The system places a high degree of responsibility upon the student. Students who take an active approach to learning will have a definite advantage over those who operate passively. The necessity of becoming an active and independent learner is probably the biggest difference between the high school setting and the university setting. Students may need to make an adjustment to go from an ``instructors teaching'' mode to a ``students learning'' mode.
At the beginning of the semester, you will receive a syllabus from the instructor which presents information on the course. Items such as grading policy, homework assignments, exam dates, faculty office hours and the like should appear on this syllabus, along with information on the material expected to be covered for the semester. If you have any questions about the course which are not answered on the syllabus, please seek out the instructor or the teaching assistant. Make sure that you know what is required on assignments and examinations.
After examinations, find out from your TA what was wrong with your answers on questions where you lost a lot of credit. Ask what a perfect answer would have looked like; keep in mind that the type of answers you may have been used to getting away with in high school may not be sufficient for full credit at Hopkins. Note also that examination questions will not deal solely with the kinds of mechanical calculations needed to solve routine homework exercises, but will also test a student's understanding of underlying concepts and ability to apply them.
Be sure to keep up with material every day. The semesters at Hopkins are short, and material is covered at a normal university pace, which will seem accelerated compared with high school. Not anticipating the magnitude of the change, entering students routinely underestimate the amount of time outside of class which they must spend on their studies. Students should view their studies as a full-time job; this comes to approximately two hours outside of class for each hour spent in class. Thus the fair share for a three- to four-credit introductory mathematics course is six to eight hours per week outside of class. This may seem like a lot, but it is the amount of time we have observed that most students need in order to learn the material well at this pace. (The actual time required will vary from student to student and from week to week.)
Do not rely solely on your knowledge from previous courses taken at the high school level, as the approach taken in our courses is often more conceptual and less ``cookbook'' than the standard high-school courses. Also, if you get into the bad habit of coasting early in the semester, then later in the semester when you reach the limit of the material your high school course covered, you will find that it is very difficult to adjust your study schedule to accommodate the extra time needed to do your mathematics work.