<p>College is different than high school.</p>
<p>In high school, you have lots of little assignments, lots of quizzes, several tests, some projects, and even “extra credit” or “bonus points” that go in to making your grade. You’re busy all the time with all kinds of little stuff that doesn’t mean a whole bunch when taken one step at a time, sort of like a hamster on a wheel.</p>
<p>In college, you are in class many hours fewer per week. Professors don’t assign busy work. Some professors assign homework on a regular basis; some don’t–and of those that do, some collect it some don’t, and some grade it and some don’t.</p>
<p>In college, each class will have very few grades-- usually one or two midterms and a final (which is generally cumulative of everything covered over the course of the semester, and often a paper or a project or two. Also, in college the lectures and the readings are often not congruent–meaning that the professor does not waste lecture time reviewing and regurgitating what you are capable of reading on your own. The lectures may use the readings as a jumping off point, or in contrast, or they may be totally unrelated–and material from both lectures and readings is fair game for exams, whether the professor reviewed the information or not.</p>
<p>Generally you won’t get chances to re-do a poor effort, and you won’t be able to pad mediocre exam grades with lots of little homework points or extra credit.</p>