Back to School: How to Graduate from College with a High GPA
September 14 by Srinivas Rao 134 Shares | Productivity
I graduated from UC-Berkeley in December, 2000 with a far less than stellar GPA. But, I took everything I learned from my mistakes and guided my younger sister to graduating with honors in a much more challenging major. Looking back I really wasn’t prepared for the challenges of college life and if I had been aware of the advice below, which I gave my sister before she entered college, I would have easily graduated with a high GPA.
1. One Hour a Day
One of the most challenging things about college is time management. It’s not that you don’t have enough. In fact you usually have too much time, and as a result time gets wasted. In his home study course on success Jack Canfield identified a simple distinction between 3.0 students and 4.0 students. 4.0 students took good notes in class, and spent one hour reviewing their notes everyday before they went to sleep. By doing this they utilized the power of the subconscious to absorb information and by the time exams came around they knew all the material on a subconscious level. 3.0 students by contrast tried to cram the night before exams. Considering the amount of free time you usually have in college, one hour a day is not much considering the long term benefits.
2. Frontload Easy Courses
If there’s one tip I gave my sister that helped her most to graduate with a high GPA, it was to frontload easy courses. What does that mean exactly? In your first semester of college, load up on as many “easy A’s” as possible. There are several reasons for this. The first semester of college is full of distractions as it is, and there are probably even more today than when I was in college thanks to Facebook, Twitter, and more. The last thing you want to do is add difficult coursework to this. The other reason frontloading is powerful is that it allows you to start off your college career with an extremely high GPA. Good grades have less and less of an impact on your GPA later in your college career and raising your GPA becomes much more difficult. Frontloading also leaves room for the occasional screw up when coursework becomes more challenging. By frontloading my younger sister finished her first semester with a 3.9, got a C later in college, and still graduated with honors.
3. Join (or Form) Study Groups
If you go to a large public school where classes often have 700 plus people, study groups are an extremely effective way to ensure good grades. Study groups are often led by older students who have taken the course and received A’s in that particular course. They also often provide you with resources such as practice tests, practice problems, and many others that might not be provided by professors. I had a friend who never attended lecture for organic chemistry (I don’t recommend this), but always attended study group, and ended up with an A- in the class.
4. Use Personal Development/Affirmations
I can honestly say I was not at all involved in personal development when I was in college. Looking back I realize that I suffered from low self esteem and a very unhealthy self image. Without a doubt this had a negative impact on my GPA. But, if I had combined personal development techniques with the 3 steps above, my college career would have turned out very differently.
If you have already started school, I recommend developing a strategy that incorporates these 4 ideas into your current schedule. If you haven’t started school yet, do some research on easier courses and what study groups might be available. If you follow through and commit to the 4 recommendations above, you’ll set yourself up for a very successful first semester, and hopefully a very successful college career. Good luck to all of you starting the college journey.
Re #2: “Good grades have less and less of an impact on your GPA later in your college career and raising your GPA becomes much more difficult.”
….. The A you get last semester of college will not “move” your GPA nearly as much as the A you get your first semester, but mathematically, it has the exact same effect. And some colleges have policies that get around this– MIT does not record (and thus can not release) grades from your first year– you’ve either passed or not– so any class you might fail you ought to take your first year. Other colleges don’t take the first year or first semester into account when calculating honors. It’s important to actually read the regulations of your particular college to determine when you should take the hard classes and when you should take the easy classes, and get advice from upper classpeople who are already doing well.
This sounds stupid, but why get good grades? Higher grades correlate to prestigious jobs and higher salaries, but we are now learning that that may not bring lasting happiness. I’m a college student who was always on the honors track, but I am beginning to wonder why.
With all due respect ….
I’ve been “out there” in both the academic and business world for decades now. Graduating matters. GPA does not matter. If you were to work for me, I’d much rather you spend some time learning to interact with others and developing some outside interests and graduate with a 2.7 GPA. I care that you can do a good job, get along with your coworkers, and have a life. Your magna cum laude may be something you like to stick in your kids’ faces, but it doesn’t do anything in mine.
I disagree with 1 and 3. I never did either of these (and graduated with a 3.89). In fact, I think I would have wasted a lot more time if I did do those things. However, I heartily agree with 2 – I did do this, and even though I took a bunch of easy courses my first semester, it was the worst semester of my college career.
