Do Well in High School

Do you have bad grades? Are your parents pressuring you to do better in school? There are many reasons why you might want to do better in high school, to get into a good college, or just to prove to yourself that your can. No matter how far behind you've fallen, you can always pull yourself up to success with some motivation, discipline, and support.

Steps

Studying Effectively

  1. Get engaged in whatever you're studying. You will recall information more if you are engaged with it somehow. That is why it is important to know what moves or interests you. Try experimenting with creative ways of studying so that even if you have an exam on a subject you find boring you will succeed where regular cramming would fail. Some ways to make studying more interesting and engaging include:[1]
    • Make an idea map about the topic. Start by drawing a circle in the middle with the main topic written inside. Then draw circles that connect to this topic with the major factors of this topic. Continue branching off from the circles with new circles that go into greater detail.
    • Discuss and debate the information with another person. Talking to someone else about what you're learning can be a great way to solidify the ideas in your head.
    • Watch an interesting and visual film that deals with the information. Search online for an educational video about the topic you're learning about.
    • Write a song about the topic. If you're into songwriting, this can be an effective way to greatly increase your engagement with the material. Songs stick in the mind a lot easier than book chapters.
  2. Watch out for studying fatigue. It's counter productive to stay up until the wee hours of the morning to tweak an essay due the next day, or to study "a bit more" information before an exam, because when the day arrives, you'll be exhausted an unable to perform at your best. At the same time, you also want to avoid procrastinating, and taking too many breaks, which will leave you with inadequate studying. [2]
    • Set yourself concrete amounts of studying and break time. This will prevent you from accidentally burning yourself out with too much non-stop focus, and keep you from falling into the temptation of procrastination. Experiment with different combinations of study and break time to find out what works best for you. For example, with some subjects you might study best in 30 minute increments with 10 minutes of break time, and others might work better with hour long increments and 15 minutes of break time.
    • Sitting down and straining your eyes for long periods of time actually takes a toll on your body. Do yourself a favor and take a quick break to gently stretch your body, then go out and kick a soccer ball around, take the dog for a walk, or vacuum your room. You need to relax your mind and get your blood flowing.
  3. Form a studying habit. It's important to make a habit out of studying if you want to keep up with it. Start by studying for 10-15 mins at a time, and then work your way up to longer stretches of time. Find a quiet place to study with no distractions, preferably in a room other then one in which you watch TV, sleep, or do other distracting activities. Try to study around the same time each day. These kinds of habits will make studying easier to accomplish.[2]
  4. Study smart, not hard. Certain ways of studying are just better than others. Rote memorization has been proven to be fairly ineffective for learning information.[3]Instead, you should focus on trying to really understand the material, and one way to do that is to choose active ways of studying, rather than passive. All of the following study methods are better than just trying to memorize formulas or reread the same pages over and over:[1][2]
    • Test yourself with practice tests.
    • Make and use flash cards.
    • Summarize a chapter by writing the main points down in your own words.
    • Try to identify links between different topics and concepts, and how they relate to each other.

Succeeding Academically

  1. Find your motivation. You may have one of several motives for wanting to do well. Perhaps your parents are pressuring you to do better than you are, or maybe you plan to pursue a specific career that requires better grades than those you are currently receiving. How you proceed will depend very much on these motives. For example, if you are being pressured by your parents to do better, is it because you can do better but are simply distracted, or is it that your present best just isn't good enough for them? After all, the most you can do is your best, so attempting to suddenly be a champion in a field you aren't interested in is both futile and a foolish waste of your present talents.[4]
    • If your motivation is to pursue a specific career path, then that should affect what courses you choose and possibly what extracurricular activities you participate in. For example, if you want to be an engineer, you'll want to try to take the most advanced math classes available. If you want to get into politics, you might consider running for the student council.
  2. Learn how to manage your time well. One of the biggest factors in academic performance is how good your time management is. Start by organizing what you need to do to succeed. Some people work best by making to do lists for each class. Some prefer filling out a calendar with due dates and priorities. Then start budgeting your time. Set yourself specific times to work, and stick to them. Experiment with working at different times of the day to find out when you're most productive.[5][6]
    • Don't wait until the day before a test or when a paper's due to get started. Give yourself your own mini deadlines so that you spread out your work into manageable chunks. For example, give yourself the goal of writing one or two pages of a paper a day. Plan in advance a day to revise the paper before it's due. Give yourself a day to study each section of material that will be on the test. It's important to think ahead about how much time you need to do your best.
  3. Don't be afraid to ask for help. Teachers and guidance councilors are there for your benefit, so use them to your advantage. Develop a relationship with your teachers. If you're struggling with an essay, go to your teacher after class and ask if you can talk about it. If you're not sure what to study for an upcoming history class, find a time when your teacher isn't busy to ask for help. Go to your guidance councilor any time you think you could use help deciding what classes to take, getting on track to pursue a certain career, or choosing a career path in the first place.[7]
  4. Challenge yourself. Don't take the easy classes because you can do better in them. This won't help you in the long run. This is the time to challenge yourself, if for no other reason, then to see what you can accomplish. Take AP classes if your school offers them. Don't let rumors about how tough a teacher is sway you from choosing a class that interests you and you think you could excel at.[8]
  5. Think about the future. One of the best predictors of success in college is success in high school. That's why taking your academics seriously in high school is such a big deal. The best motivation for putting more effort into your schooling is to never let yourself forget how much it will impact your future. Practically, this means thinking carefully about the courses you take and why you're taking them, being diligent about setting aside time to study regularly, and starting to look into colleges early, even before it's time to start applying.[9]
    • Also, when it is time to start applying for colleges, don't wait for the last minute. Get in on that early registration.

