How To Get Good Grades in Ten Easy Steps (Woodburn Press)
Step One: Believe in yourself
“To succeed, we must first believe that we can.” Michael Korda
Whether you’re an athlete preparing for competition or a student tackling a difficult subject, it’s important that you believe in yourself. You need to recognize the talents and abilities that you have, and you must believe that you can succeed! If you think you can’t succeed or if you allow past failures to keep you from trying, you will never get anywhere. Think positively, keep trying and you will succeed.
Step Two: Be Organized
If you’re organized, you have what you need when you need it.
How to be organized
With good time management, you have time for the things you need to do, and still have time for the things you want to do.
Step Four: Be successful in class
"Eighty percent of success is showing up." Woody Allen
Step Five: Take good notes
Step Six: Know how to read a textbook
Step Seven: Study Smart
Step Nine: Reduce test anxiety
A little anxiety can improve your concentration; too much anxiety can lower your test score.
Step Ten: Get help when you need it
When you have a problem, do something to resolve it.
If you are having academic trouble, talk to your teacher. If you are having troubles with other students, at home or personal problems, talk to your counselor. All students have concerns and problems to deal with. Some students have problems that are so overwhelming that they can’t pay attention in class or concentrate on school work. Thousands of students are struggling with difficult situations. The smart ones get help.
Step One: Believe in yourself
“To succeed, we must first believe that we can.” Michael Korda
Whether you’re an athlete preparing for competition or a student tackling a difficult subject, it’s important that you believe in yourself. You need to recognize the talents and abilities that you have, and you must believe that you can succeed! If you think you can’t succeed or if you allow past failures to keep you from trying, you will never get anywhere. Think positively, keep trying and you will succeed.
Step Two: Be Organized
If you’re organized, you have what you need when you need it.
How to be organized
- Take a student planner with you to every class so you can record assignments and due dates.
- Break down large assignments into smaller, more manageable parts and set due dates for the individual portions.
- Use a three-ring notebook for each class. This will help you keep handouts organized and place notes from previous classes in the right order.
- Have the phone number of at least one person in each class. This way you have someone to call if you missed a class or need clarification on something.
- Add your teachers’ email address to your email account. This way you can contact them if you have a question.
- Bookmark your teachers’ website. Many teachers will post assignment handouts and due dates on their website, others will post helpful links. Check them regularly.
- Keep your locker and backpack neat. Don’t jam papers into your backpack or locker, put them in the right place.
- Get organized before you go to bed. Make sure you have everything you need for the next day. Leave yourself a note if you have to remember something in the morning.
With good time management, you have time for the things you need to do, and still have time for the things you want to do.
- Use class time well. Always use the time teachers give you in class to start on homework, ask questions, or get help.
- Create your own study plan and stick to it. Some students study best at night, others study best earlier in the day. Many students have after school activities, sports and jobs. Know how much schoolwork you have and how much time you have to do it. Create a study plan indicating when you will get it done.
Step Four: Be successful in class
"Eighty percent of success is showing up." Woody Allen
- Be in school, on time, every day. When you miss school, you miss class presentations, notes, discussions, assignments, quizzes and tests. It doesn’t matter how good you are about making up your work, you can never make up all that you miss.
- Learn how to adapt to different teachers. In the classroom, the teachers are in charge and they make the rules. Learn how to adapt to different sets of rules, personalities, expectations and teaching styles.
- Be prepared for each class. Be sure to have everything you need (books, papers, pencils) and that your homework is done. When you’ve done your homework, the material being taught makes more sense and allows you to participate in class discussions. Remember, being prepared also means being rested. Be sure to get a good night’s sleep.
- Participate in class. Participating in class makes the class more interesting. It also helps keep your mind focused. Many teachers give participation points so participating can help you get a better grade.
- Take responsibility for your grades. If you get a good grade on a test or paper, be proud of your accomplishments. If you receive a poor grade, don’t make excuses. Take responsibility and figure out what you can do to get a better grade next time.
Step Five: Take good notes
- Be an active listener. In order to take good notes, you must pay attention and actively listen to what the teacher is saying. When you are actively listening, you are thinking about and trying to understand the information being presented.
- Take notes to help you pay attention. You can think much faster than anyone can talk. This is one of the main reasons that your mind wanders. When you take notes, your mind has something to do and can help you keep focus.
- Recognize important information. Teachers will often change their tone of voice or give cues when they are discussing important information. Anything your teacher writes on the board or overhead should also be recorded.
