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How to Maintain Good Grades to Get Scholarship in College

When we enter the university, a new stage of responsibility begins, the tasks, and exams that the university career requires, the best possible academic performance must be into action.

This means that we must maintain good grades each time a new school semester begins, especially if we obtain an academic scholarship during the admission process since the qualifications will depend on whether the scholarship is kept and the financial financing it offers us.

Why are grades important during college?

Grades represent for university one of the most important systems when measuring our academic performance during schooling; however, getting good grades will not only allow us to pass each semester and graduate from college, getting the best grades will open the doors to a promising future.

When we obtain good grades, the university offers us the possibility of having an academic or sports scholarship that can finance a large part of our undergraduate studies and a postgraduate or master’s degree.

How do you get a scholarship for good grades?

If our overall average during high school were outstanding, with a score of 9.0 or more, we would be able to obtain a percentage of up to 70% of an academic scholarship that will allow us to finance a large part of our university career. In case of having obtained a general average lower than 9.0 but higher than 8.0, the university can support us with up to 50% of academic scholarship to enter the race.

There is also a sports scholarship, which gives us a 10% to 90% scholarship if we obtained a minimum GPA of 8.0 in high school; this percentage will depend on the sports performance that we have. To maintain our academic or sports scholarship throughout the university career, we must obtain good grades each semester.

Tips on Maintaining Good Grades

To help you get psyched about going back to school and face the new academic year with more power and enthusiasm, we propose a list of 12 tips that will help you become a better student and obtain better grades. Pay attention!

1. Know your skills

Remember that the best students are not necessarily the smartest, but those who know how to take advantage of their skills. Students with higher IQs don’t always get the highest grades since, unlike their peers with lower IQs, learning comes too easily, and they don’t feel the need to “tighten their belts.”

2. Be productive in your study hours

If you’re looking to increase your grades, you should also keep in mind that it’s not about the amount of time you sit with open books, but what you do while you’re there. While many students and teachers believe that good grades are obtained by increasing the hours spent studying, the truth is that too long days can end up affecting performance.

3. Set priorities

You should not over-extend your study days; you must set priorities and pay the necessary attention. Once the books are open, WhatsApp messages should go unanswered, and Instagram notifications should be ignored.

4. Discover the best techniques and methods

Here we have proposed an infinity of study techniques and advice for students; however, only you know the right method for you and the recommendations you should try. For example, while many students prefer to study at night when their house is completely silent, others prefer to study in the morning, to arrive in the classroom with the “fresh” information, or in the afternoon, once they leave their classes.

5. Organization matters

You should already know; organization is the key to productivity. Take some time to order your backpack, keep your materials in the same place, and try to separate your notes and your tasks according to the subject to which it corresponds. In this way, you will not waste time looking for what you need throughout the house.

6. Learn to read

Has it ever happened to you that after reading a significant number of pages, you could not retain any data? The truth is that your reading level has a great weight when it comes to studying, so it is important to assess whether you are doing it properly or not. Read our post on tips to ensure effective study habits and learn how to become an active reader.

7. Take good notes

In the same way as reading, taking notes is not as easy as it seems, and each student has his system to do it. Still don’t have yours. Remember that it is not about writing everything we read or hear, but rather determining each lesson’s main points and using words from our vocabulary to explain it. Also, keep in mind that while reading textbooks is important, teachers often ask students about those aspects that they emphasized, and that information is in your notes.

8. Put together a calendar

And finally, do not wait too long to take note of the dates of your exams: take your schedule with you and do it at the same time that your teacher announces it. In this way, you will know for sure the amount of time you have to prepare and study, and you will not feel overwhelmed when the date approaches.

9. Ask questions

It is important to ask if something is not clear. Do not read to cram, but to understand the subject well. Only then will you be able to reason. Understandably, you may feel insecure when asking or embarrassed, but it is worse to leave the classroom with doubts. The best time to clarify doubts is in class and with your teacher. Perhaps, more classmates are in the same situation, and your question can be beneficial for the rest of the class.

10. Study in a group

Probably not the same in all courses, but for math, for example, it is better to study in a group than alone. This was demonstrated by an experiment at the University of California at Berkeley. The observer in charge, Uri Treisman, detected how a group of Asian-Americans in a calculus class scored better than several. According to Triesman, this group solved and discussed group tasks and explained the solutions to the different problems among themselves. On the other hand, those who studied on their own spent the greatest amount of time reading and trying to solve the same exercises over and over again, but in many cases without success.

11. Self-test

Ask yourself questions as a test. If you have doubts or cannot answer the question, you should go back to reading.

12. Do more than the minimum

It is not a matter of fulfilling what the teacher asks for, but of understanding what is dictated. If you know that you should practice or read more to master a topic, do it. Most students who score well have a great sense of responsibility.