How to Succeed at Berkeley

singh2010
Thu, 14 Jun 2012 02:44:22 +0000

Make academics a priority over everything else. I know so many kids that are smart, but simply don’t study enough because they have way too much going on. It’s ok to have activities during the week (personally I do about 25 hours/week of research during the school year), but in that case you NEED to find other times to work. For me that means working almost non-stop over weekends. If I have a midterm the following week, I literally do nothing but study the entire weekend. Another option is staying up really late, but I prefer to sleep during the week.

Take a slightly lighter course load than you think you can handle, at least at first. I know some people who take pretty insane numbers of classes (like 5 technicals sometimes), and they get slaughtered grade-wise by those of us who have more time to give per class. I don’t know what your major is, but if it’s engineering/science, I highly recommend sticking to 3 technicals + 1 humanities (or even just 3 technicals + seminars if you have a lot of AP credit) until you know you can handle more. I know I could probably handle 20 units if I really wanted to, but I stick to 15-16 usually and it makes my life a lot easier.

Study hard, but also study SMART. I spend many, many hours just thinking about how to study, and thinking about what types of things the professor really wants us to know. Before I start studying for a midterm, I go through all my notes, textbooks, and homeworks and make a lengthy study guide with all of the important information from the course thus far and all of the hardest problems that could potentially be on the exam. Having this big picture view of the material I need to study really helps me out.

You might laugh at me for this, but make studying a big part of your social life. Most of my friends take similar classes to me and we spend a lot of time discussing the material over dinner or just while chilling. We don’t have to do this, but I really think it gives us a BIG edge. Thinking about the material as much as possible, especially in a “fun” setting helps SO MUCH. If I’m honest, I never stop thinking about my courses until the end of the semester.

Just relax for a few hours right before you take a midterm or a final. I see a lot of kids get super stressed out. If you have studied everything that you think you should have, then why should you worry? Confidence is a pretty important key to success. If you study hard and then expect to do well, you will do well.