<p>My gpa is pretty effed and I need to get a 4.0 from here on out. Any tips from someone who has a 4.0? I just switched my major from bio to anthro so my social science classes should be pretty easy anyway, or a lot easier than bio, chem and calc were. The only math class I'm planning on taking is stats. All my other classes are philosophy/anthro/sociology/other social sciences or English. Any advise from anyone would be great! I'll also be working part time and plan on taking the bus from my house to school (about an hour) so there will be time to study there, too. Thanks!</p>
<p>1) Read assigned material before the lecture that covers said material.</p>
<p>2) Show up to lectures to get an idea of the way the professor covers the material and/or how they might structure their exams.</p>
<p>3) Take good notes/pay attention in class.</p>
<p>4) Review notes/do homework immediately after class if possible.</p>
<p>5) Don’t let things pile up, don’t fall behind, don’t procrastinate.</p>
<p>I would say those 5 things are what helped me keep a 4.0 through 102 units of Chem/Bio/Math/IGETC (at community college).</p>
<p>P.S. As long as you don’t get boned by crappy profs, it is entirely possible to maintain a 4.0 if you put in enough effort.</p>
<p>1)Do extra credit whenever it is assigned, whether you need it or not!
2) Sit in the front of the class. Make it super hard to get distracted.
3) Study/Do schoolwork EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. (yes, weekends included). It doesn’t have to be a lot. Read ahead, type up lecture notes, or make a dent on an assigned project. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>
Yes, this.</p>
<p>2.5) Read ahead and over-prepare slightly for the first exam (because you don’t know how they structure it).</p>
<p>^Couldn’t be more correct. I think the most important part of maintaining a 4.0 is over-preparing for the first exams and putting a ton of effort into the first paper. </p>
<p>Two reasons for this:
- You don’t get caught off-guard by a test that may be harder than you thought it was going to be. After the first test you’ll have a better feel for what the teacher is expecting you to know for the exams.<br>
- Doing well on the early exams gives you studying flexibility so you can focus on the harder classes because you will have built up a nice grade buffer.</p>
<p>^ I LOVE grade buffers. Especially towards the end of the quarter, takes a lot of pressure off the final.</p>
<p>I absolutely agree with what everyone said on here. My first day is tomorrow but I did take a summer course. So it’s not like I had a 4.0 with Biology, Chemistry, Calculus but I did employ the techniques stated here and pulled a 4.0 for the course. Plus being an accelerated course there were only 2 grades, the midterm and final.</p>
<p>If I had something to add, it would be self discipline/motivation. There will be times during the semester where you’ll have so much time you start to tend to save things for the later. This can be a disaster. You need to be disciplined enough to study when you need to. You’ll also need the motivation to accomplish this. Whatever works for you to get you studying. I actually framed my 3 rejection letters and posted them on my room wall. Haha. Whenever I was watching TV, online, or about to take a nap, I would look at the letters as a reminder of what will happen if I don’t work. Of course everyone is different so find your own motivation to help through those lethargic days.</p>
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<p>Can’t agree with this more. Spot on. Also if possible always try to stay one/two days ahead of your professor. Meaning skim over the next chapter or so so you get the gist of what the next day’s lecture will be. Therefore, when the professor is lecturing you’ll already have a foundation/base for the notes.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Ratemyprofessor.com and don’t get stuck with a horrible professor. </p>
<p>Don’t always go for the easy professors as many will screw you later on in upper division classes. If it’s just for igetc though definitely get the easiest teacher possible.</p>
<p>Avoid teachers who do subjective grading. Only take professors who are fair at grading. X amount of points = A. Basically the amount of work you put in gets you your grade. Not if I like your work or you, I will give you an A. </p>
<p>My only B I ever gotten so far in college was due to this.</p>
<p>^
It’s less of a problem if you major in the sciences.</p>
<p>I am a science major.</p>
<p>Then report the teacher to the head of the department or dean.</p>
<p>What was your situation?</p>
<p>Anthro should be much easier. Just look out for the bad instructors using ratemyprofessor and you’re set.</p>
<p>go to office hours.</p>
