It’s my first semester of college, I’m planning to be a CS major, and I’m looking at getting a 2.5 - 3.0 GPA at the moment. I think this happened because I applied the same level of effort to college classes as I did in high school, and obviously that didn’t work out. I slacked off way too much, especially in the gen eds I took that should’ve been easy-As or Bs, and it’s safe to say that I learned my lesson.
Is recovery possible?
Sure it is but it takes hard work! My son was the grade officer at his fraternity this year (it has some fancy name) but he had to study 3 hours a day most days with the pledges and make sure anyone with issues got the help they needed (tutors, office hours, extra sessions, etc.). Almost all that started their first semester low did better their second semester. Most had to re-learn how to study, what worked and what didn’t, how much time to spend (not over study and not under study). Bottom line is that you can’t slack off. You have to set hours to study and stick with them. You have to go to class. You need to go to office hours or tutoring sessions even when you don’t think you need to. Good luck!
Recovery in terms of what?
If you are facing a high GPA threshold to get into the CS major at your school, or need to meet a high GPA threshold to renew a scholarship, you need to figure out what grades you need to earn for those purposes, if applicable. If there are no such GPA thresholds to worry about, the main GPA concern is that many employers use a 3.0 cutoff GPA as an initial screen when deciding which applicants to interview, so try to get your GPA to 3.0 or higher.
Otherwise, recovery as in just doing better should certainly be possible if you put in more effort than in high school and do not slack off. In general, if your college uses the credit hour system (15-16 credits per term), you should expect the total workload to be three times the number of credits (so if you are taking 15 credits, expect to put in 45 hours per week of work, including both in-class and out-of-class time), although some courses will have higher or lower workloads than this estimate suggests.
Recovery is possible, but you need to learn how to manage your time and study effectively. Your college will have resources for helping freshmen learn to study. Find those resources; they may be part of the counseling center or academic resource center. They will also be able to provide you with note-taking strategies.
My tips:
–Go to every class.
–Find a place free from distractions to study, and silence your phone.
–Keep an agenda of all due dates (homework, quizzes, tests, etc.)
–Don’t procrastinate.
–Learn to say “no” to your friends.
–Read the assigned chapter before the class meets.
–Sit toward the front of the class.
–Rewrite your notes. For many people, the act of writing helps them remember the content better.
Studying is not the same as doing homework. When the homework is done, go back and read the chapter again. Then read it again. Highlight the important parts. Go over and over the finished homework problems and solutions. Pay attention to diagrams in the textbooks.
Yes, it is possible! But you need to change your habits.
Yes it is possible to recover but you have to work hard because going back up the gpa scale is harder than going down. You need to learn study and time management skills. I think many high school students come to college expecting professors to treat them the same like the high school teachers did and they get an awful shock. In college, they hold you to a higher level of expectation because they consider you to be an adult.
When you get into the upper division level the expectations are even higher. As one college professor said in one of my classes “don’t expect me to hold your hand while you cry about your bad grades, you earn the grades you get”. Ouch, but he’s right.