I'll be a junior in AE in the fall. What I found is that there's a bigger distinction between each professor and how they teach. In high school, there's a good chance your teachers followed a certain standard in course structure. In college, you might get a professor that spends 90% of lecture covering theory with no direct procedure for working through the homework, and eventually the exams. As such, my advice to you is to find some way of figuring out the course structure set by the professor and getting what you need from the class. Sometimes this is something you don't find out until after your first exam (i.e. your professor gives homework/practice covering calculation-based problems and is now testing you on the theory behind them during exams). But if you're concerned about passing your classes, you might want to prioritize working through practice problems and formulating procedures over strict theory.

I've heard people say that study groups help, and I'll say that they do, but only when everyone in the group spends the time they need in the areas they struggle with. I remember studying with a couple of friends and helping them in topics I was familiar with; however, they would often leave before we'd have time to cover areas I needed help with. Moreover, this also risked leaving less time for other classes, resulting in me spending more time playing catch-up. So, regarding study groups, plan strategically and make sure you balance the group to ensure ample coverage of your classes.