How to Get Good Grades

Improving your grades requires three things: Your teacher's good will, your work, and good timing. Okay, just the first two.

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During this instructable I will teach you how get on your teacher's good side and stay there. I'll teach you how to choose courses you are most likely to get good grades in, what NOT to do, and why this instructable will work for you. I'll also dispell some myths about good grades. In short, I'll tell you how to raise your GPA.

Just for the sake of experiential evidence, I was one of 17 valedictorians from my high school and I've been a consistent Dean's Lister in college. I have also interviewed a few of my friends that teach and their comments coincide with what I have learned through trial and error. You can now benefit from our decades of experience and increase your GPA.

As this isn't an exact science I can't guarantee that you will get all A's from following these steps. Anyone who claims he can guarantee all A's for you is selling something. Instead, I guarantee that if you follow these steps, you will see a marked improvement in your scores. How much of an improvement largely depends on how many of these techniques you have already been using and how consistently you employ these techniques. I believe this advice is well researched and upheld by common sense. I hope by the time you are finished reading this instructable, you'll agree.

The following steps are not strictly in sequential order, nor should you think of them as such.

**One disclaimer of importance**

This self-help instructable is written from my perspective and my experience. Someone of drastically different personalty type or circumstances might find that what worked best for me will not work best for them. Such is life.

**A disclaimer of not so much importance**

I've tried to write this with a bit of humor, in a conversational tone. I've also simplified my pronoun use to avoid cumbersome he/she references. Any comments to improve the tone and message would be greatly appreciated.

Step 1 Get a Feel for Things

The first day of class is crucial! First impressions really are important! Show up late on the first day and you may have to work hard to reverse the bad vibes a teacher has for you. Vice Versa, give a great first impression and it will take a lot of bad behavior for most teachers to turn on you. If you think your first day of class doesn't affect your final grade, you're either 1) dead wrong or 2) you're so smart, you don't need this instructable.

Comments

[Rock Soldier]

I have a question. Why do the teachers determine to grade? Isn't it you, who determine your grade by how well you do your work? As far as I know, if a teacher likes you, s/he can't just give you a bad grade.

[hydrnium.h2]

Wait, for that section on turning in your homework on time, if you turned in a perfect paper a day late and got a 90 instead of an 85 (B+) wouldn't that benefit you?

[prowizard777]

hi nice instructable

[jmag]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQwn0VBsC-8 will actually help people

[Steeltowndude]

Wow this is awesome! I'm not in college, I'm in Junior high, but this will still work a lot for me! My grades have dropped from A's and B's to C's!! And it's not because I'm not smart, but because I never turn in my work! I'm very smart actually, as I am in my school's gifted classes, but I never turned in my homework or classwork! I've been trying to change, but it's hard to make a change like that when you're lazy lol, but I'll take note of everything, especially the think positive part. I bet what I can think of how math will benefit me when I get a job. Well, thanks a lot!

[royalestel]

Hey you're welcome! And take a little advice from a crazy guy, don't label yourself! "Lazy" or anything! You be good and don't worry about it, mate!

[Baron A]

Thanks dude..... Im in high school and feel this might actually help me. I used to be an A student but know im C-D.... :-( Its because i procastonate and rush my work to do other intresting things.....got any tips?

[royalestel]

YES! Get in a routine. Make it a habit. HABIT IS YOUR FRIEND. Doing the hard things that make us feel good is usually better than doing the exciting things that leave us feeling empty.

[Baron A]

True. ill try.

[Metal4God]

will this work if ur home-schooled

[royalestel]

Basically, I don't know. I don't think so, since you should already have a great relationship with your parent/teacher.

[Baron A]

LMFAO....... Its normally the parent that teaches you i think..

[mikesty]

That was great instructable. As a freshman in kollege, I appreciated it quite a bit. You made a great point on memorizing only one half of a pair. I need to do that more - it helps.

[nerfer192]

how to get good grades. study,do homework, become teachers pet. LOL

[royalestel]

Well, a cynic might say that! :)

[nerfer192]

whats a cynic?

[royalestel]

Someone a bit jaded on how one gets good grades! If you are more a friend than teacher's pet, you get better results. Teachers can spot the suckups from the truly nice kids.

[nerfer192]

well, i am NOT a teachers pet.

[royalestel]

Wasn't implying you were.

[nerfer192]

i know, but im just sayin. i have a friend is a pet to EVERY teacher.

[no food please]

Excellent job. I didn't have time to read it all, but you did a great job making it easy to skim and still understand. Good job organizing it and using bold words for emphasis.

[eimat]

RE: 3) Cling Tenaciously to Additive Memorizing. Try it the opposite way: memorize the last sentence (of, let's say, a soliloquy) then the second-to-last and last sentence, etc. working backward. That way, you're working toward the material you're most comfortable with. Picked this up in a drama class, but I'm sure that it applies to other subjects, like politics, history, etc.

[royalestel]

This is a great idea! I shall add it immediately. Thanks!

[mje]

This havs everything except how to actually learn the material! A few hints from someone who taught and studied learning and memory: 1. Repetition is the key to learning. Period. If you don't repeat it, you won't learn it. Very few people have a "photographic memory", and even for those who do, an eidetioc memory does not equate with learning and understanding. 2. You have to force yourself to process the material, so you don't just glance over it. Some people like to read material out loud. That forces them to take it in at a steady pace, and hearing yourself speak also runs it through different modalities. That's why that had you recite your "times tables" in elementary school. I like rewriting my notes and the papers and books I read. That forces me to process the material through idfferent modalities, and reinforces learning. 3. If you really learn the material- and isn't that what you're there for?- none of that other stuff makes any difference at all.

