I was a dual major in university with maths and a social science. My top hacks are listed in no particular order A waterproof back-pack bag A pencil case containing a whiteboard marker most rooms and libraries have a board for you to use and lending one to a professor gets you brownie points a poster making pen giant felt tip a highlighter 4 colour Boro pen most people remember notes more easily when done in multiple colours tape scissors ruler and tipex (+ the basic pens and pencils ect). A spiral bound notebook with MOVEABLE dividers + a variety of square and graph paper. A book of index cards (or 1) for revision notes it'll keep them together until you are ready to start condensing your collection A graphing calculator with algebraic facilities (double check if you can take it into exams - you may need a separate exams calculator - but a top of the line calculator will serve you well in any degree with more than basic maths content). A Microsoft Windows University package (they offer discounts if you signup with college email). Excell is your friend for stats PowerPoint is invaluable for presentations Publisher makes poster formatting as simple as can be One Note can efficiently organised hundreds of classes worth of notes with both tags and hyper options on top of the ability to hand write with a stylus on some devices Word can fully format any assignment (save a basic template of your college formatting requirements to save time) and reduce editing and referencing times with fully customizable systems that can be used collaboratively - learn how to use the navigation panel and search bar for optimal usage Spritz s (often paired with a PDF to word online converter) can treble your reading speed on those rich documents while not significantly affectingprehension A reading notes template various online sites and printables exist but these can be subject specific and I developed a personal one in the end if your teacher doesn't give you a framework then speak to your tutor or Google it. Make sure that you stick to one medium and don't end up flicking between windows on a device that isn't a PC. Save Time and Improve your Marks with CiteThisForMe The No. 1 Citation Tool other options available and with more unusual source material or papers in which you'll cite the same sound multiple times Word could do a better job Wolfram|Alpha Making the world knowledgeputable the love child of a super advanced calculator and the encyclopedia does the hard calculus for you with working if you subscribe Write your best with Grammarly. s If you're happy with a bit of trial and error then the free version is fine but offers tend toe up with discounts around the time you're doing term papers any way) Control - F never read a whole document or book if you can search key terms also finds reference details you forgot to noted down quickly A dicta-phone record lectures and potentially even run them through a speech to program you can probably even convince a dyslexic student to share theirs for a fair trade (I do early essay proofs but you might pick something else). L earning support and the library get to know the staff here early and request a 'tour' of their facilities and services. They can be invaluable.