What advice do you have for not falling behind in the fall semester?

Fall semester is coming soon and some college classes are extremely hard. So what tips do you have so that you won't get lost in your course, so that you can stay ahead?What advice do you have for not falling behind in the fall semester?
as a current college student on soccer team that is ranked high in our division i have learned many different things about how stay on top of your work this is mainly because our school as strict academic rules when you are a student athlete here is what i know:





* go to all of you classes and if by some chance you have to miss it ask some one in the class to take notes for you. Inorder to do this make sure you find someone in the class that you can trust and make sure you get there phone number





* when you have to miss a class email the teacher asking them if you can meet with them to see what you missed in the class ( sometimes a class mates notes are not as well written as you need them to be)





* when you get a major assignment start on it right away other wise you wil fall behind. every day do at least 45 minutes on this project. becuase as you well may already know a lot of professors assign major projects that can be worth up to 30/40 percent of your overall grade for the class.





* another thing for every hour of class you have for a particular subject you should be spending at least 2 hours some where studying.





* also finals can be a pain in the butt so my suggestion is start reviewing for finals the very first day that classes start. Do this by every day when you are studying looking over all of you notes that you have in that class. when i say all of them i mean all of them that means even the notes from the first day of class.





* another hint for finals is that often times professors will have special study seasons where you can to them and ask them for help. USE THESE ... if you have a question than the professor will be able to adress your question and give you some one and one time to help you learn the material





* sometimes classes can be a struggle especially math and english and other advance course like anatomy and phyisiology. most schools have a student center in which you can go to and ask for tutoring. i know at my school we have a math/science lab, and en english/reading lab so that we can get help in certain subjects that we are struggling in.





* another thing that can put a lto of stress on students is tests. often times if you talk to your professor he or she can tell where to go to RAP which is considered the equivilant to a 504 plan in high school once you have this plan set up most professors are very accomadating to you and your needs.





* something else that you can do is form study groups with kids that are in your classes this is especially helpful if you are more knowledgebal in one part of the class and your study group is better in another area of the class. you can teach eachother what you know . sometimes it is easier to learn from someone your own age





* also you need to learn what type of notes work best for you. there are many types one of the most popular is cornell notes.





good luck and i wish you the best of luck in college and not falling behind.What advice do you have for not falling behind in the fall semester?
Ask the professor when you have questions.
I agree with rosethor and if you receive a syllabus some teachers will include the dates of what lesson are due, if you ask after class to work ahead I'm sure he/she would not mind explaining the lesson.
The only thing I always did was to ALWAYS attend class. No excuses. Take good notes in class. If you do this, studying for tests is exponentially easier, and you rarely even have to do the reading because everything has already been explained to you.