z.ombie wrote:z.ombie wrote:some advice would be greatly appreciated.
i really want to get into a good college, and so far it isnt going well. I had all As and crap except one C last quarter, and im trying to get my grades up for this quarter as well. What freaks me out is that I have midterms. And I swear, I am going to fail the heck out of those tests.
Ever since about two years ago, when I was in middle school, my grades started plummeting. The problem? It was probably a mix of not knowing what was being taught and just going through puberty i guess.
I thought it was going to be a small phase, but it wasnt. And I hate myself for it. I was at the top of my class, now im somewhere in the middle of failing and getting a high grade. I just dont understand how other students are so smart. They juggle sports, school and social life in one sitting. I dont know what the heck is wrong with me. Yeah, I do admit to procrastinating, which is proabnbly why my grades started floppin around when they did, but my smarts,, are just gone??
to those who are at the top of their class- could you help a fellow classmate out? What is your secret? How do i not fail my midterms????
As somebody finishing college (and helping her younger brother with his applications), don't worry about your grades too much. You actually have pretty high grades, and colleges understand if there is one class you have struggled with.
You
are smart. Look at how far you have come. You are often your own worst enemy because comparing yourself to other people does not always help.
Here's a pretty good quote that is often attributed to Albert Einstein: "Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."
Everybody has their own strengths and weaknesses, and struggling at school right now (especially in only one class!) does not mean that you lost your smarts! You are smart, but you are smarter than them in other areas.
Midterms are always stressful, but they are only a halfway point. The good thing about midterms is that they are basically review. They may have some new material, but you've technically seen it all before. If you are holding a C in the class, you won't fail. If you have the old tests, review them. Rework a couple of the problems. Many teachers will use very similar problems to the ones you have seen before (but just change a bit of the information).
You will figure out what works for you study-wise. Building good study habits will help you so much in college. I always make notecards (and they need to be hand-written and not digital). I'll put all the information I need on them regardless of if I think I know it. I'll do about 5 to 10 minutes every so often to review, and any cards I know instantly at least 3 times go into one stack. The rest I know are what I still need to review, and this weeds out what I remember very well. The stack naturally gets smaller with each session. Sometimes, acronyms help, too. I've even looked up songs (for harder to study things like the Kreb's cycle) to help give me something catchy to remember for harder concepts. I know some people that learn better through writing or reading more information. You will figure out what works for you. If something does work, then move on to another method. If it only partially works, think about what works and doesn't work and modify it to see if the modification improves it.