- Go over your notes as soon as possible. Review your notes within 48 hours and indicate the information you think is most important. Rewrite anything you can’t understand. Taking notes is great but if you only look at them the day before the test, they might not help you.
- Get copies of notes if you are absent. Identify the good note takers in class and ask them if you can copy the notes down. Take the notes to your teacher and ask them to explain any information you don’t understand.
- Be sure to ask your teacher for any handouts you may have missed. Don’t assume your teacher will give you the information. It is your responsibility to stay informed.
Step Six: Know how to read a textbook
- Start with a quick scan. Do a quick overview of the material you are going to be reading. Read the titles, subtitles and everything in bold and italic print. Look at the picture, graphs and charts. Read the introduction, the review questions and the summary.
- Read. When your reading has a purpose, it’s easier to stay focused and you’re better able to understand what you read. Try turning each subtitle into a question. Instead of Canada in 1867 turn it into What was Canada like in 1867. see if you can answer your question at the end of each section.
- Review. Once you’ve scanned and read the material, don’t just close the book and think you are done. Take a few extra minutes to review. Go through the same process you did when you scanned the material and identify what they mean and what is important.
Step Seven: Study Smart
- Find a good place to study. Have a comfortable, quiet and well lit place to study. Make sure you have all the materials you need before you get started.
- Get started. Getting started is often the hardest part of studying. Don’t put it off until later, don’t make excuses and don’t wait until you are in the mood. If you have a hard time getting started, begin with your favorite subject.
- Organize your time. Make a plan, prioritize your work so you have enough time for the most important work, focus on one thing at a time, allow more time than you will need, do your memorization work first and review it at the end so you know if you really learned it, take breaks, yes I said take breaks. After studying for 20 minutes, get up and stretch or grab a drink. Don’t turn on the tv or check facebook.
- Know how to study for tests. Know what the test is going to cover, have all your reading done, pay particularly close attention in class the day before the test, do the review questions in your text book, explain key point to yourself. If you can explain then you know you understand it. Create cue cards for any names, dates, formulas and facts. Take these with you and review them before the class.
- Get off to a good start. Have everything you need with you when you go to class.
- Look over the entire test and develop a plan. If a one-hour test has 25 multiple choice questions and two essay questions, you could plan to spend 10 minutes on the multiple choice, 20 minutes on each essay and 10 minutes reviewing your answers.
- Mark the questions that gave you trouble. Put a dot next to the questions you are unsure of and plan to go back to them once you have answered all the other questions. Don’t panic if you don’t know the answer. Do the other questions and come back to the ones that gave you trouble.
- Pay attention to multiple choice answers. Try coming up with the answer before you look at the answer choices. If you are not sure of an answer, eliminate the choices you know are wrong then make an educated guess. Never leave questions unanswered. Don’t pick the first answer that sounds good. Read all the answer choices as more than one can seem correct.
- Look for key words in true or false questions. Statements with all, always, never, every and none are often used to fool the reader.
- Know how to write approach essay questions. Read the question a few times so you can be sure of what the teacher is asking for. Do some brainstorming on a separate sheet of paper then develop an outline for your essay before you start writing. Use clear, consise, complete sentences and write neatly. Be sure to reread your entire essay and make corrections. If you don’t know the answer to a particular essay questions, write down what you do know about the subject. Teachers will often award you some marks and some marks are better than none.
- If you run out of time write your teacher a note indicating that you ran out of time and list the points you would have discussed. Again, you might get partial marks.
- Go over returned tests. Correct your mistakes from previous tests and quizzes. Use these as a review tool as some of these questions may appear on future tests, albeit in a different format.
Step Nine: Reduce test anxiety
A little anxiety can improve your concentration; too much anxiety can lower your test score.
- Start studying early. Cramming only increases anxiety.
- Get a good night’s sleep. Being physically tired can make you mentally tired.
- Head up and shoulders back. If you act confident, you just may feel more confident.
- Relax. Take a deep breath and release it slowly. Starting at the top of your head, flex and relax each part of your body. Visualize yourself in your happy place. The more you practice these techniques, the better you will get. If you still have test anxiety, talk to your counselor.
Step Ten: Get help when you need it
When you have a problem, do something to resolve it.
If you are having academic trouble, talk to your teacher. If you are having troubles with other students, at home or personal problems, talk to your counselor. All students have concerns and problems to deal with. Some students have problems that are so overwhelming that they can’t pay attention in class or concentrate on school work. Thousands of students are struggling with difficult situations. The smart ones get help.