Balancing out your college schedule is a very important task. You have to decide if you want to have classes back to back and finish your days early or if you want to space out classes and have time in between each class. For freshman, you may want to start off with breaks in your day, so you can work on homework and prepare for your next class.

You want as much time to work on homework as possible. Also, spacing out your classes during the day will keep you on campus and force you to do homework. If you get out of chemistry, and you have an hour until your next class, go to the library or a quiet space and work on the upcoming homework. You can also use that time to prepare for your next class so you will be ready for the new lecture.

If you are forced to have two or more hard classes in one day, try to fit an easy class in between them. This will also act as a grade booster. As a freshman, you won’t really know the easy classes, so ask around and do research about the courses you plan on taking. You can find grade distributions for many classes on myedu.com.

When you start looking up the courses you plan on taking, pay attention to your sleep schedule. This is a very important step because if you are not an early morning person, 8 A.M. classes are your enemy. If you like to wake up early, then these classes will be good for you. Finding the time when you are most productive is a key step to balancing a schedule. Try to place your harder classes at these times.

More hours aren’t always a good thing. Try to schedule 16-17 hours. With 16 hours, you can drop a course and still be recognized as a full time student. Too few hours can hold you back. You can easily fall behind in college because things move a lot faster and balancing your schedule will either make you or break you. Most students also tend to slack off when they have a light schedule.

Friends are one of the best support in your classes. Try to schedule a class with a friend. When you have the ability to work together, then the homework and studying becomes much easier. Do the homework together and split the problems, then show each other how to do the ones you did and the workload is cut in half. Also, if you get sick and miss class, your friend will have the notes you may have missed and any upcoming assignments. Friends can help you immensely in any class, especially if they’re very disciplined on notes and homework.

When scheduling your classes, keep in mind where the class is located on campus. If one class is on one side of campus and your next class is on the exact opposite side (or another campus entirely) think if you have enough time to make it to the next class on time. When scheduling your classes you should have a map and look at where the class is located and then where your next class is going to be. If you are scheduling classes as an incoming freshman and do not know how large the campus actually is, then ask somebody you should be scheduling classes with faculty at the school and they will be more than happy to let you know how long it takes to get from place to place. If you are not an incoming freshman you should know how long it takes so always be aware and check where the class is. Sometimes a class will be held in a building that it usually isn’t held in because that was the only classroom big enough for the class. Just be sure you realize these things before you have to all out sprint from class to class the next semester..