College Students: Get Better Grades Without More Work

There really are a few things you can do to make your college experience better and to enhance your likelihood of success. Having been a college student who is now in the position to see the professor-student relationship from the other side, I have a few tips for people beginning their academic careers. Most of these tips seem a lot like common sense, but condidering how often students fail to grasp them, I have decided to write them down. Here goes:

1. Talk to your professors. This is really one of the most powerful things you can do to improve your grades and it takes very little effort. Believe it or not your professors really are just people and people respond to communication. Most professors have office hours precisely so that students can talk to them, and many don't mind chatting for a few minutes before or after class (when it doesn't cut into another class). Appropriate topics include, but are not limited to: ideas related to course material, questions about assignments and readings, comments about lecture material. Professors are usually teaching a subject because they're interested in it (one would hope) and they enjoy sharing their expertise. Talking to your professors demonstrates your interest and it lets them get to know how intelligent and nice you really are. Caveat: Don't ask a bunch of personal questions right off. Don't ask where they live, or for their home phone number. That can send warning signals.

2. Speak up in class. Within reason. Most teachers appreciate students who enrich the classroom experience by sharing thoughts about the material... at appropriate times and in judicious amounts. You don't want to butt in or offer so many comments that you begin to hijack the class, but don't let shyness keep you from participating. People who raise good points in a discussion raise the level of the discourse.

3. Be on time. This should go without saying, but when you show up late for class you show a lack of respect not only for your professor, but also for your fellow students. Do you really expect your professor to repeat what s/he's been saying for the last five or ten minutes and make everyone else listen to it again just because you couldn't plan ahead to show up on time? It's a bad way to demonstrate you care about the class.

4. Get work done on time. This is sort of a permutation of 'Be on time.' Procrastinating on a project or assignment doesn't make the work easier. It just makes it later. I had one friend in college who had to beg for an incomplete at the end of every term in at least one class. I assure you professors are all sick of this. They've been sick of it for a while. And you end up prolonging your stress over the project. Who needs that?

5. Don't make excuses. Believe me, if someone has been in the teaching racket for long they've heard 'em all. If you screw up just take your lumps and learn from the experience. I don't mean don't talk to your professor about what happened. I just mean don't try to weasel your way around it. Admit a mistake and see what you can do to fix it.

6. Come to class prepared. Why wait until test time then try to cram in all the material? You're going to have to know the stuff for the final, so why kill your self at the end when, with minimal effort, you can just keep up? If you use your time wisely and do the readings and such on schedule, you will be able to more effectively practice numbers one and two. Talking to your professors and making appropriate contributions to classroom discussion work better when you can demonstrate your understanding of the subject you have supposedly been studying. Remember, these are the same people you may be asking for letters of recommendation for scholarships, internships, graduate school, and ultimately jobs. You want them to have some good things to say about you.