How do you study better?

<p>I'm in the 10th grade and I'm in the hardest classes I can take at my school for a tenth grader. Gifted Language arts, AP Statistics and Gifted Chemistry are the classes I'm having trouble with. Right now I have an 83 in LA 87(natural) in AP and 90 in Chem. I need to pull them up because my GPA is low right now(3.6) and I'm trying to get into Georgia Tech or University of California - Berkeley. I'm trying to do Computer Engineering specifically for software. Those schools usually need you to be at a 3.8 or higher so I need to get all As this year so I will be in good standing. Anyways, I'm not really sure how to study for these classes. I havent really been trying and the main reason is that I dont know how to study in general. Memorizing notes doesn't help me much especially in LA and Stat because you actually need to know what your doing instead of memorizing facts. Does anyone know how I should study to pull these grades up before the semester ends. I want to pull them up soon before it gets too late to get an A.</p>