Study
You're not supposed to just hear things in lecture and then know stuff

• Schedule a daily time for homework and make that an inviolable personal time for focusing on work.  If a student really focuses during their study time, they really only need two or three hours every day to succeed in college.
• Some people benefit from compartmentalizing their lives even further.  Having a schedule for each day of the week and sticking to it will actually help you find more free time for sports/computer games/reading/relaxation because you’ll be more efficient overall.
• If you live in a party house or have distracting roommates, become a library squatter.  The library has many isolated rooms for students to hide out in and study.  Find one that you like and make use it regularly.  Most people are creatures of habit, so a room that you find open could well be regularly open at that time.  Consider changing roommates - then you'll have the option of peace/quiet and you can always visit your party pals in your spare time.
  

Share the experience
You're not alone in the world

• Make a study pact with a peer in your class.  Don’t pick a partner because they’re pretty/handsome/fun, rather try to connect with someone who is also motivated to do well in the class, even if that person isn’t the “class brain.”  Having a good study partner helps a lot because you’re in the same boat together and each have a responsibility to the other to do the work. 

Get Help
The whole point of college is to help you learn - othewise you could just read books!

• Don’t be reluctant to visit your professor for help during their office hours.  That’s the whole point of having office hours!
  
• Arrange for a regular meeting time with a tutor.  Kutztown University provides free tutorial services for almost every class.  The university pays qualified students to tutor, so there is no cost to the student in need of help.  This is part of Kutztown University’s program to promote student success. 
  

Plan your approach
Fools run blindly, headlong in the darkness... sometimes that works, but...

• Set specific, achievable goals for yourself.  Start with a few short term goals that are relatively easy to achieve, but require some effort.  Success with those achievements will give you confidence that will enable you to pursue bigger goals.  Working toward a specific goal is much better than wandering aimlessly. 
  
• Be careful in scheduling your classes each semester.  Avoid taking more than three lab courses in a semester.  Mix “light duty” classes with “work-heavy” classes.  For example, if you're a science major and your hobby is history, take a history course to cover your general education requirements during a semester when you’re taking a really hard math or science course.  Conversely, if you're a history major and amateur scientist, take your science gen ed course when you have a lot of tough load of history classes.  The key is to balance your load. 
  
• Meeting with your academic advisor to make a plan for your full college career is smart because you’ll be able to distribute the workload evenly across semesters and so have a greater chance of success. 
  

Assess your life goals
Maybe you're an Einstein of something else

• If I were a student who continued to fail semester after semester, then I’d ask myself if I was in the right major.  Many (most?) of us choose a major for reasons not particularly well thought out.  Some marine science majors, for example, really just want to swim with dolphins, whales, or sharks and are truly interested/entertained by the mysteries of marine science, but they aren’t really interested in the careful hard work involved with doing scientific research.  There’s a big difference between watching the Discovery Channel and training to become an actual scientist. 
  At some point, we each must ask ourselves what we really want to do with our lives – what we want to dedicate a significant portion of our lives to (career-wise).  The answer to that question is a balancing of what we find interesting, what we find enriching/fulfilling, what we have talent doing, and what opportunities are likely to exist upon graduating.  If a student has two full years of failing grades, I would strongly recommend they consider changing majors to something that really interests them.  If they’re truly interested in a subject, that interest will drive them to do the work necessary to succeed. 
  

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