I have to comment on part of the advice #2 ( which may or may not be nitpicking or misreading ). Frontloading easy courses for the sake of raising one’s GPA is useless from pure mathematical standpoint. These course will contribute ( by rasing the GPA ) as much on your 5th semester as they on your 1st. The average will be the same. So the point of “Good grades have less and less of an impact on your GPA later in your college career and raising your GPA becomes much more difficult” is moot. The frontloaded courses will have less and less of an impact as well.
Now there might be a reason to do so – simply to start your college career on a good note…
Frontloading GPA is totally false. GPA is calculated by dividing the total credit points by the total number of credits and has NOTHING to do with when the credits were earned. A lower grade affects GPA the same way in the first semester as it does in the last.
This is very useful for me!
Thank you very much!
Just what I need before I start college.
What an inspiration!
I’m now motivated.
Grades should be your last priority in college. You must take the challenging courses so that you can learn to grow as a person and gain the essential life skills you need to get ahead in real life. By all means do your best to get a good grade, but it shouldn’t be your main focus.
As an executive recruiter for two years I’ve learned that most employers couldn’t care less about educational background. They’re more interested in two things: experience and character. You won’t get much of either of these if you spend all your time hunting down the “easy A’s.”
It looks like an interesting set of responses that seem be a mix of reactions. I’m definitely saying grades should be your only priority in college. In fact, I myself am completely against people only focusing on grades. I think having a balanced college career is important.
I also wanted to clarify that I didn’t imply that your whole focus should be easy A’s. In fact, I mentioned a good amount of what I mentioned is geared towards the first semester of school.
Go to class. Seriously.
I wonder if someone could share their advices for correspondence school (colledge) routine. I have my Barchelor’s degree and 4 years in university behind, but never was taking correspondence courses before as I do now (doing Master’s studies in Business Infotechnology).
Very good post for sure here, with lots of useful and practical advice. But here’s something to think about, consistent with what many readers have said. My spin on the value of great marks. I call it “waiting to be found”. FYI…I’m a chief executive and have been for decades & I’ve seen this time and time again. Here we go. A whole lot of young (and old) people believe getting good grades brings success in life. They think getting a 100% score on projects they’re handed in the working world will get them promoted. Like it did in school. Most figure the boss will recognize their potential and “move ‘em on up”. In essence, they sit there “waiting to be found”. Doing a great job all the time of course. And? I know people still “waiting to be found” thirty years later. What they didn’t realize was this. You have to know who you are and what to do with your life FIRST. Then you can reach out, connect with people, try, fail, make lots of mistakes….all in the direction of the kind of success relevant to you. All aimed at some dream on the horizon of your own life. Which brings me to the greatest piece of advice in this post. Namely…. the “personal growth” part. Learning how to “Know Thyself” should be a mandatory course of instruction in every college course in the land. John Duffield
[...] Blog Information Profile for garrettwinn Interesting Link September 15th, 2009 by Garrett in Resources || Saw this today and thought you all might find it interesting – and useful. How to Graduate from College with a High GPA [...]
I am in my last year of University, and I had one of the best years of my academic career. I also had the opportunity to work on a project with our schools Co-operative Education Office. And after interviewing over 20 employers, the consensus was that grades DO matter. However, thats not it. Employers are looking for a well rounded individual. One who can demonstrate strong learning abilities, but that can also show the application of them. Co-ops, internships, work experience, or whatever you wish to call it, is the best way to differentiate yourself from your peers. In speaking with many executives, one from Petro Canada stated “a student who achieve an academic degree, but nothing else, is not who we want to hire. The ability to demonstrate fundamental business skills speak louder in you diverse experience then in your choice of classes.” Basically, without relevant experience, simply just obtaining a degree may not be enough. The point of any post secondary education program is to make yourself more marketable, so take it at face value, or as a chance to start developing your resume through real world experience while doing the best you can in class.
Frankly, I think colleges are front-loaded ALREADY, with all those “General Education” courses and pre-requisites before you can get to the good stuff. If a course is easy, it’ll be just as easy in the first year vs. the fourth year. And the upper-division courses are MUCH harder. If you end up with 12-15 units of upper-division courses in the last year you’ll be overwhelmed.
