I’ll use my physics class as a case study for this. I’m taking PHY 104 this semester, which is Physics E/M (electricity and magnetism). From the very start of the course, we had to do integral vector calculus for electric fields and I panicked; I had never done anything of the sort, and then when I tried to read through the textbook, there were even more intimidating vector calculus problems (involving gradients mostly, which at that point in time I knew of, but didn’t know how to use them). I stopped paying attention in class, and fell further behind.
Talk with the professor to figure out what is troubling you in the class
It took me a while to break out of this self-imposed stupor, but I eventually made a list of all the questions I had (it was a huge list) and went to talk to my professor. I went over all the concepts with him to ensure that I had a solid grasp on them — and when I say I “went over all the concepts,” I went over ALL the concepts. It was a slow and arduous process, but my professor assured me that I had a firm grasp of the concepts, and I only needed to familiarize myself with vector calculus. With this in mind, I “took” a self-created vector calculus course and got comfortable with these operations.
When we took our first quiz, there were a number of students who were completely lost because they had neglected to address their lack of understanding of the concepts. Thankfully, I was not one of them.
Go to office hours to clarify concepts and questions
Now, any time I have a gap in my understanding, I note it down. If I can’t resolve the question by consulting another student or the textbook, I then bring it to my professor during office hours.
My favorite technique to perform is a variation of the Feynman Method. At office hours, I will attempt to derive a concept or equation that I don’t completely understand in front of the professor, and then when I get stuck, I will have him explain to me the next step; eventually, I’ll have derived the entire concept organically. I’ve found that this is extremely effective because it allows you to pinpoint exactly where you stumble, and then get instantaneous feedback from the professor. It’s much better than being a passive listener and having the professor explain a concept from start to finish. With my method, you focus much more effort on the part you actually don’t understand, instead of spending more time on the areas you already do understand.
Skim the chapters prior to lecture
By skim, I don’t mean read the read the textbook — that would take too much time. The purpose of skimming the lecture is to prime your brain to take in the information. It allows you to build the beginning of a framework to fit the concepts you learn in lecture into. It takes a maximum of five minutes, and the return on investment is absolutely phenomenal.
Go to class
It can be tempting to skip class, convincing yourself that you’ll make up the lecture somehow. Generally speaking, that won’t happen, and then you’ll just fall further behind (speaking from personal experience). Just go to class.
Don’t fall behind again
You’ve worked this hard to recover your ground in the class. Stay ahead, and don’t put yourself through the same stress again. Learn from your mistakes, and grow. It’s not a problem to make mistakes (we’re human after all), but if you don’t learn from them, you truly have a problem.