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For the most part my technique for getting good grades was notes, notes, notes....as other have said. I took lecture notes and I took notes from my textbooks an assigned readings. Then when studing for finals I sat down re-read all my notes, and then tried to make a set of notes that incorporated everything.
My idea was to go over everything enough times to be sure I really had a handle on the material. It was great if I could find someone serious to study with, someone who really was interested in the course...but they types were usually hard to find.
If you're not reading the material well, not finishing the assigned readings, and not engaging with lectures and discussions in class, how do you expect to get an A?
Completing the work, understanding/remembering it, and tuning in are all crucial to success. It sounds like you still need to train yourself to be engaged, so if you really want to enter the "A" realm you'll need to work hard to change your habits.
Someone else said that an important factor is the classes you choose. I pretty much agree with this. If you're taking classes on subjects you're not particularly interested in, you'll continue having middling success. It doesn't sound like you're the sort of person who can feign interest or who can set aside personal likes/dislikes in order to master the material, so try to pick subjects that really do interest you and that you will want to work hard at learning.
I know that grades can have an arbitrary dimension to them, and they don't necessarily reflect the fundamental abilities and talents of the students, but they do mean something. An "A" is supposed to signal excellence in the mastery of an area--not perfection, but excellence. You already seem to know you're not doing this, and you already acknowledge that your study/memory habits are below that level. So the real question is, How do you strengthen your study, reading, and retention habits so that you have a better chance of demonstrating excellence? Like others have said, it takes hard work, lots of dedicated time-- And like I said above, you have to train yourself to think and process at a more efficient level. After you read a page or chapter section, ask yourself: "What was the topic of what I just read? What was the objective? What steps were taken to get there? What vocabulary was used to explain all of this?" If you cannot answer these questions with precision and fluency, go back and try again.
Beyond developing your intellectual strategies (not a bad thing to learn how to study and think better), it doesn't hurt to develop reasons for being engaged in the material in the first place. This is a tough thing for many students who see the grade, but not the course content/skills, as the main goal.
Ultimately, when you start asking yourself "How do I read and process information better?" and "How do I draw an enduring and dynamic level of meaning and purpose from course material?" you'll be closer to being an "A" student.
Engineering and business courses also have better employment opportunities than soft liberal arts courses. I don't think a 4.0 in history is going to fly as well as a 2.5 in electrical engineering if the job requires an engineer.
The dewd asked how to get A's, not how to get a job.
But even if you are an engineering major, no reason not to take soft liberal arts courses as electives to help pad that GPA.
As someone who returned for additional degrees later in life, I can attest that at the time (of my 1st degree) I thought I was trying hard, but I really wasn't.
This.
I don't think that the OP is really trying hard if she/he isn't even reading the entire chapter. If a student came to me and said she/he wanted an "A", but wasn't even reading the entire chapter, I would say "you've got to be kidding, right".
What the OP is looking for is the "easy" way to increase his/her GPA without a lot of effort.
The dewd asked how to get A's, not how to get a job.
But even if you are an engineering major, no reason not to take soft liberal arts courses as electives to help pad that GPA.
Okay. With that logic: OP, find an online diploma mill. Pay them $500. You should have straight As forthwith *nod*. /snark off
In all seriousness, no matter the type of class-I always found that copying notes (retyping) really helped me retain material. I am a visual learner. The others who said make sure you read all the material are also hitting something: if you don't even read it once, how can you know it on tests?
I'm a rising junior in college. Yesterday I just took my final for a course that I took this summer. Honestly, I think I'm getting a C+ or a B-. My problem is, how do I get out of this rut? My gpa is a 2.7 and I'm sure that when this grade gets posted I'll be at 2.5.
Typically my textbooks are 30-40 pages per chapter, and I rarely if ever finish reading a chapter. Even if I do, I don't remember what I read, let alone the info I need to get good grades on exams. Also, in class lectures go in one ear and out the other. Should I get a tape recorder & record them? Lastly, studying for an exam is always a nightmare. I always have stacks of notes that I need to memorize 2-3 days before an exam, IF I want to get an A. I never get an A.
How do I bridge the gap from barely passing to acing exams? I suspect that its not as hard as I'm making it out to be. I'd like to hear advice from people who have/have had an A average in college, and who have methods that work for them. I desperately need & want to work smarter.
I did not have straight As other than my first semester. Still, 3.8 undergrad and 3.77 grad school. You do it one of two ways:
1. You're a really an above-average intelligent person, and you just get stuff very quickly.
2. You roll up your sleeves and do some real hard work. That's what I did.
You actually listen to the professor in class and take notes judiciously, focusing on the key concepts rather than writing down everything the prof says. You highlight areas you don't get and need to follow up on.
You read the chapter critically, not like you're reading a Vanity Fair on the can. That means summarizing off to the side, underlining key parts, comparing with your notes, and reading for conceptual understanding.
If problem solving is involved, you practice the hard stuff you don't get and focus on learning the concept, not memorizing some formula. And if you still can't get it, you isolate what it is you can't understand and go to the prof or classmates to seek help. Repeat over and over again.
If lots of theory / history is involved, you review your notes from class and your readings. Then you rewrite those notes, filling in anything that is missing, using the book and other notes for help. Then, you rewrite all of that again from memory. And then you make flashcards and practice at different time intervals.
This is what most other people with high grades are really doing, and if you aren't doing it, then you don't want it enough.
I just sit down and read the material, re-write it, and do ALL of the practice problems. Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat,etc.
I make rhymes out of the material if I feel like it's "too much info". BAM, before I know it, I know it. LoL
We as people can memorize lyrics to entire albums but can't memorize X amount of theories/laws/formulas? Puh-leeze, just make it so that you can memorize it! Then you see it on a test, you'll say "Hey I know this!" (The same way you do a song)
.....this doesn't work if you're one of those people who butchers lyrics.
Memorization has 50% stake, the other 50% will be your capacity to COMPREHEND, understand that you can only hold onto so much information until system overload takes over, it's impossible to memorise line by line, understanding is far better, because a paper can pose you the same question but written differently but if you dont know how to decrypt it, you may end up with a different answer to the same question.
Also, Comprehension is a Skill, that is learned, which takes practice.
I don't usually toot my own horn, but when I do it's to validate my response to the Internet. I am a Junior with a 3.95 GPA (one teacher was just out to get me, every step of the way she would dock me for the most random stuff, and my final which had not a single bad mark on it, and many lines mentioning how well I integrated the course into the assignment was given the highest score possiable that ensured that I wouldn't get an A).
What I do is actively read. I don't just read the text, I first skim it, then go back and try to sum up each paragraph. This works in everything from math, to humanities to the sciences (to include the dreaded Chem). For papers, make the damn thing interesting to read, throw in humor (even in a business paper humor is a great break from dull and boring crap).
I am an engineer turned medical turned math kind of student, so I haven't exactly had easy classes.
Stay thirsty my friends.
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