(Occasionally) Try to Act Like a "Real Person" 

College is not that hard in theory. But success requires navigating the obstacle course of frat parties, lethargy, poor eating habits and half-baked ideas. The college campus does many things well, but one thing it certainly does NOT do is mimic reality. If you manage to start engaging in activities that most regular humans do (like volunteer, workout, work a part-time job, awaken before noon, etc.,) you are more likely avoid the pitfalls that contributed to your last subpar semester.   
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Meet With Your Professors - Early 

Even operating under the unlikely presumption that college professors are wholly objective during the grading process, there are important advantages to getting some early face time with them. First, no one knows better how to succeed in a class than the professor who teaches it. Thus, meeting with professors early and often can net some valuable insider tips. Prone to miss a class here or there? These out-of-class meetings will lessen the damage and ensure that you do not inadvertently miss important deadlines. Plus, you may score a free coffee or meal if you happen to be likeable.  
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Use the Writing Center

Nearly every college has a writing center and nearly every student body squanders the opportunity to use said writing center. Even the people who are convinced that the writing center is useless and that they are way smarter than everyone who works there can still benefit. If you make an appointment and show up with some sort of written product, you just created a deadline, attached a certain level of accountability to that deadline, and created some level of work product ahead of the due date. At the very least, sitting down to pull the inevitable all-nighter will not commence with three hours of staring into a blank screen, eating pop tarts and watching cat videos on YouTube. More likely, the class papers will be just like the ones written during the poor semester, just with coherent sentences, normal margins, and (some) actual research.   
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Use Your Friends

So much of college involves not wanting to miss out on anything, even if it’s nothing more than watching a ten-hour Honey Boo-Boo marathon with your friends. But, it is college after all. So at one point or another, you’re probably going to have to actually study. So you might as well bite the bullet and use this whole studying requirement as an excuse to be social (as if you needed one.) Group studying has the same benefits as a group workout: motivation, and the fact that it’s much harder to bail on a group than than to bail on yourself. So get some friends together and sit down to write a paper or prep for a test - and feel free to DVR the Honey Boo-Boo as a reward for later.      
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