In pretty much all my classes, I hear people saying they already got their textbooks early and read ahead, signed up for stuff that gets them extra credit, etc.. Am I supposed to be doing this..? Because so far, I've just been sitting in class, listening to the profs... haven't even started taking notes or anything..

It depends, if there's not a lot of reading involved in your program, you can wait. If you do - buy.

I didnt buy my books untill second or third week of school.

I have the books, just haven't started reading yet..
We weren't told to.. and tutorials haven't even started yet so we don't have our assignments..
(I like knowing the assignments before doing the readings, so I can pay attention to specific things..)

Not sure about in Philosophy at all, but speaking from my own experience:

You're in University now, people (that means profs) won't tend to tell you explicitly how to study anymore. It's up to you now, you have to take full personal responsibility for yourself and your studies/work. No one will tell you to start reading, how much to read each night, what to do to prepare for the next class, even what to do during the class etc (again I'm not sure if Philosophy is different, but I still highly doubt they'll explicitly tell you what your homework should be every single night). If you feel you need that kind of instruction, then you have to change your mindset and attitude as soon as possible, University is extremely different from High School in this respect.

Also, it's always safe to try to get ahead (it can't hurt you in any way, it can only benefit you), so if you're unsure on whether to study or not...study. There are never consequences for trying to get ahead (except losing leisure time, but I'm talking about academic consequences only), as opposed to very possible consequences for waiting until it feels absolutely necessary/required to start working.

tl;dr: No one will tell you when to start studying, may as well start anyways if you can.

Most of the time the prof will put which readings need to be done by when on the course outline. And sometimes they'll quickly say at the end of a class which readings need to be done, but not all profs do that.

Originally Posted by SweetyTweety

In pretty much all my classes, I hear people saying they already got their textbooks early and read ahead, signed up for stuff that gets them extra credit, etc.. Am I supposed to be doing this..? Because so far, I've just been sitting in class, listening to the profs... haven't even started taking notes or anything..

you dont need to do anything. as long as u understand lecture material, go to tutorials prepared, ur fine.

Absolutely start reading; even if its only an hour or two a day... you'll thank yourself later.

Given your program, of course you should start reading ahead. Reading ahead actually makes things easier for you. You go to lecture already having the material under your belt, and then class time is merely a chance to expand on knowledge you already have, or further solidify an understanding.

Also, do the extra credit. It may only be something worth anywhere from 2%-5%, but that's a difference of a whole grade at the very least. Even if you don't get the whole 5%, you'll get something.

It's VERY easy to fall behind in first year humanities. Do not fall into this trap... nobody is going to tell you exactly what to read or exactly what you should be looking for. Check on Avenue, if there's no reading schedule, try to read the stuff that was covered up to the last lecture and then move on a bit. As said above, it won't hurt you and can only help.

I think it all depends on the type of person you are.

Some people want to be at the top of the class and have high GPAs, while some people want to learn even more than what is required in the course, and then there are some people who just simply want to pass their courses.

Definitely do the extra credit. 3% is a full grade point. Many students barely scrape through first year and those extra credit marks can save you.

Personally, going to lecture and taking notes is really important. Just going to lecture and not taking anything down doesn't help me, because I'll have forgotten most of what the professor said by the time midterms/finals roll around. It's really up to you how you want to approach the course, but generally reading the textbook in a fairly scheduled manner and taking notes during class does help a lot. I've put my readings off in a lot of classes, sometimes it's okay to skim the chapters, other times it's not. It depends on the course/prof. Most professors test heavily on lecture material, and only test somewhat on reading material.

Many people also like to use the first week or two of school to get ahead with readings and whatnot, because they know how busy they will be later on in the term. Just because it doesn't have to be done for tomorrow, doesn't mean you shouldn't do it.