High School Study Tips: Three Steps to Better Grades



High School Study Tips: Three Steps to Better Grades!

Getting good grades in high school isn't just important for getting into college - what you learn now will form the foundation for the rest of your life, including your academic and professional careers. Read on for three key tips to help you study better and improve your grades.

Step 1: Get Into the Right Mindset

How you approach your studies has everything to do with how well you perform: If you're motivated and engaged you'll do far better than if you're simply going through the motions. So how do you find the 'right' mindset?

Set realistic goals.

Trying to overachieve can set you up for frustration and failure, but underachieving won't help you improve your grades. Identify goals that will be challenging but attainable, and then stick with them. A few ideas for academic goals include finishing every reading assignment before class, pursuing extra credit assignments or keeping your grade point average above a certain level.

Get motivated.

You have to want to do your best in order to succeed in school. This may be easy for the classes you love, but all of us have subjects that we find challenging or just plain boring.

Find ways to motivate yourself, whether it's an immediate reward like a social study break or a long term reward like buying that special something you've been eyeing. You can also enlist your parents to offer you rewards for achieving your academic goals.

Stay committed.

Even the best of students get discouraged in school sometimes. Don't let a few difficult assignments or failed exams get you down - just identify what you still need to learn and forge on. Keeping those rewards in mind will help!

Step 2: Stay Organized

The secret to every straight-A student's success is organization, but this doesn't come naturally to most people. Here are a few ways you can organize your academic life:

Manage your time.

Get a physical or digital calendar (your computer probably comes with one) and use it to track your class schedule and important deadlines and organize your time. Make sure to allot time for studying and homework each day, which will help you complete all your assignments and still have time for chores, extracurricular activities and socializing.

Reduce clutter.

Keeping your study space neat will help you concentrate and make it easier to find important textbooks and notes. This also applies to your notebooks and binders: Organize your notes by class and date in a system that you find intuitive and efficient.

Step 3: Develop Good Study Habits

Not only will the study habits you develop now improve your high school grades, they will carry you into college and beyond. Follow these basic tips and watch your work improve:

• Go to class regularly and on time.

• Review your readings and notes from the previous class before each session.

• Complete your assignments with enough time to review them before you turn them in.

• Tackle large projects like research papers in manageable increments.

• Study a little bit every day rather than cramming the night before a big exam or essay deadline.

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