Quite a lot of things...
I'd read the lecture notes through before the lectures on them, so lectures were like revision and the extra things the lecturers said were more helpful to me, as I understood them. Then I'd read the lecture notes again after the lecture. Then I'd keep going back over earlier handouts throughout the term. Otherwise I get lost in the lectures or forget what the symbols mean half way through the lectue course. It's hard to find time for this though! The first reading always takes ages, and subsequent readings get quicker, so it helps starting as soon as possible e.g. the holidays.
I think I'd go through notes more thoroughly, making sure that I could fit the content into a mental framework, rather than just reading them. Anything I couldn't remember on just reading it, I'd tackle it then rather than leaving it for later.
I'd start doing past papers much earlier, say sometime through the Easter holidays, so I could get through a good number of them and have time for supervisors to help with what I couldn't do. I'd do old past paper questions and bring them to supervisions in Michaelmas and Lent. I'd try to do all past paper questions without my notes, so I'd go through the notes for a topic before starting exam qs on it. This meant that I got used to extract info from my memory rather than copying things out of notes. I'd start learning complicated proofs early, and would practise writing them from memory rather than copying them out.
I'd make an effort to finish work early enough on the nights before physics and chemistry practicals so that I wasn't tired in them, otherwise it's horrible getting through them sleep-deprived!
I'd also manage work better to have decent amounts of sleep generally, as the lectures I turned up to really tired, I might as well not have gone to! Likewise for supervisions. This year I made getting all the sleep I wanted a priority, which motivated me to do work well in advance! Once I had a fairly good idea what work I'd have to do that term, I'd plan my time and what work I'd do then for the rest of the term, and I could always amend it later. I'd plan realistic amounts of time to do work, always allocating too much time to do something if I wasn't sure how long it would take. (This year I left half an hour per problem sheet question as a guide, and adapted it if questions were significantly longer/shorter) This allowed plenty of time to look things up in my notes/online if necessary, and any left over time I could use to have a break, or go over notes/read ahead, or start on some other work.
I'd read back through the lecture notes and the problem sheet before a supervision if I couldn't remember what we'd covered/the questions. I'd write my questions of things I didn't understand on the work I handed in or on my copy of the question sheet to make sure they were discussed in the supervision.
I'd leave questions on problem sheets if I were stuck on them to go through in the supervision, rather than wasting hours trying different things. And I'd do the supervision sheet questions relating to each day's lectures as soon as possible after the lectures to save having masses of questions to do at once. I found it really hard to find the time for this though in first year!
I'd properly go through all Michaelmas work over Christmas and try some old past paper questions on them.
I'd not take on quite as much music extracurricular things to leave more time for work. I think I only really had evenings, Sat after lectures and Sundays to do work in first year, as afternoons were usually busy with practicals/supervisions. This meant that having rehearsals in evenings left me with not much time, other than at night, to work! I'd also waste less time wandering around town, making unneccessary trips to Sainsburys etc.
I'd also have confidence that not everyone was miles more intelligent than me, and that I could do just as well if I worked smart and hard. (That's not something you can just do, though!)
This sums up what I did this year that worked very well for me
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