Practical Ways to Bring Your Grades Up

Many aspects of university life depend on your ability to maintain your grades. After all, your grades act as the culmination of your academic effort, including attending class, studying, and completing exams and projects. As many students know, however, balancing, social, personal, and academic obligations can make it challenging to maintain good grades or raise them. Fortunately, these simple tips can help you raise your grades without derailing your social or personal life.  

Ask Your Professors for Help

If you’re struggling or your grades are failing, ask your professors for help. In many cases, professors are more than willing to provide extra credit or guidance. All you have to do is voice your concerns and express willingness to improve your performance. If you’re struggling in multiple classes, you might also consider consulting your academic advisor. These individuals can provide tips, support, and resources, including advice for lightening your course load. Moreover, they could also offer guidance on how to practice better time management, since this skill is essential to academic success.

Study Well

Studying is the cornerstone of good academic performance. So, to perform well, you must study well. Here are some smart, effective study techniques to consider:

• Review lecture notes and key concepts daily.
• Study for an exam every day at least a week before that exam.
• Join and contribute to a study group.
• Create and maintain a regular study schedule.
• Use flashcards for fast, effective studying, which makes it easier to retain and recall information.
• Find a quiet, comfortable place to study.
• Highlight key concepts in your notes and textbooks for quick reference.
• Seek tutoring or help with assignments when needed.

Be Active and Practice Effective Notetaking

Actively engaging during class keeps your brain active, flexible, and better capable of memorizing the material. An actively engaged student is one who asks questions, attends every class, participates in discussions, provides constructive feedback, and of course, listens and takes notes. The more active you are, the more you learn (from both your professor and your classmates).

Effective notetaking is also a key component of active engagement. Take notes on the major concepts and important information, but maintain focus on the professor. You don’t have to write down every detail your professor provides, as it would shift your focus away from the lecture, and it’s impossible. Plus, you should leave some space for thinking about intriguing or complex subjects. Use familiar abbreviations and schemes for faster notetaking, and since they will be studied later, make sure your notes are legible.

Get Organized

Being organized alleviates stress and confusion. It can also help you remember assignments, stay on schedule, complete goals, and meet deadlines. Learning organization skills and implementing certain tools can help you become a more organized student. A planner, in particular, is an important tool to consider. Typically, planners are used for scheduling and tracking daily activities, goals, assignments, and obligatory tasks. File folders, binders and organizers, notebooks and labels can also be used to keep hard copies of your assignments separated and organized. You can also use flash drives or storage to back up assignments and organize digital files.

If your grades are suffering, poor organization could be to blame. So, try getting organized as a part of your approach to improving your school performance. Strong organization skills can even extend to other areas of your university life, including navigating the search for the best student housing Waterloo has to offer.

Contact us today for more information on our student housing in Waterloo.