Chill in high school, get serious in university?

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I don't get it...my impression is that a lot of people don't really focus too much on their studies in High School (they make sure their gr11 and gr12 marks get them somewhere) and when they get into university, they get serious about it (of course, many people also do other extra curriculars in university, but they won't be like "screw studying, screw this assignment, screw that").

But I feel that I am the opposite. In high school things were easier so I would find school more "interesting" but in university everything is so difficult and studying don't seem so "appealing" anymore.

What do you think? How come some people can do well in university when they never "prepared themselves" in high school and rid of their bad study habits?

They pick their own classes to a greater extent than they did in high school. That probably helps.

They probably get more serious in university because they're actually paying for their education, unlike high school.

Oh ya, my parents pay for it thats why. If I paid for it, I would hesitate to taking any courses that are "suspicious". Not that I want to waste my parents money, but my parents are like "take this and take that" I try to reason with them that I'm afraid I will fail a certain course but my parents are like "you can do it, just study harder".

I understand they are doing this since they want me to succeed but I'm just too annoyed at the "unreasonable exopectations" probably cause I did well in High school.

I took high school pretty seriously, but I take college more seriously. I'm also more motivated to do the work, since a) my classes aren't free, b) my goal is to graduate with a 4.0, and c) I'm not too depressed to do my work. Most of the college students I know don't take it seriously. Then again, most of the college students I know are freshmen, and they might start getting serious now that the first term's over.

I'm the opposite. I didn't take high school so seriously. But it isn't for the same reasons as many of the kids. For me, I was extremely bored. Extremely, extremely bored.
I was the kid who was stuck in the middle. I wasn't genius, but I wasn't at the level of the kids at school. So I was above average, but not genius enough to be noticed. I wasn't given a challenge, I wasn't being challenged. So I stopped doing the work and got distracted with documentaries, articles. The world was providing me what the school wasn't providing me.
And the worse was they never considered that maybe I was struggling in school because I was bored. I did well in all my test, I tested well. I always tested well and I always did my homework. I would tell the teachers I needed a challenge and they would say that I had to do what the district set me up. If I didn't do my homework how were they suppose to know I needed to a challenge. But let me see, I have always always tested well, I have always done my homework up to that point. Always had good grades, other then a few lack of motivation as I struggled for a challenge. They couldn't maybe infer it.
I did independent study, so I had a single teacher, who worked with me one on one.

But now even in university and college, I find myself a new problem. I'm so curious and want to learn so much and with all the information I have I alienate people in my class. The teachers feel I'm challenging them, but I'm asking out of curiosity. I like debating and discussing, I don't do it as often any more. But it bothers me that I alienate and piss off so many teachers and sometimes I don't even know what I did to alienate them.

I'm sure this is a big reason.

It's difficult to hold interest in education when it's compulsory. I advocate letting kids NOT go to school and kicking kids out who are disruptive to the learning environment.

Education IS NOT a right that should be mandated. When kids realize without an education they can't do anything more than dig a ditch, they'll get interested in an education. After 8+ years of mandated schooling, kids burn out and just want it to be over...unless they love going to school.

College students have to ask to be admitted and pay for the education. That's a huge incentive to take it seriously. They also see the education as a needed step to a better life (it's not, but that's another debate). Nobody sees high school as a doorway to prosperity anymore.

I like to be on top of topics. I like to understand what's going on. And when I can't do that, I feel frustrated and vaguely feel as though the situation is unfair. And sometimes it is. For example, in some college classes, they go slow in the beginning and then cram a bunch of material in at the end. And potentially, this is the most interesting material, but also the most challenging. And I've noticed a pattern in some classes where the professor just plain runs out of energy toward the end of the semester, and then is primarily just going through the motions.

The solution to both is prestudying! I mean, this truly is the Rosetta Stone, the coin of the realm, whatever you want to call it. (in high school, you can prestudy math and science but not so much other classes because of the boredom factor---boredom during the class itself). For example, pick up a geology book and then casually as can be, just skim through it. Yes, even to the point of skimming, surfing, half-assing it, playing with the topic, etc. You are approaching it in a right-brain, feel-and-texture way. You become very attune to your feelings, when to go a little bit more in one direction, a little bit more in another. You also give yourself full permission to move onto another subject when it feels right.

I have the skill of learning something well. To this, as part of my broader learning repertoire, I have somewhat added some of the right-brain, feel-and-texture skills. I have also added rote memorization and plugging in the formula (not my preferred method by any means, but as an occasional method, sure, okay, and keeping in mind that it might open the door to later learning).

