Try these this semester if you're trying to get that 4.0:
Notebooks instead of laptops. I’ve used both, and after comparing my grades in the classes that I hand-wrote my notes in and the classes I typed my notes in, I would recommend notebooks 100%. When you write something down, you’re automatically more likely to remember it. The only thing laptops are good for in class is to use iMessage to text your friends.
Re-writing your notes while studying. Speaking of remembering things better by writing them yourself, this is something I always do when I study. Nothing helps me recall information as well as repetition does. Because the exams in my majors are always essay tests, it’s hard to use other memory devices (like flashcards, although I do recommend those if you have multiple choice/short answer tests).
Office hours.When I first started college, I thought this concept was weird. I assumed you needed to have a specific question about an assignment in order for office hours to be useful, and I felt strange walking into an unfamiliar professor's office without making an appointment or anything. It wasn’t until my junior year that I really utilized my professors’ office hours. In order to get credit for an internship I had this past fall, I had to meet with one of my professors once a week. Because of this, she and I became close. I began to feel more comfortable doing this with my other professors, and some days I even found myself walking in and just saying “help.” Trust me, they're not going to think you're weird, they're going to be glad you came in and asked them for assistance (and this sign of effort will likely be reflected in your participation grades).
Sit in the front of the classroom. Typical nerd advice; but this one works, I swear. Because Hartford is so small, it isn’t exactly easy to hide in the back of a classroom. Sometimes, my classes are only made up of five students (Philosophy is a dying major, sad). But, on the rare occasion that my class is big enough to support the “I’m just gonna sit in the back on my laptop” attitude, I haven’t done as well at all. When you’re in the front of the room, your professors notice you - and you’re way more likely to pay attention if only for the fear of your professor calling you out in front of everyone.
Re-taking a course. Don’t be afraid to do this! During my second semester of my freshman year, I took six classes, and every single one of them was difficult. Also, five of them all fell on Tuesday, which was a recipe for disaster in terms of wanting to skip classes. That semester, I was also pledging for my sorority, which took up an obscene amount of time (for those of you reading this who are planning on going through recruitment, at my school or at another, this tradition has gone by the wayside, and pledging is SO MUCH less demanding now – school should not be a problem for you like it was for me). I didn’t do as well as I should have during this semester at all, so I decided to retake a class. At Hartford, your grade is replaced when you do this, which is so nice. I got an A the second time around, and my GPA went up considerably because of it!
Ask questions! In a previous Odyssey article of mine, I wrote all about the value of asking questions. It's so important in any situation in life, but in school asking questions is especially valuable for two reasons: 1) you’ll learn the answer to/get more clarification about whatever you didn’t understand and 2) your professor will recognize you, come to know you better, perceive your questions as effort, and it will reflect in your participation grade.
Study with your friends/classmates. Some may say this is a bad idea because you’re likely to get distracted, but it has always helped me. As I mentioned before, my exams are always essay tests, which are wicked hard to study for. In my classes, I’m often given a list of possible essay questions and told that only a few of them will be on the test, but we aren’t told which ones. The best way I’ve found to study for these types of tests are to write out (or type) my answers in full and then discuss them with people in my class to make sure we included all of the necessary information in our essays. This is the strategy I typically use for my Politics classes; all of which I’ve been lucky enough to take with a particularly competitive classmate of mine, who pushes me to work harder so I can get better grades than him.
I hope these tips were helpful! Good luck next semester!
