How to be Zen when you get bad grades in college

2024 Author: Samantha Chapman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 09:13

While it was easy to ignore the occasional poor or poor grades in elementary or high school, getting several bad grades in college can affect your career. Whether you received less than perfect grades or failed the last exam, don't panic. You need to find some quiet in your mind in order to accept what happened, find peace, and prepare to move on.

Steps

Step 1. Determine what went wrong

Before you panic completely and figure out how to behave, think about what you think (and you know) has led to you receiving bad grades. Did you study and do your best or did you get lazy and didn't do what you should have done? The degrees of application vary in the study and being honest with yourself is absolutely vital to make this assessment:

• You have studied, but not enough. In this case, you have actually prepared yourself, but perhaps not for this type of test or course approach. In short, you studied in a way that did not facilitate your success. Review every aspect of what you have done to prepare and consider what you could do differently in the future. If you have not fully understood the subject or the expectations, it is time to talk to the professors and tutors. This way you will know what you need to do to be more prepared for the next exam.
• You only studied topics that were interesting to you. As soon as you were faced with a difficult or uninspiring topic, you skipped it to deal with the more interesting ones. You ignored the more complicated or boring parts. If so, you should know that applying yourself in the studio doesn't mean focusing only on what you like. After all, the working reality is not that different. Some assignments will be exciting, others flat. The sooner you develop the right pace to tackle both, the better.
• You gave your all. While there is nothing more frustrating than studying to exhaustion and working hours and hours and then getting a bad grade, you need to remember that you have done everything you can to succeed. If this course is important for your university journey, you should reflect on the choice you have made and determine if this field really represents your vocation. Maybe the vows are telling you something your heart isn't ready to hear yet. Everyone has a talent, maybe you need to understand not only what you are good at, but also what makes you happy.
• You are neglected and you haven't even tried. You don't have to blame anyone but yourself for getting a bad grade without even studying. You should have realized that the days of just relying on your talent are now over. Learn from your mistakes and study next time. You have to practice and apply yourself for each topic. Consider the last test or the last semester a sort of "break" from university and decide to give your best in the future. It can come as a shock to find that the habits you used to have in high school aren't enough for college anymore. It is no longer enough to rely only on talent or memory. The sooner you understand this reality, the better.
• You had personal problems. You got mononucleosis and could not attend classes or study. Your trusted method of contraception did not work as it should and pregnancy symptoms, coupled with some concern, interfered. Your new love story is so overwhelming that you have not studied anything but His Eyes. Your old love affair is so tiring and time consuming that you can't study anything but the way to excuse your absence because you had to study. You're married. You have been subjected to sexual assault. One of your parents died. Your roommate's father is dead and he never goes out or stops talking about it. When larger life events consume you, sometimes you can't keep up with the studio. Unless you're close to the end of the semester, leaving one or more courses to fit college commitments into your life might be a good decision. Furthermore, in some universities it is possible to negotiate with professors; explain to them what happened, they might give you a second chance.

Step 2. Evaluate the total impact

In order to find peace and not worry about bad grades, try to determine the severity of their impact on your overall career at this point. In some cases, a bad grade won't do much to destroy the media. However, if there are several courses you have done poorly on throughout the semester, it could have skewed it for the worse. Instead of getting upset, take a deep breath and examine the big picture, making concrete plans to remedy what you can fix:

• Make an appointment with the tutor of your degree program. If you are concerned about the impact of your grades on your future career, consult your tutor to devise a plan. Maybe you have taken courses that are too difficult or maybe you should think about a new faculty. With the assistance of your tutor (and perhaps your parents, guardians or other mentors), create a program that will get you back on track and make you feel satisfied with your university performance again.

  

• Put the situation into perspective. Understand that unfortunately life isn't always plain sailing. While getting a bad grade might bother you, you need to put the situation into perspective in order to find peace. Are you in good health and can you finance your education (or do you have a scholarship)? Do you have a family that loves you and friends who would do anything for you? Count the good things you have and remember that grades are important, but they aren't the only thing that matters in your life.

  

• Do you have a health or financial problem? If you are unwell or your financial situation borders on poverty, it can have a serious impact on your chances of being successful. If this is the case, talk to your doctor, scholarship issuing body, or tutor to find out if you can do something about these issues. You may need to take a break in order to improve your personal situation and then go back to studying.

  

Step 3. Talk to your professors

Even in college, showing that you care about your education is great for impressing. Teachers can understand the problems you have been having or at least notice your sincerity in wanting to change. In some cases, you may have overlooked key points in class that would have been vital to getting a good grade, or perhaps you have unknowingly made the same mistake throughout the semester. Talking to a professor could help you develop a deeper understanding of the course and possibly improve performance in the future.

Step 4. Develop a plan to improve your performance and grade

You should speak to professors and tutors and evaluate your preparation to formulate a specific, step-by-step plan that will help you perform at your best in the future. Also, don't stand there wondering if the study guides are useful, yes they are. Look for books that are highly recommended by your university or people you trust. They can help you understand the bigger picture of college, study, grades, and success, and will provide you with helpful tips to effectively plan your preparation. Feeling that you are in control of the situation will help you find peace and give you goals to work towards for future review.

