Undergraduate students

If you’re starting college/university, these are some general suggestions to help you out.

Every course you take will have a syllabus. This is a very important document. Take some time to go over it at home, and pay attention to the details. Read about the evaluation very carefully. Make sure you understand what your responsibilities are. Before e-mailing your professor some general question about the course, check to see if the answer is not in the syllabus already. For example, if you submit an assignment late and then get deducted some points, revisit the syllabus before emailing your professor. If the syllabus says that you’ll lose 10% for each day beyond the due time, that’s what’s going to happen, and there’s no point arguing about it. Your professor will simply refer you back to the syllabus.
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes—that’s why you’re here. Ask questions if you don’t understand what’s being discussed; also ask questions about topics which may be related to what’s being discussed. Most of the time, other people also have that very same question but won’t ask it because they think everybody else understands everything (this is never the case).
Don’t cram—it’s not effective, and hopefully you don’t just want to get a good grade. Understanding a topic requires constant bits of study time throughout the term, not just a 10-hour study group the day before the final exam.
Avoid being late or missing classes. Chances are this will affect your understanding of the topics being discussed, which means you’ll have to spend extra time later to catch up.
Make use of office hours. Professors have office hours so that you can talk to them about your ideas and questions. If your course has a webpage with a forum, prioritize posting your questions there, so that other people can help too. But if you’d like to discuss something beyond simple questions, go see your professor.
Participate in online forums as well as classroom discussions as much as possible. Online platforms will often have open posts/questions, so you can also help your classmates understand the topic. Explaining anything to anyone is the best way to make sure you know the topic yourself.
Don’t get too distracted with social media during lectures. Again: 10 minutes off in class may require an hour of work at home later.
If you think there’s something wrong on a slide or in the reading materials, definitely bring it up; if you disagree on a particular topic, also bring it up. The whole point of having an education is to be able to critically process and question what you see and hear, and to have intelligent conversations. But always remember two things: first, be respectful. You won’t convince many people if you’re shouting. Second, as an undergraduate, always consider the possibility that you’re wrong.
Read about the Dunning-Kruger effect and avoid being too sure about topics you’re still learning about. Even experts are conservative when it comes to estimating how much they know.
Use Google intelligently. Understand that anything can be online: great stuff, but also wrong stuff. Sources are always important, and it’s crucial to know the difference between reliable sources and random people blogging about topics they don’t actually understand. Always check who the author is, and what his/her credentials are. You’d do the same thing with books, of course, since anyone can write a book.
Don’t be lazy. Here’s an example: if you send me an email asking me about something that’s easily found online, I immediately assume that you are either lazy or simply don’t know how to use a computer. Both assumptions are negative.
Don’t explicitly correct your classmates—that should be an obvious thing to remember. Instead, ask follow-up/clarification questions—or wait to see what happens next.
Harder courses will teach you the most. They won’t just teach you hard topics; they will teach you how to learn and think; they will teach you about your own limits—something which you will never learn if you take an easy course. Learning is not easy, and it’s often not fun either, so you shouldn’t want to have an easy time: that just means you aren’t being pushed enough. If you complain that a course is hard, you may be right, but remember you’re sending a message with that complaint. Finally, if you get an A without working hard, you may be in the wrong course.

Make notes. Even if you won’t look at them later, simply writing things down will help you understand what you’re doing. Explain a topic to yourself and others to make sure you actually know what you’re talking about—again, this is the best way of actually understanding things. That’s why study groups where people teach each other can be very effective.
Get involved: if there’s a particular topic you like, ask your professor how you can get more involved.
Learn how to write emails. They are not like text messages, and require a specific structure. If you’re writing to your professor, start with Dear Dr. XXX, or Dear Prof. XXX. Close with a simple “Thanks”—you don’t have to be too formal, but writing emails like text messages will send the wrong message to your professor (and potential employers as well).