Brush calligraphy is of great help to writing pen calligraphy. As a freshman, I suggest practicing Chinese calligraphy while there is still time. However, your hard pen will also benefit a lot from it, killing two birds with one stone.
Recommend someone. You can search Professor Tian on Youku. He has a series of calligraphy lectures, which will benefit a lot.
Practice good handwriting, there is nothing to say here but perseverance, which is also empty talk.
Go and watch that series of videos and come back to comment on the answers when you feel better.