A more sensical approach would be to leave SOME of the easier courses for the last two years, so you end up with a 4:1 or 5:1 ratio of hard vs. easy courses. You need at least one easy course per semester so you can sort of relax in the class.
However, this will depend on your major’s curriculum, your course catalog, and your prerequisites, as well as available courses per semester.
Do agree about the time management. It’s estimated that for upper-division courses, you will need 2-3 hours of time OUTSIDE the class for every hour you spent inside the class, in addition to any reviews and such. If you do 15 units, that’s 15 hours, plus 45 hours outside, for a total of 60 hours per week! Time management is crucial.
However, this will depend on your major’s curriculum, your course catalog, and your prerequisites, as well as available courses per semester.
They forgot three that have helped me get a 4.0.
1. If possible, Take Less Classes. Better to be in school an extra semester or 2 then to get crappy grades. You also learn more if you’re not overworked.
2. Sit near the front. It will be harder to slack off if you’re in the teacher’s face and easier to avoid the distraction of all the talkers in the back row.
3. Go to ratemyprofessors.com. There will be classes you’ll need with only one person who teaches them, but for most of the basics you can pick and choose a teacher who listens and helps as opposed to a hard ass that rambles and can’t teach. When at all possible, ratemyprofessors.com will help you weed out the wheat from the chaff.
And no, that wasn’t something I was paid to say.
A more sensical approach would be to leave SOME of the easier courses for the last two years, so you end up with a 4:1 or 5:1 ratio of hard vs. easy courses. You need at least one easy course per semester so you can sort of relax in the class.
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As a recent college graduate out in the real world, I admit to not quite “figuring out” college until my last semester. Here are some suggestions:
- Go to class! You are (or someone else is) paying for it, why not go? Yes, sometimes it can be boring, but you’d be surprised how much easier things are when you understand them.
- Make a friend in class. Exchange numbers and email addresses. This is great practice for “networking” later in life, but you never know when you might have a last minute question the night before an assignment or exam.
- “Recommended” reading should really be called “I expect you to read this but didn’t want to seem like a dick by having so much required reading on the syllabus.”
- Visit your professor during his/her office hours. This allows him/her to put a name and face together, and can easily be the difference between a 89% B on your transcript and a 90% A.
That’s all I can think of now. Great post by the author, either way.
I’m in school right now targeting a Spanish Major. The buzz right now is RateYourProfessor.com. Every day I hear someone telling someone else to use it. It’s like, the ultimate word of mouth type of thing. I have less control over course selection here in the beginning, but I think I’ll start using it when picking classes.
[...] School decision makers ? if you are unwilling to follow my advice to teach spelling, and then just stop teaching reading, also. You are wasting everyone’s time and money while you turn America into a mass of illiterates. Instead, direct your teachers to spend every day reading aloud to the classes. Students can use their auditory skills and so learn a wealth of vocabulary, concepts, and facts in order to develop a wide general knowledge base. For fulltime oral reading of increasingly more challenging texts, the public would finally gain from the money spent on teachers’ salaries. Students would exit school as educated individuals; as complete, whole human beings. America owes our children at least that much.” Strategy GPAs on how to graduate from college with a high GPA [...]
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omg im a senior in HS. I know i like shouldn’t be on here, but i totally have to comment. (sry if i use improper texts)>> >> My goal since my Junior Year in HS has been to get a 4.0GPA. I just realized about a week ago that i wasn’t actually working towards my goal, rather i was dreaming towards it. I have had a pretty bad HS career and have no one else to blame but myself. However, this is my last semester to leave my mark on my grades and i practically dared myself to shoot for a 4.0 at ALL cost. You see, I’m not really social so i dont understand what held me back all this while. And then i realized i was suffering from low-self esteem (despite the fact that i get compliments every single day, and girls always copy my style). None of that stuff really mattered to me. i was just really unhappy with myself. (and YES THIS IS A RANT). i began researching how to get a 4.0GPA because i seriously am that surreal that i have to know the ins an outs of everything i dabble in. Thank you for this post. i know it’s a couple years old, but i dont care. xoxoxo – PamelaBombshell
thanks!