Blog Archives

Ways to Get A's

7/24/2018

It's hard to believe that our class of 2018 seniors will be heading off to college in a few weeks! I've put together some of my tips for getting good grades. You can also find a lot of great videos online made by current college students that provide some great insight. You might even be able to find one by a student at your college campus! Well, here's my list. This week's College Tip Tuesday video is on how to get an A. I've included a downloadable pdf below as well if you'd like to print this and sneak it into your student's dorm supplies. ;)

#1-Go to class-no brainer. You can’t learn and stay caught up if you don’t go. And, getting notes from someone is just not the same. Subconsciously, you will feel left out after you’ve missed a class. That’s bad.
#2-Sit at the front of the class-you will become recognizable to the professor (a good thing), and you will be less likely to become distracted by everyone in front of you!
#3-Take advantage of office hours and study sessions. You can get a lot out of study sessions. Plus, it shows the professor you care. You may just get that extra bump at the end if you need it if you’ve shown that you are invested in the course and have taken advantage of every opportunity to learn and be engaged.
#4-Never get behind! Stay caught up by designating at least two hours of study time each day. Consider it another M-F class that you MUST attend. Use that time to review your notes for the day and update and review your calendar or planner.
#5-Find a nice quiet study place. This should NOT be your dorm room or Star Bucks or anywhere else where you are likely to run into some friends and get distracted. Find a place in the library or in a study room or even in the lobby of one of the academic buildings. Just stay away from social areas and keep it routine.
#6-Eat a green apple! It is a healthy alternative to energy drinks and caffeine and will give you that boost when you need to focus.
#7-Have a good note-taking system. Use the Cornell method (look on YouTube) or color-code or even get an iPad Pro, but have some sort of system for taking and organizing your notes.
#8-Learn from your failures. If you make a bad grade, be sure to understand why right away and fix it. Schedule a time with the professor to go over what you got wrong or take advantage of tutorials, but do something to ensure that you understand where you went wrong right away.
#9-Take advantage of extra credit. Many professors offer opportunities throughout the semester for extra credit. It may not seem significant or worth your time when you have so much other “mandatory” homework, BUT those points add up and could end up being the difference between your A or B…or C or D.
#10-Balance your schedule. IF at all possible, do not take two of your harder courses in the same semester. Unless you have a pre-requisite that is essential, try to space out those classes. If you can’t, at least try to build a schedule that has a break right before the challenging class so that you can study and review your notes again right before class.
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