<p>Here’s a few I can think of:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>When assigned HW, skim it and try to do some of it - look for stuff you know you’ll get stuck on, and get help on it ASAP so you have time to screw around with it. </p></li>
<li><p>Don’t play World of Warcraft ;)</p></li>
<li><p>Make friends! If you miss a day of class (and please for the love of God stay home if you’re sick), you’ll be able to figure out what you missed. </p></li>
<li><p>Go to class. Sure, a lot of subjects can be learned by reading alone, but it helps to pound things into your head a couple of times (once in lecture, once reading, once hw, studying, friends, etc)</p></li>
<li><p>Take the right classes at the right time! For example at my college Physics can be taken before Calc 3, but Physics 1 was designed to be taken with it, and goes much easier. Ask your teachers what they think, and schedule appropriately. </p></li>
<li><p>Find a good place to do work. </p></li>
<li><p>Make yourself flexible! Secret #1 to become successful in life is to be able to take an unexpected situation and come out of it still standing. Usually, -starting- HW early and reading ahead of the class will help you have ‘insurance’ for the days freak accidents happen and you end up late/missing stuff. </p></li>
<li><p>Try not to have a job. </p></li>
<li><p>Come to class early if it benefits you - especially before tests or when HW is due, you might find out something that you never would’ve known otherwise heheh.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Finally, </p>
<ol>
<li>Don’t forget you’re only human; You can only do so much before whatever you’re reading/hearing/writing will go in 1 side of your head, and straight out the other.</li>
</ol>
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<p>This screwed me up in high school. It is the #1 reason I am going to community college right now. I have since sworn off all video games just to be safe.</p>
<p>“Don’t play video games” should be every odd-numbered tip on the list.</p>
<p>Ratemyprofessors is the greatest tool for getting a 4.0. For non math/science classes, it’s fairly easy to find teachers that have 3.5-4ish easiness. Be sure to look at comments as well, not just ratings. I remember some math teacher who gave good grades to female students but was fairly strict towards male students. He had an easiness of around 3.5 which is fairly high for a calculus teacher, but looking at the comments, you could easily see his bias.</p>
<p>As long as you can a find good teachers, a 4.0 is a lot easier than it seems. The only classes that should drop your GPA are math/science.</p>
<p>LOL, tell me about it man. My general chem professor a guy in his 30s teaching a chem class for the first time ever, the only people that got As were some ass that smashed a globe of chromium 6 on his setup next to me, and 2 pretty hot chicks that almost never actually completed a lab. </p>
<p>Sometimes, you will be screwed by those ratings too! There’s always the “easy” teacher that gets ****ed off when they find out they have an easy rating and they decide to make the class difficult. </p>
<p>Another note on easy vs hard teachers: Not all ‘hard’ teachers will give you a thorough understanding of the material, likewise not all ‘easy’ teachers will leave you with your pants down at the end not knowing anything. </p>
<p>My calc 1 professor was a bit of a pessimist jerk, and he assigned lots of homework and made tests much longer/harder than they needed to be. I bombed the final, because he spent SO MUCH TIME on niche things, I was lost on the basics. </p>
<p>My calc 2 professor, had a rep for being “easy” - I did great on that final and walked away remembering a LOT more. Why? His lectures were sooooo much better! His homework was well structured, and his tests were actually harder too… and there were daily quizzes. </p>
<p>It’s like the difference between my last physics teacher and my current one: The first one seemed to think everyone perfectly understood everything, while the second one (so far) will go to whatever means necessary to make sure everyone understands what he’s talking about. </p>
<p>Some are better than others - take those MIT physics lectures for example - fantastic lectures. </p>
<p>Lesson learned: Always ask people before you take a class.</p>
<p>@iTransfer: This was exactly what screwed me over in high school. I made the mistake of going to a liberal arts school where teachers had A LOT of freedom. So anyway, in sophomore year I had two teachers who graded that way for eight of my classes… only Bs I ever had. So now in order to transfer to Cal I need to get a 4.0 in highschool, it sucks because I have higher SAT scores than everyone else, yet a lower GPA (for everyone else, it’s inflated)… so yeah :(</p>