You got your grades from last semester, and now you’re panicked about the next one! If you got bad grades last semester in college, first off, know that they’re not permanent. Second, you need a plan to change them for the better. If you got good grades, you’re likely still panicked that you can’t sustain them. You also need a plan – to alleviate your panic.
I came across an article that had some really good advice and a good perspective on how to view your grades, both good and bad.
Really, it should be called “The Bad News and the Good News” because he offers real hope, even if your grades were bad. It was written for law school students, but it also applies to college students as well. With one caveat. A first semester or year of bad grades in high school and college probably means less about the future than the same in law school. That’s more good news!
Interesting points from “So you got your grades, now what?”
- Students with good grades tend to view them as ephemeral and not likely to hold up, while students with bad grades tend to view them as permanent and unchanging.
- You just can’t win can you? I know this is especially true of good students. If you got bad grades, know you CAN change them. If you have good grades, you’ve proven you can do it. Just use some of the steps below to feel more on top of things.
- The good grades advice of “So you got your grades, now what?” about applying for an internship is more specific to law school. But here’s a way to apply it to college. If you had a better-than-your average good fall semester – capitalize on it!
- IDEA – if you have a better-than- average GPA the semester before you look for a job, highlight it before (or in place of?) your overall GPA.
What to do if your first semester grades are bad.
Let’s first start out by recognizing that bad is a relative term. For some, that semester of bad grades will include a failed class. For others students, having even one B in a class of a transcript of all A’s will qualify as a semester of bad grades. (But really, let’s get back in the real world and realize those are FANTASTIC grades.)
These tips should help regardless of what you consider a bad grade.
1. Change your mindset about grades.
It’s an interesting psychological question, but students with good grades tend to downplay them. They view them only as fleeting and are scared they still won’t measure up the next time around.
Students with bad grades will tend to view them as permanent. While there is some truth to that, especially when it comes to courses that are taught in a series, such as Calculus 1, Calculus 2, and Calculus 3, it’s not an absolute.
True story, my husband was caught completely flat-footed with his first Calculus 1 test and failed it. He gradually pulled his grades higher every test and finished the course with a C. But did this mean he was doomed to make all C’s in Calculus? No, in fact, he made A’s in Calculus 2 and Calculus 3. He used what he learned about how to study in Cal 1, to do better in future semesters.
Making bad grades in one course especially does not hold true for a completely unrelated courses. If you make a C in English Composition, that doesn’t mean anything about your future grade in Calculus.
2. To improve your grades, make changes at the beginning of the semester.
Don’t wait until this semester proves to be hard as well, by then it will be harder to catch up. Make changes early in the semester.
3. Get a tutor to improve your grades
This applies to free tutoring that may be available at your college, as well as seeking out personal tutors.
If you’re used to being at the top of your class, your difficulties may be different from the average student. A private tutor may be your best bet. I even advise this most strongly for students (and their parents) who think that bad grades are likely to be the results of bad habits rather than the student’s ability to understand the information. If you’ve never had trouble making good grades before, this may be the most important time to get a tutor – even if all you think all it’s going to be is a paid study partner.
Finding a personal tutor to improve your grades
Finding a personal tutor may take some work. Check bulletin boards and ask professors, both current and past professors, for recommendations of tutors.
4. Change your sleep habits to improve your grades
Guess what? I don’t think this means that you have to go to bed early. I don’t think expecting college students to go to bed early, or not stay out on the weekends, is realistic. But you can always improve your habits. From reading Why We Sleep, I’ve come up with the following suggestions.
- Make a rough estimate of how much sleep you got on most nights last semester. When did you usually go to bed (in spite of good intentions.) When did you usually wake up? If it’s 6 hours are less, good news! Getting more sleep is going to make a HUGE difference.
- Set a goal of getting 1 hour of more sleep for five out of seven days of the week. That’s getting an hour more sleep than you did every night last semester, the night before each of your class days.
- When you sleep isn’t as important as the length of an uninterrupted block of sleep. This is probably not what your mom told you. It wasn’t even what I told my own kids until after I read,Why We Sleep. Teens are often naturally night owls. It’s their natural biological rythm, so going to bed late and waking up late are fine. What matters is the number of hours in between where you give yourself an (in bed) opportunity to sleep. If you can manage to get 7 hours of sleep the day before each of your classes, that would be good. However, 8 hours of opportunity to sleep, this includes lying awake in bed, is optimal for both your physical and mental health. You can learn more from my review post about Why We Sleep.
5. Form and join study groups.
Especially if you don’t know other kids in the class, work to form a study group of more than one person. Then you have a better chance of least one or two students in the study group turning out to be a good partner for you. Don’t worry about asking people to join the group who might not be as good a student as you are. Explaining something is one of the surest ways to increase your understanding of a subject. Another bonus? Regularly meeting with a study group will help remind you about due dates.
6. Improve your organization of assignments and due dates.
There is no shortage of organizational methods to keep with with assignments and appointments. Keep searching until you find a method that you find works for you.
Or just take the first method suggested and give it a try. If it doesn’t work, just find another one later.
Consider what type of organization system you would find easiest to use.
Do you want everything on your phone, with an online organizer or app?
Or would you prefer to have everything on paper?
To pick a paper organizer, just go to your college bookstore, and choose one from among those in stock.
Or search on Amazon for academic organizers. You can get lost on Amazon easily and spend a ton of time, so set a timer for 30 minutes or just pick the best looking one in the options below.
At the very least, just get a paper calendar and use your class synopsis to schedule in due dates and tests. Put assignments in black and tests and major papers in red.
7. Keep up with assignments.
See the point on getting organized at the first of the semester above.
8. Change the way you study.
You can find tons of suggestions of different ways to study for free on the internet. I have found that The Naked Roommate series has some great study tips for college. There are books for students, as well as a book of advice for parents trying to help their student.
And there are of course tons of other books on Amazon. Check the reviews and preview the books to find the method that will work for you.
9. Keep your grades in perspective.
Lastly, remember that while academic grades maybe some reflection of your work ethic, they may also have very little to do with your success in the real world.
10. Just do it! Finish the job.
Finishing a task is also important to success. This also applies to just finishing school, whatever degree you are pursuing. So just keep chugging on until you’re done. But if you’re really miserable, do keep your eye out for opportunities, or consider the option of changing your major, or changing schools. You can read more about my thoughts on choosing a major in my post series You’re majoring in what?