about their students. This worries me because oftentimes that has meant that they provide things like graphic organizers and more homework to "help" students learn. I just wish I could learn the way that's best for me and not have a professor's way forced down my throat. I'm just curious, for those of you who have gone to college, did you perform any better in college than in high school?

College is all about the piece of paper. For the most part, I found college very boring and wish I had had the option of doing many classes online like we have now. My "core classes" were fine and interesting, but the BS stuff I could have done without. I guess that is why I have one BA and 3 AS/AAS. The associate level stuff makes my money for me. The BA is just so I have a "degree" which is what they want for most jobs these days. That really makes no sense to me, but whatever.

reply to post by mossme89


In high school, I experimented with drugs a lot. I barely graduated on time, receiving a D in every class. Upon graduating, I joined the military and got straightened out real quick. It gave me focus. Now in college, I'm consistently top of my class (save for Chemistry, yikes). I think once you realize how important college is, the need to have a clean transcript, the cost, the time spent, etc. it becomes much easier to maintain focus and succeed. That is to say, My particular college has a 70% dropout rate and about 18% ever graduate. But I feel that since you cared enough to ask, you're not likely to be one of these types. Just pay attention, stay out of trouble, and have fun (sometimes)! You're going there for what you want to do so it should inherently interest you and you should find the workload much easier to deal with.

Best of luck.

ETA: Nevermind, luck has nothing to do with it. You're in complete control of your outcome. Nothing else. Also, the previous poster is right on. If you're intelligent and you're doing what you want, you'll find it almost boring. Other than that damned Chemistry class I just had, the rest has been almost a formality. Just a matter of attendance. Not much new information for me :/

I did quite poorely in college compared to high school.

In high school I was hardly ever in the class, mostly was in library or computer lab. never studied what was being taught in my class, was always reading something else. We got 2 weeks free study time before any exam, I never touched any book during those two weeks.

Yet I always had 80% + in English and 90% + in everything else (Physics, math, chemistry, biology, accounting).

In college I got from B+ to A+, not bad, but I had to struggle to get it, had to actually attend lectures, study all the stuff. Compared to high school it was a real struggle.

On the other hand some of my friends who were well below me (in marks) in high school, performed much better than me in college with seemingly no effort at all.

I hope that helps somehow.

In all honesty, college is just a buisness to make money, i make more money then someone with a degree, u just have to get off ur comp and find a decent job and put an effort into it, plain and simple, college is a huge waste of money, unless u dont mind spending all that on hangover and booze throughout the years...

You gotta deal with some BS stuff regardless of which way you slice it.

I found college to be much better. More maturity in the air, none of the lame highschool BS. I didn't even graduate highschool because i couldnt handle all the drama and bs around me.

And the classes offered nothing mentally stimulating.

reply to post by kaleshchand


So, if i go to class every day, listen, and study, should I be fine?

How much do you have to study? I'm just worried about having to study like 3 hours every day. That's what they are telling me about college.

reply to post by steve95988


Don't listen to this OP. If what this poster is saying is true, he would be the exception rather than the rule. You don't want to fall for the "American Dream" of working your way up. That doesn't happen in real life. Maybe to middle management after a lifetime of taking crap with little pay. It's always better to have more education and understand the world around you. I mean, just in replies alone (grammar and such) it's obvious who is more educated.

College was more of the same crap.

Mandated classes that you've already taken a hundred times before in public school.

Mandated classes that have nothing to do with your major.

Mandated classes that actually get in the way of what you're there to study.

Mandated classes just so the university can keep you there longer than you have to be and make you pay them for the privilege.

Once you learn to read all extrinsically reinforced, or in the case of structured education extrinsically enforced, education is empty and worthless.

If you thought/knew high school was a load of bull get ready to shovel plenty more at college and pay out the nose for the experience.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


I'm starting at a community college before transferring, so it's pretty cheap

reply to post by mossme89


No way to know. Everyone is different. I never study. Never. I do great. Others form study groups, take notes the entire time and are ecstatic to get their pathetic "C." I do none of those things. Here's a tip: unless the professor emphasizes something, don't take notes. LISTEN. PAY ATTENTION. Those people endlessly writing things down are not paying attention. Then they either don't bother to read their own notes or don't understand them. Then ask idiotic questions like "What chapters will be on the test" when it's written right up on the chalkboard. I swear it'll be the only thing written and these "note takers" will ask three times in a row. Don't be "that guy."

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


All of this is true. Mostly. Just recognize it for what it is. You know you need that degree so just take it. It is scammy but at the same time, you wouldn't hire a hobo to drill your teeth would you? Some is relevant, much is not. Take what you need to be successful and press on...

Community college is different, you're from canada or the UK aren't you?

I believe the US is backwards, and a college there is what a university is here, university = big highschool full of people bs people.

Community college: Awsome because small classes, hands on, more fun, pay attention. I didnt study 3 hours a night and i got high 80's.

As long as your taking something you want to take, and you enjoy, you shouldn't have a problem.

reply to post by mossme89


i did better in college than I did in High School up until my second year when I got nothing but foreign teachers...I've been on a break since then out of frustration

reply to post by AzureSky


I'm in the USA.

From my experience, learn to write good papers.

For me college is half about putting your thoughts into a well written presentation. Every class of mine outside of the college algebra has required at least one paper. Learn how to do this well and the Professors will like you.

The best part is; if you can write a good paper, you can write about what you like.

Originally posted by Seiko
From my experience, learn to write good papers.

For me college is half about putting your thoughts into a well written presentation. Every class of mine outside of the college algebra has required at least one paper. Learn how to do this well and the Professors will like you.

The best part is; if you can write a good paper, you can write about what you like.

Just curious but how long is the average paper? And is it single-spaced or double spaced?

reply to post by mossme89


Average 4-6 pages, double spaced. Cover page for the social sciences. But these are just technical specs. While they usually give you a technical spec for a paper ( i.e. font size, citation style,, and spacing guidelines) it is just for ease of reading. The real grade is in how you write.

If you can argue or present your ideas with facts and references you will find you succeed at college papers easily.

You can use this site as a simple guide to help illustrate the point. The threads with facts backing up opinions are usually applauded and starred well. But even those that are wholly opinion are well received if they are argued well and presented well. You're free to your opinion, just present it well.

reply to post by Seiko


Ok, thanks for the help

Are the topics mainly open-ended, or does the teacher say, for example "You MUST write a paper about literary elements in Romeo & Juliet?" That's just a brief example, but i hope you get the point...

reply to post by mossme89


That was my personal experience, however I have seen some students goof off and still get an A+, and some stay at the library till late at night studying and still barely pass. So its more of a personal thing that seems to be different for everyone, You will need to get your own "feel" for it.

One thing though if they allow you to choose which units you want to take then take some easy units along with some hard ones, don't take hard ones or easy ones only in a semester. I don't know how it works there, but if they have "filler units" called electives here. Here sometimes after doing all the core units we need to do electives to fill up the number of units taken. And those units can be anything. If so take something which is extremely easy for the elective and pair it with some hard units, so you have more time to study for the hard units.


As for the papers, it depends on what you are doing, if taking Science be prepared for a whole lot of papers, and long ones too. For arts its probably smaller.
I personally wrote at least 1 (and often 2) papers for each unit I took, and they were from 10 to 30 pages single spaced.

For us there was both open ended and closed ended papers. Also at times we got to write what we wanted, rather than what the professor told us.