<p>I found that many people accepted by top schools have CGPAs ranging from 3.7 to 4.0.
What are the ways of maintaining such a high, almost-perfect GPA?
In the sciences, do you always use extra resources like study guides, workbooks, etc. in addition to required books and textbooks, even if the profs didn’t mention those extra things?
Besides hard work, interest in subject matter, and innate ability, what else, if any, does it take to earn and maintain high GPAs throughout your undergrad career?</p>
<ul>
<li>motivation (let you top choice school be your motivation not your GPA)</li>
<li>presence. make sure that the profs notice you are there and genuinely interested</li>
<li>participation inside and outside of classroom</li>
</ul>
<p>PS. This is not a guide how to be a nerd (there is a life outside the school) but how to take advantage and cash in on what you love and what you are interested in :)</p>
<p>Manage your workload - some classes are simply more demanding than others depend on professors and your prior background.</p>
<p>Piggyback to #1: Prioritize. Research, recruiting, social, relationship, ECs, part time jobs etc all compete for your limited time and focus. Learning when/how to drop things is important. The do-it-all approach that may have worked well in HS doesn’t often work well in college especially if you go to a rigorous program.</p>
<p>Dallas is right. You have to treat school like a sporting event, straight up. At the beginning of every semester, I do a thorough analysis of every class I am in, checking how difficult I anticipate it to be, how hard my teacher grades, how big the work load is, ect. Then, I draw up a detailed plan for the semester, as far as how much I will have to do at each point to achieve the grades I want in all classes. Good management is key.</p>
<p>Also, it helps to get yourself pumped during exam period. Everytime I sit down and start studying, I remind myself that there is someone out there who will be applying to all the same grad schools as me who is working harder than I am right now. So if I sit down and start studying at 1PM, I tell myself that this other guy won’t leave until 10PM. Is this accurate? Probably not, but it keeps you motivated.</p>
<p>oh wow, jmleadpipe, that sounds like a good idea. i think i’ll try it! </p>
<p>-i think motivation is most important. you can’t really do anything if you don’t feel like you’ll get anything out of it
-make sure to review your notes frequently
-if you take a math/science class, i think those extra work books are unnecessary. you should try all the problems in your textbook first, but by that time, you probably ran out of time for the extra work books. but if you find they help, then you should continue doing them
-don’t overwhelm yourself. it will just kill your motivation and make you second guess everything.</p>
<p>I think a huge thing is definitely getting to know your professors. As goofy as it sounds, they are going to be much more likely to bump a grade that’s “on the fence” up to the higher grade, IE (on the 4.3 system) a B+ up to an A-, etc. They will also be much more likely to cut you some slack on one bad grade if, after getting it, you are always in office hours asking good questions, going over things, etc. </p>
<p>Besides that, I think its generally the people that work the hardest and are the most motivated that get the highest grades. Sure, there are always going to be some peopel that roll through the toughest of schools with a 3.8+ because they are simply ****ing brilliant, but for the most part, the playing field is pretty level. I don’t think anyone should just spend all of their free time studying, but the best time managers will be the ones that get the best grades. </p>
<p>I’m still young though so what do I know. Just rambling out some thoughts, procrastinating as usual (guess I should work on the whole thing I just talked about, haha).</p>
<p>well to go what with u just said^^^
im a junior in hs
but
i have found that what you are saying is true
i think the playing field is pretty level, it jsut depends on the effort you put in.
Like i went from a typical 3.2 student to a 4.3 student because i started trying my best</p>