How I Raised My College Grades from 2.0 to 3.4 in in Five Steps: A Subscriber Lays Out the System
At the end of 4 quarters of university, my gpa was just above 2.0. My SATs were really good, so this was a disappointment. I just didn't know how to study. At the end of that quarter, I changed my major to something I was really interested in (that helped!), and equally importantly, began doing the following:
a) I quit cutting class. This is VERY important.
b) I started taking notes. When the prof emphasized something, I would WRITE IT DOWN. This forced me to pay attention and try to understand the flow of the lecture. Some people say that taking notes is an elaborate way of not paying attention. Baloney. It also gave me a WRITTEN RECORD of each lecture. This is also very important.
c) Before each test, I would go over my notes. I would go over them about 5 or 6 times. The first time was slow. It would take maybe 20 minutes. The second time it would take about half as long. The third time, half of that. By the sixth time, I would fly through five or six weeks' notes in a minute or two. This has the added benefit of being able to add repetitions in very brief odd moments before the test.
d) I would take the test, and be astonished to just walk through 95% of the material in an amazingly short time. I'm a fast test taker anyway, and this would cut the time down to almost embarrassingly short--sometimes I would sit around for several minutes just to make it look good. Seriously!
e) I graduated with a 3.4 gpa, despite the extremely slow start and the fact that I'm in serious competition for laziest person on the planet.