How to Get Good Grades in College
Your college grades will affect your prospects for future employment and will matter even more if you are trying to get into a competitive graduate program. So how do you get those good grades?
The real key to achieving academic success at college or university is a combination of working hard and working smart. Getting good grades will be a natural outcome of this but you’ll have to focus on the process. If you’re willing to work hard, that’s already half the battle won. So here are 3 ways to work smart in college:
- Stay Organized - know your courses and plan accordingly
- Study Effectively - learn these study strategies and find the best one for you
- Use Resource Around You - tap into these resources easily available to you
Stay Organized
Know Your Courses Well
At the beginning of the semester, your professors will provide you with a syllabus for each of the courses you are enrolled in. Familiarize yourself with it by reading it thoroughly.
Use the marking scheme to prioritize your work. For example, if your assignments are worth 40% while your final exam and midterm are worth 30% each, you would want to put much more effort into getting 100% on all of your assignments.
Why? Because you have a lot more control over the outcome of your assignment than you might over your exam. You can use all the resources available to you to make sure you write the best essay responses or correctly solve all the problems you’re given in the assignments.
Even if you get 35% out of the 40% of your grade allocated to assignments, to achieve an overall 75%, you would only have to get on average 60% in your exams. Breaking things down this way will help you plan better and also relieve some of the stress and pressure associated with exams.
Next, look at all of the exam dates and due dates for your assignments. Write these down in a calendar or notebook that you usually refer to. If you want to make sure you don’t miss a deadline, you can set reminders on your phone and computer.
If you have some time before your courses start (during winter or summer break), you can read about the topics your course is going to cover. By doing a preview, your brain will retain more information. The things you previewed will suddenly connect when the lecturer covers them.
Plan Your Schedule
Even before you have a finalized course schedule, you can start thinking ahead. Start by planning out a schedule for yourself which includes days for when you’ll focus on doing your assignments or some pre-reading for classes, etc. For example, “I am going to work on this assignment every Thursday.”
Make this a weekly habit, and you’ll make your learning process more organized and systematic. You will feel more relieved when you complete your assignments ahead of time.
When you’re studying for your exams, you should begin at least 2 weeks before. Plan your study sessions early and in small chunks. For example, you can begin studying 2 weeks before the exam and set a goal of studying for 1 hour every other day.
Your attention span does not last very long, so the longer you study the less effective it gets. At the same time, studying in smaller chunks allows you to prioritize other coursework and makes studying less boring. If you’re new to this technique, try studying using a Pomodoro timer.
Study Effectively
Taking Notes
Taking notes (whether typed on a computer or hand-written) is an essential practice to record the information you learn in class. Although there are many note-taking techniques out there, the best option, in my opinion, is to freestyle it. Write down information that is important as you go along.
If there is something you don’t understand, or have questions about, write it down as well so that you can ask your professor after class or look up the answer on your own time. If you’re more inclined to type up your class notes you can check out these quick tips from our top educator Jessica on how to take lecture notes on Google Docs.
For things like graphs and diagrams, just take pictures because it’s time-consuming to copy them down. Don’t just record the lectures, as this is a very passive way of note-taking. You won’t be able to retain much information this way (unless you will actually go through it later and take notes).
Whenever you’re free, you should organize your notes and summarize them. Go back to the notes you took during the lecture and answer any questions you had in your notes. Organize all of your findings and understandings in a way that makes sense to you.
Learning in Groups
Study groups are very useful. Sharing and exchanging learnings with others is an effective way to enhance your own understanding of the material. Of course, you want to make sure that the people you study with are also committed to achieving high grades.
Planning is very important to make a study group successful, so remember to set specific goals, time and location, and decide on how you are going to study. The University of Utah has great suggestions on how to form your own study group.
Pro tip: a great way to test if you really understand a subject or topic is to try explaining it to a friend as if they have never heard of it before. If you can teach it, then chances are you have a good grasp on it!
Practice
Practicing is the best way to test and reinforce your knowledge on a certain topic. Most courses offer problem sets and practice exams aside from your assignments. Take advantage of those. The more you practice the better.
If you can’t solve practice problems or don’t know where you went wrong, use the opportunity to learn from your study group and get help from your peers. You can also try using study tools like Wize which can provide support and explanations from real educators to help you move forward.
If you need to memorize something, flashcards are the best way to help you remember. Tools such as Quizlet and Anki are some of the most popular flashcards that you can use. Anki, in particular, employs a study technique called spaced repetition.
This is a method where you’re asked to remember certain information with increased time intervals before the information is presented again to test your retention levels.
Utilize Resources Around You
Professors and TAs
Professors and Teaching Assistants are the most knowledgeable when it comes to the courses they teach. They’re there to help you excel in your studies. If you have any questions about the course, it’s always crucial to ask your professors or TAs during office hours or through email. Of course, if you feel that you don’t understand their explanations you have plenty of other options.
Your Peers
Your classmates or upper-year students who took the course are also great resources to turn to. If you encounter any problems on a certain topic, you can always discuss them with your peers. Many universities also have peer tutoring programs that you can reach out to.
To find peers who can help you, tap into the communication tools that are being used by your school. For example, many courses use Piazza as a way of communication online. Or there’s Discord which many students use to communicate among themselves. Try asking people you know, so they may direct you to online groups like these.
Free Resources
The Internet has billions of web pages possibly containing all of the information you need. If you need help with any subject matter, you can simply search on the internet and will probably find the information, but you’ll need to filter out what is actually useful. Websites like Khan Academy have great educational videos on subjects of all levels that you can refer to.
Study Tools
There are also many online study tools available on the internet. If you’re looking for a course-specific prep course that you can take at your own pace, Wize is the one you’re looking for. We have courses from most high schools, colleges, and universities in North America taught by expert instructors (all have obtained Master's and/or Ph.D. degrees). At the price of $14.95 per month, you can access our course content 24/7 on-demand.
So remember, at college, you can work hard but also make sure you’re working smart by staying organized, studying effectively, and using the resources around you to support you in getting the best grades you can!
Looking to take notes efficiently? This video will help you take great notes online using Google Docs!
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