Bringing up GPA

AtomicCafe
Wed, 19 May 2010 12:25:08 +0000

Also, go to office hours. A lot of times, professors have so few students in office hours that they can give one-on-one help and walk you through a lot of problems or topics that you’re struggling with. Even if you’re not struggling with something, it doesn’t hurt to go in, ask the professor if you’re understanding things correctly, and give them your interpretation of what was taught.

Do homework IMMEDIATELY. As soon as you get your syllabus, write each due date on a big calendar, then do them as soon as you’re able. A lot of times, homework [especially for math and science] spans a week’s worth of lessons, so it’s helpful to look over the homework after each lecture and see what you can do now. If you can’t figure something out, go to office hours immediately and get help before it’s due and before the test.

Spend this summer understanding how you learn best. You said you’re studying to make up for that math grade, so experiment with that. Do problem sets help? Flashcards? Mixing up problems from a bunch of chapters so you can learn to tell different types apart? There are a bunch of sites online about different study methods [and I’ll admit I’m addicted to reading them – more so than I am to doing homework, unfortunately].

Lastly, most universities allow you to replace a grade. I think they’re called GROs. I don’t know much about them since I’ve never gone through the process, but they’re very common from what I hear. Sounds like you can retake a class and the second grade replaces the first. I’d leave it to someone with more experience to explain it to you, though.