If you have difficulty understanding the full meaning of a particular skill or in developing a plan of action, ask your instructor, tutor or counselor. The college offers study skills seminars at various times during the first half of the semester. Sign up for one. You'd be amazed at new strategies of study that you can obtain. It is a field exploding with new information and it is readily available to you through various sources of instruction.
College is serious.
Select instructors as carefully as you select courses. Do not schedule back to back classes. You'll wear yourself out besides missing out on the best times to study right before and after class. Establish a routine time to study for each class. For every hour you spend in class, it has been estimated that two hours outside the classroom will be required for homework, reading assignments, editing and reviewing class notes.