• Review study time in general. Maybe you study hard for exams and still get bad grades. Instead of only preparing during the night before the test, you should study the materials every day, a little at a time. Review and underline class notes from time to time and reread them at the end of the week. The more you see the information, the easier it will be to understand and digest it.

  

• Evaluate your ability to take notes. In some cases, the teacher will not only allow this, but will encourage students to take notes on their laptops or record lectures. If handwritten notes are causing you trouble because you can't write quickly while following the thread, find out about the other methods. Are the old notes illegible? Contact a kind companion to fill in what you are missing. Make sure you explain to him that you dated but are still learning to take good notes. That way, he won't feel used.

  

• Consider your entire schedule. If the semester is full of difficult courses, this may be the answer to why you got bad grades. Even the most efficient students should take a break. Try mixing complicated courses with easier ones for a balanced agenda.

  

• Determine if you spend too much time socializing or working. Your college years are about spreading your wings and discovering who you are. However, if you spend too much time finding yourself and don't even open a book, it could ruin your average. Make a commitment to get to work and work or socialize less. Going out should be a way to reward yourself after reaching certain goals, not a constant throughout the semester.

  

Step 5. From this point on, don't neglect your studies

The key to not stressing yourself is to keep going at a steady pace so that you can take the time to learn what needs to be learned. In some cases, the pace could be prohibitive while not being behind. However, since you made the choice to study, accept it and follow the program as it comes. However, if the situation does not improve after making changes, then the chances are that you need to seriously consider the path you have mapped out for yourself. Dedicating energy and energy unnecessarily to a course that is not for you means that it will never work, so you should change your path.

Advice

• If possible, respectfully ask the professor if you can review the test or essay to make sure the grade received is justified. In some (but rare) cases, the teacher may have made an error in judgment.
• Try to understand that giving up a course is the last resort and the consequences are varied. Striving harder and insisting on success is always the best option. Some employers will ask you questions about why you wasted your time. Having too many relapses will not keep you going and you will graduate late. Leaving a course may also prevent you from getting the credits you need to stay on course and to receive the scholarship. Leaving a course reinforces a mentality based on escape rather than persistence and constancy.
• Leave a course and change it as soon as possible if you have a personal conflict with a professor and cannot resolve it quickly. It's not fair that this teacher has a bad influence on your grades because he doesn't like you. Just as it is not fair to stress yourself out because of her harassment, it could interfere with the rest of the lessons. Is it a compulsory course and he is the only teacher who teaches it? See a counselor to help you manage tension. Don't let it turn into a nerve-wracking war.
• If it was a personal problem, such as a serious illness, death in the family, an assault or other emergency, that interfered with your study, try to compromise with the professor so as not to lose what you have achieved.
• When taking notes by hand, use block letters instead of italics. Everything will be more readable and you will soon get used to it. Half of the benefits of taking notes by hand are that it helps your brain store information in long-term memory.
• Organize the way you take notes. Use the entire left side of the page for drawings, sketches or charts, assigning codes to explain the correlation to the notes. Use the 2/3 on the left of the right side of the page to write down most of what the professor is saying verbally. Shorten as much as possible in this case. Use the remaining 1/3 of the right part to write down everything the teacher repeats or clarifies (even if you already wrote this information in the 2/3 on the left). Learn to write without having to look at the whiteboard or slides. As soon as you have time to leave class, review your notes and rewrite them completely, clarifying abbreviations, inserting legends for drawings, incorporating clarifications, etc. When studying for an exam, make a topic summary of everything you have in your notes and handouts. Better not write them on the computer, but do it if you really have to. This system has been used by naval training schools and is particularly effective after getting carried away.
• Review your note-taking method and study habits by comparing your approach to that of someone who gets high grades.
• If things go wrong since the beginning of the semester, you could drop one or more courses to make your way easier and better manage the other lessons. In some cases you can leave a course and change it during the first few weeks. You can replace just one course or all of the more difficult ones if you just can't keep up with it.

Warnings

• Never act destructively (towards yourself or others) in response to bad grades. Remember, this too will pass.
• If you are suffering from mental or physical problems that are having a bad impact on your ability to concentrate, don't suffer in silence. Most universities offer specialized services to help students succeed and understand how to fix schedules by talking to professors, so you can make sure you can handle the situation. Trying to be strong despite these challenges is admirable, but it can make you fail in the long run, so ask for help if you can.
• Don't buy a new video game during the semester. The learning curve needed to play it needs to be stimulated on vacation or when you don't have to go to class or study. If they give you one for Christmas, learn to play with it during the rest of the holidays or save it for the Easter holidays so you can immerse yourself in it.
• Having no more bad habits, such as going to all parties or not studying, requires trial and error. Instead of having an all-or-nothing approach and ditching everything as soon as things don't go your way, set gradual steps and goals. Don't sacrifice anything; for example, you don't have to avoid sleeping because you didn't want to stop playing your favorite video game but you also had to study. Temporarily quit the game, until the next break. The rule of not playing a certain video game during the semester does not at all prevent you from doing it when you have time.
• If you don't eat or sleep well, sooner or you will have to pay the consequences, and it won't be easy. Change is gradual. Get help from a tutor or college counselor if financial problems are negatively affecting your food budget. If the problem is that you go out every night, shop and study before going to a party with your friends.