Top 10 Ways to Boost Your GPA

In this edition of Top-10s, I’m going to break down increasing your college GPA into two lists, an easy one and a hard one. You should note that if you want a strong GPA and you want to maintain it, you’ll have to use methods from both lists, and keep using them each semester. With something as competitive as a GPA, there’s no real easy way to get what you want, just some techniques that you may not be aware of.

Here goes:

The Easy Way

1. Take easy courses with more credits. Ask your friends what was easy, and pick it up as an elective.
2. Be smart about course planning. Don’t decide you want one hard semester and several easy ones, then load all your beastly classes into one semester. Balance each semester out. Also, if you jam one semester with all hard courses, then get sick, or get into relationship problems and don’t study enough, your planning has backfired.
3. Which brings me to my next point: Prioritize. Tell yourself each day at the beginning of the semester that you going to have your crap together, and focus on the prize… not on who wins the drinking competition coming up this Friday.
4. Visit your profs and TAs early on in the semester. You want to dominate college lectures, and this starts with the profs and TAs. Just drop into their office hours, say hi after class, or ask about their research. This will ensure they think highly of you - a great factor when it comes time to grades papers, one of the most subjective aspects of college academics.
5. Get sleep. Duh, but not really. You learn better when you’re refreshed, not when your head is in your hands and you’re moments from rushing to the bathroom or back to your room to cure your hangover.The Hard Way
   
6. Go to office hours regularly and take notes! Just pencil it into your schedule and show up. Hearing an expert talk about the material will help it to settle into your brain and stay there.
7. Practice saying “No”. When your friends try to drag you out on a Wednesday night, just say “No” instinctively. Say “No” before that sloppy fratboy even gets the “Dude come on” out of his mouth. It’s fun, and you’ll be surprised how many cute opposite sexers are hanging in the library that night with a coffee instead of a Keystone.
8. Stay in on Saturday. Painful, I know, but smart. Sunday is meant to be productive.
9. Use the one-week strategy, and adhere to it like you’re Moses and it’s the 10 Commandments.
10. Don’t be afraid to learn from others. When you start a course, it’s a given that your predecessors know more than you. Ask them questions, strategies, and listen to them! Don’t be a know-it-all, it will only hold you back.