Balancing the Parts of Your Life

  1. Create a healthy social life. Although having a social life is an important part of a well balanced life, you need to think carefully about whether maybe your friends, or boyfriend or girlfriend, are keeping you from performing the best you can in school. If you have the opposite problem, not enough of a social life, that's something to be taken care of as well, because spending time with friends is a valuable way to destress from the pressure of school.[10]
    • If your social life is taking up too much of your time and your grades are suffering as a result, then set yourself limits. Don't be afraid to tell your friends that you can't go out this weekend, because you've got a test Monday. There's always another night or weekend.
    • If your social life is lacking and it's causing you stress or sadness, make a conscious effort to reach out more to the people you do know and like. Making friends isn't always easy, but with a little confidence and effort, it can be done.
  2. Explore interests outside of academics and socializing. Extracurricular activities are an often overlooked aspect of doing well in high school. If one defines "doing well in high school" as preparing oneself for a successful time in college and beyond, then extracurricular activities are an important factor in that respect. Things like sports participation, volunteering, student council, and club membership look good on college and job resumes, as they show initiative, drive, and the ability to work with others toward a common goal.[10]
  3. Make time for your family. Your family is your number one support group, and they most likely will be there to help and support you for the majority of your life. So, it's very much worth it to try to keep a good relationship with them. Of course, not everyone's relationship with their family is the same, but making an effort to help and spend time with your parents and siblings will pay off in the long run, in a multitude of ways.[11]
    • Parents can help you with homework, give you advice on how to deal with a difficult teacher or peer, give you emotional support when you need it, and help you choose the right classes and career path.
    • Siblings can help bolster your social life, give you studying advice, and, if they're older and went to the same school as you, they can even let you know what to expect from certain teachers.
  4. Don't focus too much on grades. Although good grades are a part of doing well in school, it's important to remember not to get too caught up in your grades. A "B" in a difficult class in which you learned a lot is so much better than an "A+" in an easy class that won't benefit you much in the long run.[12]
  5. Manage anxiety. School is a fairly high pressure environment, and that can cause stress and anxiety which will hinder your chances of success, and reduce your quality of life overall. Sources of anxiety can include both academic pressures like big papers and tests, and your peers, in the form of social anxiety. The most important step when it comes to managing anxiety is to ask for help, from your parents, teachers, and councilor. Reach out when the stresses of school get too heavy, and don't try to battle them alone.[13]
    • Cultivate positive mindsets to help manage anxiety. For example, don't think that paper you're working on as incomplete, but rather a work in progress. Instead of always focusing on how much left you have to learn, take some time to reflect on how far you've come. And don't forget to think about how the studying you're doing is helping you in the big picture of learning and growing.
    • If you experience test anxiety that hurts your performance when it comes to test day, take some time to prepare yourself properly, to minimize that anxiety. Get a good night's sleep the night before. Don't go into a test on an empty stomach. Take slow, deep breaths to help yourself relax. And try to flip the anxiety on its head by thinking of it as energy and excitement that can be utilized, rather than a stressful burden.[14]



Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 http://www.planetofsuccess.com/blog/2012/how-to-study-smart-not-hard/
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2014/04/01/study-hard-no-burnout/
  3. ↑ http://www.uncw.edu/cte/et/articles/vol7_1/klemm.pdf
  4. ↑ https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/get-started/inside-the-classroom/tips-for-staying-motivated
  5. ↑ https://www.uwgb.edu/tutoring/resources/managing.asp
  6. ↑ https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/get-started/inside-the-classroom/8-ways-to-take-control-of-your-time
  7. ↑ hhttps://nau.edu/residence-life/life-on-campus/academic-success/academic-guides--tips-to-succeeding-academically-on-campus/
  8. ↑ http://www.idealist.org/info/GradEducation/Resources/Preparing/Success2#Challenge
  9. ↑ http://www.aft.org/periodical/american-educator/spring-2004/its-time-tell-kids-if-you-dont-do-well-high
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 https://news.illinois.edu/blog/view/6367/205995
  11. ↑ http://kidshealth.org/parent/growth/learning/school-help-teens.html#
  12. ↑ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lauren-schuhmacher/why-grades-dont-really-ma_b_2682922.html/
  13. ↑ https://hbr.org/2012/12/nine-ways-successful-people-de
  14. ↑ http://www.studygs.net/tstprp8.htm
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