Deciding what courses you should register for is almost as stressful as working through the courses themselves. You could be signing yourself up for an easy A or a semester of hard work and tough grading. Through my collegiate experiences as a student and my work as an educator I have picked up a few tips for choosing the courses that will fit you best.
Get Requirements Out Of The Way. No matter what major, minor, or certificate you are working towards you are going to have required courses. Most programs have courses set in a particular order that you can’t really stray from but there are usually a few choices that you can make. The natural tendency is to put off harder courses or ones with a teacher you do not like. My advice it to get required courses done early. No one wants their last semester of senior year to be the toughest. Bite the bullet and do the things you have to do as soon as possible. This will allow you to do the things you want to later on.
Get Requirements Out Of The Way. No matter what major, minor, or certificate you are working towards you are going to have required courses. Most programs have courses set in a particular order that you can’t really stray from but there are usually a few choices that you can make. The natural tendency is to put off harder courses or ones with a teacher you do not like. My advice it to get required courses done early. No one wants their last semester of senior year to be the toughest. Bite the bullet and do the things you have to do as soon as possible. This will allow you to do the things you want to later on.
Study What You Are Interested In. When choosing classes you should look for the classes that you have an interest in. That may sound like common sense but you would be surprised how many people end up in courses they heard were easy over courses that actually interest them. Even if one course is much more work than another, as long as you are interested in the material you will have more motivation to do the work. When someone chooses a course based on how easy it is to get a good grade their only motivation is getting that grade. When you choose a course based on interest you are more likely to learn and retain information because your motivation is to understand the material.
Find Professors That You Like. As soon as you step foot on campus for your first semester you should start looking for professors that you really click with. This could be someone who is entertaining during class, is very knowledgeable about the things you are interested in, has the same kind of personality as you, is a role model for you, or for any reason you really like. If you can find a professor that you want to listen to for any of those reasons you will look forward to class, put more effort into course work because you don’t want to disappoint him or her, think more about the material on your own, and learn more about the subject. It doesn’t matter whether this professor teaches something in your major or they teach a course that you won’t get any credit for. If you find a professor that you like and you can some how take their class, do it. You will learn more than in any other class and you will enjoy it much more.
Critically Consider Other People’s Advice. This may sound hypocritical because this post is intended to be advice, but you should carefully consider anything that someone else tells you. If you are interested in the material for a course and like the professor but your friend says not to take it because its hard and not fun you must carefully consider the situation. Not everyone is interested in the same material as you and not everyone likes the same professors as you. Maybe your friend got a bad grade on a test and holds it against the professor, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take the course. You will never know what a class is like until you take it but you must be a bit skeptical about what other people tell you.
Make The Best Of What You Have. No matter what you do you will probably end up with a professor or class that you don’t really enjoy. If you get upset about it and spend all your time complaining you will be miserable, you won’t learn anything, and you’ll probably get a bad grade. Some times you just have to buckle down and work your way through a tough course. If you try to have a positive attitude about things they will be easier to get though. It may be tough but learning isn’t meant to come easy.
Hopefully you found some of this advice useful. I know creating your schedule can sometimes be a nightmare but as long as you try to keep a positive outlook you’ll never have it too bad. Good Luck!
Find Professors That You Like. As soon as you step foot on campus for your first semester you should start looking for professors that you really click with. This could be someone who is entertaining during class, is very knowledgeable about the things you are interested in, has the same kind of personality as you, is a role model for you, or for any reason you really like. If you can find a professor that you want to listen to for any of those reasons you will look forward to class, put more effort into course work because you don’t want to disappoint him or her, think more about the material on your own, and learn more about the subject. It doesn’t matter whether this professor teaches something in your major or they teach a course that you won’t get any credit for. If you find a professor that you like and you can some how take their class, do it. You will learn more than in any other class and you will enjoy it much more.
Critically Consider Other People’s Advice. This may sound hypocritical because this post is intended to be advice, but you should carefully consider anything that someone else tells you. If you are interested in the material for a course and like the professor but your friend says not to take it because its hard and not fun you must carefully consider the situation. Not everyone is interested in the same material as you and not everyone likes the same professors as you. Maybe your friend got a bad grade on a test and holds it against the professor, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take the course. You will never know what a class is like until you take it but you must be a bit skeptical about what other people tell you.
Make The Best Of What You Have. No matter what you do you will probably end up with a professor or class that you don’t really enjoy. If you get upset about it and spend all your time complaining you will be miserable, you won’t learn anything, and you’ll probably get a bad grade. Some times you just have to buckle down and work your way through a tough course. If you try to have a positive attitude about things they will be easier to get though. It may be tough but learning isn’t meant to come easy.
Hopefully you found some of this advice useful. I know creating your schedule can sometimes be a nightmare but as long as you try to keep a positive outlook you’ll never have it too bad. Good Luck!