'I'd like to get a head start on historical geology, may I sit in on a couple of classes' [historical is much harder than physical geology]

Or, if you're enrolled at the university, if you're college age (I no longer am), and if it's a larger class, you might want to consider just going ahead and sitting in.

I wish I was like you, having an interest in my schoolwork. I used to like math but it was so overwhelming in university that I lost the taste for it. Now, nothing seems to interest me, at least at the university level:(

I'm feeling its beginning to fade. I had a lot of interest in my school work at a University level. I had a lot of interest to learn. But I'm beginning to get tired and bored of it.
Because they aren't feeding me intellectually. Yes I'm learning new things, but there are all these rules that just frustrate me. Social rules in the classroom, that annoy me half to death. I wish classrooms were dynamic, not listening to one man talk for a whole f-ing hour, but dynamic to be able to discuss, ask questions.

I'd prefer instead of getting loads of homework, that we complete forum discussions based on the chapter.

I don't learn very well, when I'm doing grammar sheets or analyzing the book. I do better when I get to discuss the material. For me when I discuss the material I feel I have learned. When I'm doing some kind of homework sheet, writing a book report or something I feel I'm memorizing not learning.

How come some people can do well in university when they never "prepared themselves" in high school and rid of their bad study habits?

It's because they don't necessarily all have bad study habits. At my university, people didn't spend a lot of time doing homework in high school, but it wasn't because they were slacking off. Nope, they were in sixteen different afterschool activities, and it took major study habits to fit the homework for all their classes into the remaining half hour of their life. Those study habits, and the rote memorizing skills they probably used, can still help in some college classes (like premed or chem). So, they could chill in high school but still do well in college. Does that make sense?

I like Descartes' idea, too!

I'd totally love the idea of kicking kids out that are disruptive to learning and telling them to go get a GED; the only issue is a lot of these kids also intimidate educators.

I know of people who have received very generous salaries to teach in Boston Public Schools (these schools being well funded), and leaving because it's simply hopeless. So many kids don't care, and many of the kids that don't care are threatening, and teachers actually fear a backlash.

Maybe I'm wrong, though. I'd love to be, and to be able to enact this. Even the biggest of natural cognitive-based critics, like Dr. Charles Murray, agrees that taking a kid out of disruptive learning environment and putting him in a more productive one produces results.

Some of the reasons already stated like getting to choose your own schedule, you're actually paying for your education, etc. But there are a lot of students who go to college and start partying a lot and don't do as well as they did in high school. Or have to take a break for some reason and don't finish. It's much more common for people to go to college and do poorly or quit than for people to do poorly in high school and buckle down in college. I know one person who has done the latter, lots who have done the former.

Well thanks to the lack of apprenticeship due to bad labor laws and policies (could dedicate a huge post to that, but massive tl;dr within a thread), kids pretty much have two options after traditional high school these days: enroll in college, or join the military.

Now joining the military is a perfectly good life step, but let's face it, it's a BIG commitment, and it's just not for a lot of 18 year olds.

So others go to college, regardless of their intellectual capacity and desire to learn, and about 40% of them will fail. Why? Because they're burned out going in. While I was an extreme case in high school, this was my life:

6:30 - wake up
7:25-2:00 - school
2:30-4:30 - practice
4:45-5:30 - shower/eat
6:00-10:00 - work
10:15-11:30 - homework

Then MAYBE I'd watch a 1/2 hr of TV after all was said and done, and I'd do this 3-4 times a week.

Fact is, high schoolers have lived their lives w/ a set schedule in many cases. They are tired from routine. Suddenly they're in this place where they are only required to be in class for 10-15 hours a week (and maybe less if they have big lecture hall classes), and outside of that are totally free to make their own schedule. The temptation to slack off is huge.

So, lots of kids will, and they end up digging themselves a hole they struggle to get out of once they're forced to "buckle down". My brother, who's only a 2.0-ish GPA student himself, says that most of his friends from freshman year aren't in school anymore due to poor grades.

^I totally agree with you. I know a lot of people who run/ran on that type of schedule, even if they weren't working it's partying or hanging out with significant others. I myself have a lot of health problems, and while I'm smart, I don't know if I'll be able to make it through college because I simply can't "go" all day. I feel like so many people were used to having had such a busy schedule in high school so they're used to it, but I'm not...at all.