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  • How Can I Improve My Grades?
  • Awake!—1984
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Awake!—1984
g84 12/8 pp. 22-24

Young People Ask . . .

How Can I Improve My Grades?

“A FINE young lady, intelligent and a hard worker too. You couldn’t ask for more!!!” So read one girl’s report card under the section for “Teacher’s Comments.” And a glance at her honor grades explained her teacher’s enthusiasm. Here was one teenager who didn’t dread bringing home her report card!

But while grades aren’t everything they are useful indicators of your progress in school.a And no doubt you feel like Ivan, a teenager, who said: “I want to learn something. I don’t just want to go to school to sit in class passing time.” (Italics ours.) How, then, can you earn respectable grades while in school?

“I Didn’t Want to Get Too Smart”

What is your attitude toward school achievement? Some actually fear getting good grades. Roslyn (13 years old) said: “I answered questions just enough to get by with my grades​—I didn’t want to get too smart.” Why? “I was really worried about what the boys would think. If I was answering too many questions, they would say ‘ . . . She knows everything!’” Another youth similarly recalls: “I didn’t want any of them to think I was trying to be better than they were.”

A reputation for being smart may indeed not put you high in the popularity polls. In fact, surveys show that among high school students, the athlete is far more esteemed than the brilliant student. The brainy one may even find himself under attack from others. Mike, who attends a school where students are grouped according to ability, says: “The kids in the ‘lower’ levels don’t get any homework​—the teachers know they won’t do it anyway. So they laugh at us kids in the ‘higher’ levels because we get all the homework!”

Should you therefore play dumb? That may increase your popularity in some quarters but what about in the long run? How will your parents feel if your schoolwork doesn’t reflect your abilities? And might mediocre grades even close the door to future opportunities, such as employment? Youths who discourage you from​—or even ridicule you for—​doing your best show themselves to be jealous and insecure. Such jealousy is ‘animalistic’ and “vile” according to the Bible. (James 3:14-16) Why sink to such a level by catering to their jealousy? Is it even worth associating with youths who encourage you to do inferior work? The Bible counsels: “He that is walking with wise persons will become wise, but he that is having dealings with the stupid ones will fare badly.” (Proverbs 13:20) So avoid those who would try to hold you back from studying. Learning is far more important than pleasing “stupid ones.”

Set Goals for Yourself

Even youths that want to do well, though, often have negative feelings about themselves. They imagine themselves as helpless as “a wave of the sea driven by the wind and blown about” when it comes to doing well in school. (James 1:6) According to teacher Linda Nielsen, such ones tend to “blame their poor performances [in school] on sources beyond their control: unfair test questions, a prejudiced teacher, bad luck, fate, the weather.” Throwing up their hands in discouragement they say, ‘What’s the use? I’m no genius. I’ll probably fail anyway.’

However, neither “genius” nor “luck” are the secrets to good marks. Teen magazine recently polled some high-achieving high school students. Their secret? “Personal motivation helps you keep going,” said one. “Putting yourself on a schedule and organizing your time,” said another. “You have to set goals for yourself,” said yet another. Yes, how good your grades are depends for the most part, not on factors beyond your control, but on YOU​—how hard you are willing to work.

Why not, therefore, set for yourself grade goals that are commensurate with your ability? (No doubt your parents will have much to say about what grades they feel you are capable of attaining.) As high-school teacher and writer Barbara Mayer writes in The High School Survival Guide: “Students who set realistic academic goals, and then believe they can reach them, will probably surprise even themselves with their success.”

So if your grades are not up to par, don’t shift the blame to your teachers or the school. As one writer put it, students “often fail because they are trying to get something for nothing.” Or as the Bible put it: “The lazy one is showing himself desirous, but his soul has nothing.” (Proverbs 13:4) Yes, sometimes the real culprit behind sagging grades is laziness. The remedy? Old-fashioned study and hard work!

‘But I Do Study’

Thus might some youths object. They sincerely feel they are already working themselves to the bone but getting no results. A few years ago, however, researchers noticed that children of certain ethnic groups consistently did poorly in school. Many brushed off the problems thinking, ‘These kids just don’t care about school.’ But this was not the case at all. So why did they fail? Celestino Fernandez and other researchers at California’s Stanford University (U.S.A.) decided to find out.

They polled some 770 students and asked how much effort they felt they were putting into their schoolwork. To everyone’s surprise, the students with low grades thought they worked as hard as anybody! Yet when their study habits were examined, it was discovered that they actually did far less homework than their high-achieving schoolmates. It appears that their teachers were at least partially responsible for this delusion. Perhaps they felt that these low-achieving children were not capable of much to begin with. Or they may have felt that merely being warm and friendly toward them was enough to motivate them to excel. Whatever the case, it seems that the teachers highly praised the students’ most minimal efforts. Passing grades were routinely given out merely for attending class. The children were made to feel that they already worked as hard as they could. Thus they did little to improve.

If your grades are low, might you similarly be overrating how much studying you actually do? In many places academic standards have been lowered​—if not eliminated altogether. Knowing that they can easily get by, youths put out little and get little in return from school. But don’t you fall into this mire of mediocrity! Ask yourself, ‘Just how many hours a night do I spend preparing for school? Do I view study as serious business or are my efforts halfhearted? Do I give priority to less important activities, such as TV viewing?’

Such self-examination may lead to an overhaul of your study habits. Why, just increasing how much time you spend studying can have dramatic effects on your grades. Consider what a study published in the Journal of Educational Psychology had to say. After analyzing the study habits of thousands of youths of high school age, it concluded that “an increase in time spent on homework has a positive effect on a student’s grades in high school.” In fact, it is even thought that “with 1 to 3 hours of homework a week, the average low ability student can achieve grades commensurate with an average ability student who does not do homework.”

The apostle Paul figuratively had to ‘pummel his body’ to reach his goals. (1 Corinthians 9:27) You may similarly have to institute a get-tough policy with yourself, especially if you’re easily swayed from studying by TV or other distractions. Dr. Ed Olive recommends: “Make a contract with yourself. For example, tell yourself, ‘I will absolutely make myself study at least one hour every day.’” Built into this “contract” can be rewards (‘I’ll have a snack when I’m finished studying’) and even punishments (‘If I fail to study, no TV this weekend!’). You might even try putting a sign on the TV saying “No TV until homework is done!” as a helpful reminder.

Remember, attitude, motivation and self-discipline are good starting points for getting good grades.

[Footnotes]

a See the articles “How Important Are Grades?” and “Why Worry About Grades?” appearing in the March 8 and March 22, 1984, issues of Awake!

[Blurb on page 24]

Students who got low grades thought they worked as hard as anybody! Yet it was discovered that they actually did far less homework than high achievers did

[Picture on page 23]

Tell yourself, “No TV until homework is done,” even putting a sign on your set if need be

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