<p>To those who always got good grades in high school, do you find yourself doing worse in college. I have a 2.6 gpa now :(</p>
<p>Aww..i'm sorry. I was doing better, but I don't know after this semester.</p>
<p>i find myself doing better. much better. my girlfirend was valedictorian, and shes struggles. i notice that most of the smarties in highschool cant hang in college, this is pretty typical.</p>
<p>maybe it's that smarties think they don't have to work and then they find college is a whole diffeerent ballgame. That's what my sister says at least.</p>
<p>it's different now because all the information was thrown at us and you either studied it or slack off. Now you have to go looking for it and understand everything on your own.</p>
<p>Another contributing factor would be how only a few tests make up your final grade.</p>
<p>I think the biggest thing is I worked so hard in high school to go to college. Now that I'm here I only do the minimum of what's expected, I get happy if I get a 72% or a 69% on a test.</p>
<p>it might be a little harder to get good grades in college cause your in a room full of smart people and you need to score just as good as them just to get an average grade. its all cause of the curve.</p>
<p>well my sister said for her, the couple of tests thing was better. She was able to only have a B with 2 tests, and around rolls the final and she pulls off an A because of her studious habits. You really have to recognize you can't blow off a test.</p>
<p>"only" a b. lol.</p>
<p>Traditionally, you drop about one full letter grade from what was earned in high school. Don't forget, college is made up primarily of people who want to be there. Also, the students are pre- screened. Thus, your average student is both more motivated and better prepared than what you will find in most high schools.</p>
<p>in most HS's the students getting the better GPAs are made of those who aren't naturally talented academically but work their butts off for good grades, and those with more talent who coast.</p>
<p>At college the workload steps up a notch or two, and if there was any degree of selectivity in the college you attend your fellow students are also good performers. At this point those with less talent have no more to put into the game; they were already doing all they could. They drop in GPA. </p>
<p>As for the former slackers, some realize its a new arena and step up; after maybe a few rough steps they develop better study and work habits and their grades stay high. But some don't have the drive or willingness to work hard, and their grades drop too.</p>
<p>"in most HS's the students getting the better GPAs are made of those who aren't naturally talented academically but work their butts off for good grades, and those with more talent who coast."</p>
<p>VERY TRUE! </p>
<p>... that's why I'm scared to go to college next year! Hey, atleast I have a few college courses under my belt already so I'm not completely blindsided!</p>
<p>If you want to do well in college, I will give you some secrets that got me over a 3.7:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Learn to outline all texts: Most high school courses don't really teach this or even encourage this. In college, this is a very important skill. You must learn to outline all books and study for the tests from your outlines.</p></li>
<li><p>For AP courses, order the student guide: Most AP courses and intro college texts have a student study guide. Sometimes this is promoted at the college and sometimes it isn't. Contact the publisher and order a copy of the student guide. You should incorporate your outline with what is in the guide.DO NOT make the mistake in believing that the outline is the "be all and end all." It should be a guide and not used as a substitute for studying the text.</p></li>
<li><p>Get good time management: College is generally a lot more work that that of high school, especially in the more prestigious universities. Moreover, you have a lot more distractions such as friends willing to party-hardy, girl/boyfriends, sports, etc. Time management is crucial! You need to set up a set time per day to study and get your work accomplished.</p></li>
<li><p>Use Some free time to prepare your outlines: If you want until the week of finals, you will find that there is not enough time in the day to effectively study for finals. Many college kids make this mistake to their detriment. If you have some "slow" days where you don't have a lot of homework, this is the time to start reviewing your outlines and maybe even preparing an "outline of your outline." The more you are familiar with your outline, the less detailed it need be. If you keep up throughout the year, finals will be a "piece of cake."</p></li>
<li><p>Always attend class. It is very easy to miss a class. First, you don't have your parents waking you up. Second, most college kids stay up very late these days. It is, thus, tough to wake up for those 9AM classes. You must try to go to bed at a reasonable hour so you can wake up. I also recommend avoiding all classes that start before 9AM for this reason.</p></li>
<li><p>Eat a balanced meal and take vitamins: It is very easy to get sick due to the pressure of college exams and papers. Take orange juice every morning and take a vitamin.</p></li>
<li><p>Don't wait until the last minute to write a paper: Someone once coined the quote," Nothing would get accomplished without due dates." You should plan to finish all papers well before they become due. You never know when some big assignment will be sprung on you. Morover, they always seem to spring these big assignments when a big paper becomes due. Bottom line: get the papers and projects done as soon as possible and not to wait till the due date.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Here are two more points that I accidentally left out:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If you are studying math, science or engineering, do all the problems in the book, especially the word problems. For some reason, college professors like to take problems out of the textbook that were not assigned for homework and put them into the test. If you do them all, you will be well-prepared.</p></li>
<li><p>Take advantage of the resources available to you: Today, many school have writing centers, tutors and other resources. Take advantage of these. Have all your papers reviewed for grammar and punctuation. There is little excuse for not doing reasonably well in freshmen English with all of these services. Moreover, you should have all papers reviewed for grammar regardless of the subject. I can tell you that as a business school professor, I down graded kids who presented sloppy papers or papers with poor grammar. Don't think that because you are writing a history or business paper that the professor won't count poor writing against you!</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Taxguy,</p>
<p>this is a great list . Add one more thing,</p>
<p>Above all else...</p>
<p>Stay on top of the reading. I know tha tit is not easy when you have multiple classes and some are assigning 150 pages and a short paper for each class, but if you as Taxguy stated, if you don't outline the reading and STAY on top of it , you will be lost</p>
<p>all i have to say is that the curve at my school sucks. </p>
<p>89% on my midterm = a C+ </p>
<p>yey.</p>
<p>At least your mean is semi-reasonable. I just got 21% over the mean (mean was a 57) on a midterm and ended up with a A-.</p>
<p>the best way to get a good gpa is to go to a school where you will be at the top =P</p>
<p>In all seriousness though, Taxguy made a great list, but grades will go down in college. The average entering high school GPA at my school is a 4.0. Roughly 20% of the students will have a 3.5 or higher, and all of the 4.0 students were honored for the class of 2004 at graduation last spring. There were 2.</p>
<p>Thank you all very much. So the first trimester just ended and I got a 2.7: a B in English, and 3 C's in math, physics, and chemistry. I go to a military school so they give us like 5 hours worth of homework each night and only 3 hours to work on it. I'm not good with time management. I even have to skip lunch just to do work.</p>