Succeeding in school can be challenging, especially when you’re balancing clubs, hobbies, a job, or a relationship. You want to have as much fun as possible while making time for yourself and without dreading each class or test. So how do you get good grades with a foolproof plan—buckle up? In this article, I will give no special promotions, no special “buy this to succeed in school” or “buy this to relax yourself from exam season.” None of that. I will give you foolproof methods to study and not to let your anxiety creep up on you leading to procrastination.
#1: Read the syllabus, and prepare!
Your syllabus is actually your cheat guide to the course. How you will be majority graded…whether its discussion posts, participation in class, or quizzes each week, you will know what’s most important and what things you cannot miss—even on a sick day. If the teacher is going through slides everyday and only discussing it, and you have an exam that is worth half your grade, those notes have to be almost perfect!
#2: No one is going to read your notes, make them understandable to you.
This is crucial to having a successful study session. I cannot explain how many times I’ve written notes scrambling through my class, confused as to what’s going on and getting home and failing to understand what I wrote, let alone on an open-book exam. The trick is getting to your professor’s office hours to sort out what you wrote (and maybe get some extra problems/questions to solve) and literally make a table of contents at the beginning of your notebook. If you want a slightly easier way of doing this, (especially for an open-book exam) paste a post-it note to every page of your notebook, and summarize what the topic is on each page, that way when looking through it quickly, you can just skim it. Foolproof. Every time.
#3: Do you have to do all your work in the library? Or is that just a little myth?
It is a myth…somewhat. While doing your schoolwork/research in a library might provide you with a bit more quietness or even information in the physical books, the internet exists. Completely being honest here, my greatest writing pieces have sometimes been written in my bed at 5 am on my phone with noise-canceling headphones logged into Google Docs. It isn’t impossible to get your work done if you’re not wedged inside your dorm desk table or in a silent library. Another tip you can use, I like to call this one the “scary hour”. What you do is, set a timer for an hour of uninterrupted time dedicated to all the things you’ve been putting off. When the 60 minutes are up, you will have definitely made progress within your work and your deadlines will at least whisper a “thank you”
#4: Having fun “hits different” when all your work is done.
Something that I used to do was go clubbing a lot or be with my friends hanging out or going out to eat, when in turn I would be missing deadlines on assignments, or just straight up not studying for a test coming up. Now, I take it upon myself to not shop for anything special or go clubbing or to dinner because school is inherently more important. FOMO (fear of missing out) is definitely real, but the fear of failing is way stronger. Plus, hanging out with loved ones or having a day to yourself to shop is so much better when all your work is finished because you have no time limit or a guilty conscience knocking at the back of your mind.
In conclusion, doing well in school is all about balance and sometimes working smarter, not harder. By staying on track with your syllabus, & making notes that actually make sense to you, you can avoid unnecessary stress. The key is to prioritize school, get it done, and enjoy the rest guilt-free.