If your really looking for tips, then plan on changing your entire approach...
Here are a few tips that I picked up through HS and College that really helped:
-Assigned reading is assigned for a reason, don't just skim through it, read it, do the assigned reading and make sure you understand it, read ahead if you can cause you never know when things come up and you won't be able to do the assigned reading for that night, but always make sure you understand the material thats assigned before you read ahead.
-Go to your professors office hours and whatever supplemental sessions they have provided. Honestly, not only does it help you understand the material, but, even though i know this sounds f'd up, its true, going shows your professors and TA's that you CARE, that your trying to do your best, when they're doing final grades, they have a little wiggle room due to curves and set medians, so they can boost your grade a few grade points as it is pretty subjective to what grade they give you. Every prof i've talked to has said those who go to their office hours and try their best, or atleast make it seem like you do, they help em out at the end of the quarter by giving them a grade boost, even if you do bad during teh quarter.
-Take good notes, I see people that go to class every single day, but in college, that doesn't necessarily mean good grades. I see people that go daily but just go on facebook and twitter or sleep, then whats the point in going!? If your going to do that, than your better off spending that time at home reading that days lecture notes or studying. Not saying you should skip class and study instead, but I'm saying use the class time to learn and take detailed notes, much of the time what the professor has to teach is how they structure the material they teach, and alot of the time what they teach in class is not in the textbook, or they'll show you an easier way of solving a problem or question, that'll be on assignments/tests.
-Take good notes when reading, annotate the reading and notes, break down your note taking into a structured format. For me, if its a class like Marketing or Astrnomy, I look at how the chapter looks before I begin reading, see how many different subjects the chpaters cover, break down what sub-subjects those subjects cover, and jot down the important points (usually 3-5 main points) those subjects cover. Sporadic notes make it hard to follow, if you have a structured way of note taking, you easily know what to study for and what the expect in your notes when it comes to studying.
-Be willing to make the ultimate sacrafice in choosing the Library, even on some weekend nights, over going to parties, or bars, or whatever with your buddies. This is KEY. I'm telling you most of the college kids, if your not at a prestigious ivy league school or someplace like Stanford whatever, take college lightly as if its still highschool and use it as an opportunity to party for 4 years. Don't sink to that level or set your bar/status quo to what you typically see around you. If you want to succeed, then you have to go beyond your own expectations.
-Sit in the front of the class and be an active participant. If you pick seats on the first day, then pick one in the front. If you adhere to everythign said above, you should be able to participate actively throughout your classes which not only gives the prof a good impression of you (subjective grading by teachers/grade boosts), it also subliminally helps your learning process. Repeating what you know and explaining it out loud verbally to the class/teacher helps you reaffirm what you've learned and you'll feel much more comfortable when you see that subject on an assignment/test. Sitting in the front also helps with the not goofing off in class or falling asleep part.
-Find a good study buddy/group. Although you may feel uncomfortable talkign to students you've never met, or approaching the nerdy *&^ looking kids, it definitely helps leaps and bounds when you study together with others that are also trying to do well. You may understand one subject but not another and for your study buddy the vice versa, this way you can teach each other and correct each other when you do HW/study etc. Even if your the one that knows nothing and your studying with the class genius, they shouldn't mind cause when they explain the material to you, like i said above, it helps them reaffirm and know that they know the material well enough to teach to somebody else and thus should do well, and you benefit cause you have someone explaining it step by step to you.
I hope this helps, after two years of college these steps finally clicked and it's really changed my outlook and success in school, people, and learning. HOWEVER, you have to be willing to make these changes and sacrafices, saying you'll do it just isn't enough. There are much more resources/tips that I havn't listed but these are the ones that helped me the most. The more better habits you develop the better, try not to pick and choose which ones you think are doable for you but just be willing to make the change for the better by doing everythign you can. Goodluck!
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