In high school, students learn about 80% of the course material in class and 20% out of the classroom.  It is even more extreme for the really smart students who quickly learn they can attend class, cram the night before a test, prepare a paper or assignment a day or two before its due and still make an A.  In High School, a bell goes off you go to class, another bell goes off, and you go to another class, a bell goes off, you go to lunch. If you miss school, your parents get a phone call. The teachers will remind you when tests and assignments are due. It’s all pretty straight forward and controlled.

In college, the structure goes away. The learning pyramid is completely turned upside down.  You do about 20% of your learning in class and about 80% of your learning out of class.   In fact, it is not unusually for half your grade to occur during the last month of the semester.   You have projects, papers or other assignments that you are supposed to working on all semester long.  In college, you learn the hard way that you can’t throw these assignments together the week before they are due and expect to make a good grade or even pass for that matter.   And if you multiple this last month effect times the four or five classes you are taking, it becomes quite easy to understand how things can unravel even for the best students.