You can blame it on poor quiz grades, an especially tough teacher/professor, or impossible homework assignments, but the truth is that if your grade is suffering in a class, it is at least partially your doing. More than likely, you brought much of this upon yourself. It's blunt, but it is very often true.

Of course, outside circumstances, such as home life and health can negatively affect academic performance, but that's a different subject entirely. Today, I would like to address a general tip that applies to every student, which will bring up their grade, guaranteed, if they follow it.

Everyone has subjects that are difficult for them, and for many people, they see it as useless to think there's anything to do that can change this dilemma.

So, the same story happens again and again: the student decides that they are no good at a class, so they lose interest in the class. The student sees no point in "wasting their time" with something so unimportant to them, so they sit in the back of a class, unengaged, passively existing in the classroom.

They do the bare minimum on the initial assignments, and when they receive a relatively low score, their notion that they are "bad" at this class is strengthened, and they accept this. Soon, they begin to skip assignments, and then, the absolute worst thing happens:they begin skipping class.

On the morning I am writing this, it is a gray, slightly cold, rainy Wednesday. I've had two classes already this morning, and I noticed that in both of them, attendance was noticeably down.

It can be tempting to stay in your nice, warm bed and relax, but if that's your idea of spending a weekday, why are you even enrolled in school? I'm serious.

If you want to lay in bed, you should work for a mattress testing company. The point of school is to learn new subjects. If you aren't learning in class, can you even call yourself a student?

If you care about your grades at all, you will religiously adhere to this one tip: Go. To. Class.

It's as simple as that. There are literally hundreds of studies that prove that classroom attendance is directly linked to the grades that you earn. This applies to every single subject. Just Google "Classroom attendance and grades" and you'll see what I mean.

While simply being in class improves your grades greatly, classroom participation takes this to the next level.

Your brain better absorbs information if you are interacting with it directly. The better the information is absorbed, the better you will understand, and the better you understand it, the better you can apply it, which means that you will also do well on your assignments.

This advice could be delivered by anyone, but as an English Education Major and Scholarship Director for my sorority, I hope you will trust that I am broadcasting this advice to help students everywhere.

So, kids, stay in school; but, more importantly: go to class.