You sound perfectly normal to me. You sound like you are highly conscientious and want to do well. Do not worry! You will be okay!
Schools accept students they are sure will do well there. Schools reject students they think will NOT do well there. You are going to be fine.
One little known fact about many selective schools is that it’s harder to get into them than to get through them. The grading systems can be very forgiving. Some practice the “gentleman’s C” and do not grade lower than a C. Not all do this! But it’s the case at some top top schools. Also, a professor will rarely will fail a person out if that person is actually working. And you sound like you actually work and care. No problems there! If you don’t show up for class, don’t do the work, don’t go see the professor at office hours–then the fail may come. If you’re in class actually working and doing everything right – you’d learn and you will probably get through just fine.
I attended one of the top universities and I failed tests of the time.
That’s worth repeating: I failed tests all of the time.
All. Of. The. Time.
Expect to do badly your first semester and also to be okay. If you can relax about the possibility of getting bad grades at first, so much the better.
The reason why I failed so much at the beginning is because the school I attend was hard. The material was hard. I was challenging myself in a discipline that was so, so hard. The professor was NOT forgiving of me, but in the end, after four years, I was the best in my major. It took a lot of work and dedication and the outlook for me at the beginning was NOT promising. I cried almost every day. But I won awards at the end of my time there. The last year of school, the professor (the main professor in charge of my first year and the department) said that she’d made my freshman year especially hard in order to weed out the students. My freshman class was the largest she’d seen and she wanted to get rid of students who weren’t serious.
Also depending on your school or an individual professor – the tests might be curved, and if the average was maybe a 50 on the test, and you got a 54, you’d get a C+ rather than an F.
Worst case scenario in college is that you fail not just a test, but an entire class. What will happen? Well, there are many things you can choose to do, all of which will lead to a perfectly happy life. One is to retake the class. Another is to rethink your major (why major in this when I can take some classes in it and still use it for my career? I could be a creative writing major or theater major or studio art major and still go into computer science with classes XYZ). Or: Maybe I’ll retake the class under a different professor who can explain things better.
Some students know ahead of time that they will do badly their first semester–because it’s all so new. They load their course schedule with the slightly easier classes. One unwritten class that you and everyone is taking is called Getting Used To College in all of it’s fun and also difficult ways. So think of getting used to college as its own class. Take some classes that will fulfill your gen-ed requirements, be kind to yourself, be forgiving of yourself, and know that you will be just fine.
No matter what happens, you will still have a happy, purposeful and lucrative life.
You’re going to do just fine and you’ll probably have a good time in college, too.
Congratulations on your acceptance to a selective school. They know a gem when they see one. You’re going to be fine.
Best of luck to you.