[pocketwatch]

re point 3: that's a good strategy in math or science but even an experienced writing teacher who could put essays perfectly on a spectrum of worst to best if she'd never met the class will grade the more articulate/argumentative people harder than the shy people or the English learners.

[LarrySDonald]

Really, especially starting out with no particular accomplishments to point to, a lot of that "other stuff" matters quite a bit. To simply learn something, one can use the internet, the public library and possibly the aid of someone passionate about the subject (almost any subject will people who are absolutely nuts about it, know it well and will chew your ear off about it free of charge). Much as it's denied, teacher opinion does matter some - not as much in the "hard" sciences but even there it's not unimportant. When I moved back to Sweden after a year and a half stint in the US, I got what would be roughly the equivalent of a C+ in English. I'd never gotten such a low grade in English in the states. I maintained a B+ at first and advanced to a solid A (Usually around 93-96) the rest of the time. When I presented the transfer paperwork to my English teacher the last semester saying I was moving to Sweden she said "Woah.. That's gonna be hard learning the language. Why are you moving there?" never having realized I was anything but a born and raised Georgia boy. There is simply no way I didn't know the material. I had (and still have) my flaws in English even after another decade in the US, but this was kindergarten stuff. I was taking a language I was now fully fluent in as a second language (as was required). However, the teacher sucked. I'd argue with her about trivial differences, mispronunciations (beyond US/UK differences), her general attitude and lapses in knowledge worming their way into the minds of my innocent classmates.. She was a bad teacher and also slightly mean, and I felt obliged to point this out as the person in the room with the most solid knowledge of the subject. Bad idea, it turns out. Later teachers were much more solid, but still felt put in a bad spot. Previous grades were low, so I assume they felt obliged to not call her an idiot by instantly raising them even though we would converse calmly in English (many were teaching Swedish in the US/UK part of the time or off and on and were also fully fluent rather then knowing how to point to a textbook and speak the glorious new international language that is "Broken English"). I finished up high, but had I kept her and kept up my position, I'm quite sure I would still have a paper saying I can't be trusted to communicate in English, free for my future employers to see and hard to contradict had it not been a non-issue due to that they kind of assume that here in the US and don't realize I'm non-US by birth until I have to whip out the green card for the hiring process.

[royalestel]

I touched on some of those things in a couple new steps I added, 8 and 9. However, I disagree with your 3rd point. I've seen some teachers that flat out refused to give good grades to students they didn't like. Tenure is an amazing thing . . . This is also a lot like real life, where managers can give you a C equivalent on your annual review just because you've ticked them off--whether or not you did your job expertly. You can know the material perfectly, but if the teacher hates you, you can get a C and not be able to do anything about it. So yes, the instructable doesn't provide much on actually learning the material. Thanks for mentioning taking notes. I totally forgot to add that!

[pocketwatch]

Thanks for the t/f memorization suggestions- just today I got stuck between ingressive and egressive sounds in an exam. I do think you overemphasize the difficulty of getting a good grade with a strict teacher- almost everyone has enough free time to get assignments done on time if they start the day it is due and work on it during free moments. It might certainly be harder if you have children but I assume the majority of your instructables readers do not.

[Blackfootdog]

amazing. It's already helped, and school hasn't even started.

[Explosive Student]

Amazing instructable! i may not be in collage yet but it will definitely boost my grades. Thanks! p.s. LOL! funny changing class page hahaha

[andy60]

thanks for the info :D

[NachoMahma]

. Great job.

[AERODYNAM!C]

School just ended, and it was pretty rough. I think these tips could have gotten me through it better, so I'm definitely applying these next year. :D

[royalestel]

I hope they serve you well.

[Adrien]

Wow, I can see all of the teacher's personality in all of the teachers i can recall... This advice was very usefull and was worth the read! Someone who complains about this being to long doesn't deserve this advice...

[royalestel]

Well, thanks! I hope that as you put some of this advice into practice it will help you as much as it has helped me.

[Vendigroth]

my politics teachers (got 2) are polar opposites; She's a Hippie He'd a BTB (plus, we recon HE got rid of the last politics teacher we had, himself a BTBer for fun..) "Hello Dave..." "Hello Malcolm..." *KER-THUD* and Malcoml wasn't there any more, so the next lesson we had dave in, he told us malcolm'd had some heart trouble while looking smug. The locked cupboard in malcolm's room wasn't always locked and at the time malcolm "took a medical off-time-thingy" a big dent appeared in the wall. The moral: Don't wind BTBers up, or face the consequences!

[royalestel]

What the snozzberry?! Hah! That's disturbingly funny. Sorta. :M

[Vendigroth]

No My class established that Dave has a Murderin' axe and a non-Murderin' axe. I don't knjow which i'd rather have used on me, to be honest. no, the consequences are: Having your head smashed into the wall, being dragged by your legs to dave's office, having your legs chopped off with the non-Murderin' axe, being dragged to your own cupboard, being chained up andprodded with a stick ever week or so Cross BTBers at your own peril

[Mad Cat]

I think Instructables needed something like this. A great instructable and advice that I'll follow.