po rt prep.co m http://portprep.com/wp/2013/10/why-you-havent-gotten-good-grades-in-high-schoo l/

Bad g rad e s (Pho to cre d it: q uinn.anya)

Karen Kesteloot October 2, 2013

The Biggest Reason Why You Haven’t Gotten Good Grades inHigh School

It ’s high time to be a senior. Unlike in previous years, a lot more is at stake because it ’s just not aboutmoving up the high school ladder. Finishing your senior year means that you’re graduating f rom highschool and moving onto the next chapter in your young adult lif e – college.

If you are interested inbecoming an art or designmajor in college, you needto showcase yourcreativity through your artportf olio. The coachingservices and f ree portf olioassessment at PortPrepgive you the opportunity tobuild your art portf olio asearly as today so you willhave the upper hand overother students applyingf or the same course.

When it comes to yourgrades, however, youpretty much have to rely onyour work ethic andperseverance to ace yourf inal year. Granted that thisis your last chance toredeem yourself as a highschool student, a lot ofseniors will be driven toboost their grades, thesimple reason being thatcolleges are in favor of students who have amassed high grades throughout their time in high school.

While some students just have the knack f or acing exams and getting high grades, others are unlucky to havebeen studying hard as humanly possible, and yet are rewarded with mediocre grades throughout their highschool lif e.

Why studying has become difficult for you?

Eng lish: A Stud e nt o f the Unive rs ity o f British Co lumb iastud ying fo r final e xams. (Pho to cre d it: Wikip e d ia)

Tab le take n fro m the jo urnal. Click he re to le arn mo re o n ho w the se te chniq ue s can b e e ffe ctive use d in yo urstud ying .

Imagine yourself studying f or an upcoming exam thisweek. You’ve done everything you can possible tomemorize inf ormation that you f eel will be asked duringthe test. You have re-read your notes to see if you’vemissed out on anything. You have even joined groupstudies with your f ellow classmates in the hopes ofgaining a better understanding of the exam coverage.

Despite your ef f orts, you still got an average score onthe exam, well below the time and hard work you’ve putinto studying the material.

According to the Association for PsychologicalScience , it is not about how hard and how much time youspend on studying. It is about studying smarter.

In other words, your study technique is wrong!

Students are having dif f iculty discerning which among the study techniques are ef f ective because of the manychoices out there. Also, the lack of a def init ive study that classif ies how and when each of the dif f erent studytechniques comes into play.

In their journal Improving Students’ Learning With Ef f ective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions FromCognitive and Educational Psychology, John Dunlosky and company suggested ten study techniques thatstudents can use to boost their grades.

A lot ofvariablesareconsideredtodeterminewhich ofthetechniqueslisted in thetable aboveshould beused. Thematerial instudy,learningconditions,studentcharacteristics, and criterion tasks determine which among the techniques are to be used to achieve highgrades. This goes by saying that not one technique will work on all subjects – studying mathematics mayrequire a particular technique as opposed to studying literature.

It is imperative that you read the journal by clicking here to gain a deeper understanding behind the process andpsychology involved in these techniques.

What you should do now

To get higher grades in your f inal year to boost your chances of getting into an art or design program incollege, test out the dif f erent study techniques listed in the journal and see which among them works f or you.Again, there is no one technique that works on all students because not all are wired the same way. Somerespond well to summarizing the study material while others are better of f doing keyword mnemonics.

Also, you can try out study techniques you haven’t done below and see if it helps you study better and raise yourgrades. Think of this as preparing yourself f or college by ref ining your studying habits f or the more demandingcoursework of f ered by the art and design programs.

For seniors, it is your f inal year. Make this count.

How about you, dear reader – are they any study techniques you’d like to share that has helped you in raisingyour grades in high school? Post your suggestions on the comments section below!