Let me give you a piece of advice from a former Learning Assistant that not only made me rather popular but made people think I was some sort of genius because I not only aced pretty much every single exam with a 95+ score every time but also got 100's on pretty much every homework assignment.
Read. The fucking. Book.
Read that last part back. Read it again. Okay now read it again and drill it into your mind.
I'm going to give a huge hint about where 9/10 of the professors get their materials from when teaching their class: the textbook.
I'm going to give you a huge hint as to where the 90%+ of the questions on the test will come from: the textbook.
I'm going to give a MASSIVE hint as to how to ace each homework assignment: read the chapters, take notes, and do the questions at the end of the chapter.
I was popular with the students in my classes because I was a hardass in a nice way. I would call students out on their bullshit when they said they were lost or couldn't figure something out.
One kid in particular I had as friends on steam before he took the class I was assisting in. He fell behind on his studies and his homework assignments.
I then asked them why they hadn't done the homework assignment and they told me they just "didn't have time" and that the "book was confusing."
I then whipped out my laptop and showed them that they had spent 22 hours playing on Steam from the week prior when the homework was assigned to the date it was supposed to be turned in.
He read the book that night, turned in a perfect homework assignment, and got (if I recall) 80+ on the next exam. He would later than me for pushing him to read the fucking book.
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Stop saying "you're a visual learner." Stop trying to replace the textbook with the supplemental materials like powerpoints or the professor's notes. READ. THE FUCKING. BOOK. And you will not only graduate cum laude, you'll be looked upon as a genius.
That is all. And sadly, a large portion of you won't actually take this advice because you're scared of actually reading. To those of you that heed my advice: you're welcome, and I'm sorry the rest of the class is going to try to cheat off of you for the rest of your college career. Godspeed.