My astronomy class surprised me the most - or I guess the combination of its content and raison d'être. I started the semester in a class for math majors: introduction to proofs. About 2 weeks in, I realized that I would hate it. I had to switch pretty late in the process to a Gen Ed, and I ended up with Astronomy 230, The Science and Fiction of Planetary Systems. This was my most fun class of the semester. We learned about the general astronomy topics, like the formation of the solar system, star life cycles, and the Earth in general, but also about things specific to life formation, like atmospheric chemistry and basic biology. The final project was a paper and presentation on your own stellar system. My team created a race of giant bugs (realistically!) on a mini-Earth with super high oxygen content. It was a lot of fun.
I don't recommend students switch classes late in the process, as I had to pay a fee, but I think I went about picking the class with the right mentality. I was deciding whether or not I wanted to be a math major, so I picked the intro to proofs class as a litmus test. I hated it, and then I switched to a fun Gen Ed - not one with friends, but one that I found interesting. I then made friends in the class and got a lot out of it. Highly recommended.
I got closest to my English 291 teacher this semester. I originally reached out to him because I was struggling with my workload, and needed an extension. I talked to him a little bit, and he was super friendly. After this, I wasn't afraid to reach out for advice or even a couple of times to argue about something we read in class. It all started when I went to his office hours. This is my recommendation - go to office hours!
I have two major ways that my peers help me out with work. I get stressed a lot with schoolwork, and when my classmates complain too, I feel better about my stress. The biggest way, however, that my classmates help me with work is just their presence working. When I am working in a room with other people working, I am motivated to work just as long and as hard as they are. When they goof off, I feel license to do the same. The greatest obstacle to this is class and club schedules. It is hard to sync up with a friend when you have no free time together. I suggest putting out open invitations for studying at certain times. This makes it easier for friends to drop by when they can.
I was least prepared for the amount of dumb work that I had to do. My lab class was incredibly stupid. It was essentially a class in excel. This meant that I had absolutely no motivation to do any of the work, and my grade shows it this semester. I suggest getting an agenda to plan out a time to work on each class, and getting a schedule of work down early in the semester. I didn't do this with my lab class and I regret it now.