7 Steps for College Academic Success: How to Succeed at College Even if You Weren’t a Good Student in High School

I’ve been working with kids going off to college for nearly 30 years. I did my PhD dissertation on what factors lead to a successful adjustment to college life, and since then I’ve been working with adolescents in my psychotherapy practice preparing them for a successful transition to college.

Many students go to college and get lost in the social scene, or don’t know how to handle the sudden freedom and independence, or can’t manage the increased workload. They end up digging themselves into a hole and just squeak by, or fail a class, or get put on academic probation. Now with AI, students can fall into the trap of letting ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and other LLMs do their work for them.

Over the years I have developed 7 rules that prevent these pitfalls. My rules provide a structure that ensures academic success, while leaving room for enjoying the fun of college life.

1. Take Courses from the Best Teachers

A successful semester begins with careful course selection. Whenever possible, take classes from the best teachers at your institution. Great teachers bring subjects to life — paying attention and learning is much easier when a class is taught in an interesting and engaging manner. Ask upper-level students who the best teachers are. There are Facebook groups, and websites where professors are reviewed (e.g. RateMyProfessors.com).

Another great approach: if you have several classes you’re considering, attend them all for the first week or two. You’ll see the syllabus and get a feel for the professor — that information will help you decide which classes will be most enjoyable to take.

2. Attend Every Class Meeting

The absolutely easiest way to do well in a course is to attend every class session. In lectures and in classroom discussions, professors emphasize those topics they really care about and consider key to the course. Most test questions will be related to those key concepts. So merely by attending every class and paying attention, you’ll know where to focus your attention when studying.

3. Sit in the Front Row

Since you are going to go to every class, you might as well pay attention. You’ll get the most out of being there. The place to sit with the least distractions is the front row. Also, attending every class session and sitting in the front row — especially if you contribute to class discussions — gets you seen as someone who is invested in the course.

4. Go to Office Hours

Another low-effort way to improve your grade is to go to office hours. Since your assignments will be graded by the professor (or in some cases a Teaching Assistant), it is very helpful to get their input on an assignment as you are working on it. They will tell you what they are looking for and help shape your work so that it fits their expectations.

If you don’t understand a concept covered in class, meeting with your professor can save a lot of time and frustration trying to understand it on your own.

Going to office hours gives a professor a chance to get to know you and to see that you really care about doing well in the course. That combined with your perfect attendance and sitting in the front row attentively will give you a big boost when the professor sits down to grade assignments. Remember to be prepared — know your specific questions so the professor’s time isn’t wasted.

5. Take Handwritten Notes

Research has found that students taking handwritten notes process the information presented in class more actively. This helps the student pay better attention and remember the material better. Use the bullet points presented in the professor’s slides to organize your notes.

6. Have a Schedule

Many college freshmen are tripped up by how much unstructured time they have. It can feel like there is unlimited time for hanging out, playing video games, and watching Netflix. There isn’t. But if you have a schedule and stick to it, there will be plenty of time to get your work done and have a lot of fun.

If you don’t have a schedule, you will end up doing assignments at the last minute and they won’t represent your best work. Or worse, you will fall behind and dig yourself a big hole that you can’t get out of.

Google Calendar and iCal are both terrific schedule programs. Put your class meeting times in first. Next, schedule blocks of time for study. Be honest about where and when you do your best studying — the library is a great choice for fewer distractions. Schedule your study time so you can finish it before your time for hanging out and having fun.

In addition to your weekly schedule, keep a semester schedule. Look through your course syllabi and enter into your calendar all assignment due dates and tests. This will help you plan your work and not get caught doing things at the last minute.

7. Spend 1 Hour Per Day Per Class

A lot of kids go to college with no idea about how much work you have to do outside of class to be successful. My rule is a minimum of one hour per course per day (if you are on a typical 4 courses per semester schedule). Here’s the math: 4 courses means 4 hours per day times 7 days equals 28 hours of homework per week. If you consistently spend this amount of time working you will do well.

An important note: you must do your 28 hours every week even if all of your due work is completed. During periods of lighter work, use the extra time to get ahead. This will keep you from getting overwhelmed during midterm times. It might sound like a lot of time — it is — but it still leaves a lot of time for fun.

8. Do Your Own Work — Don’t Have AI Do It for You

Colleges have been scrambling to figure out how to deal with the introduction of AI. It’s led to a return to the use of essay exams written in blue books. The old adage that when you cheat you are cheating yourself has, perhaps, never been more true. A study from MIT found that AI use negatively impacted “cognitive development, critical thinking, and intellectual independence.” The point of college is to do the work. As Theo Baker said in a May 17, 2026 OpEd: “It’s one thing to use [AI] in the workplace, but in the classroom, difficulty is often precisely the point. Sure, a robot can lift 600 pounds much more easily than I can — but that doesn’t much help me if I’m trying to work out. The same goes for the thinking exercise of education.”

Good luck this year! If you follow these rules, I know it will be a successful one for you.