I came here searching for advice, hopefully it can help. I am a first year student to university. After my first semester I was put on academic probation for poor marks in my classes. Even since the first semester I tried studying harder to get my GPA back up, but it didnt work.
I really tried hard to get my GPA back up but it didnt work. It’s the end of the semester and I’m finishing up my finals. My grades are rocky and I dont think they’ll suffice.
I feel like I’m a disgrace to my family. They put in so much work to put me through college and I gave them nothing in return. I don’t know how to tell my parents I was kicked out of college. I am stuck right now and dont know what to do.
I wanna go back to college soon, to try to redeem myself. What can I do to bounce back from this?
Tell your parents about your poor grades and what you did to fix the situation. They have every right to be upset we with you and will not likely be pleased that you had not been honest earlier. This seems to be your priority now.
Until grades are turned in and posted, you wait until a decision about what you can do to right your situation. Read the catalogue whatever it is called to learn university policy on academic suspicion or dismissal. That will give you your options.
Make an appointment to see your advisor to get analysis and suggestions about your options. Remain calm and adulthood in your discussions. You are responsible for your situation. You may need to take time off from your current university. If so, enroll at the local community college to take classes that fulfill basic requirement with good grades. If you are allowed to remain, seek out the Learning center to take advantage of tutoring, study skills classes, etc. You need to become more proficient as a student or learner. Talk to your advisor about a doable mix of classes, maybe even taking a reduced load. Schedule study time, read the text carefully and verify your learning by answering questions in the book, be part of a study group, do your assignments on time and correctly.
Your situation is frustrating, but hardly unique. Your goal now is remedying your current situation and developing skill in reading, writing, study strategies, test taking skills, listening in class and taking notes. You may find that sharing and talking about notes with a study partner is helpful. As you develop skills in learning and studying, you may find that your performance improves. Finally studying effectively is not like fixing a car and driving it as much as driving a well maintained vehicle. Your academic strategies should improve and expand. Until you have earned a degree and then mastered a job, but haven’t retired, your skills and knowledge must expand. When you retire, you will have time to learn more.
It probably wouldn’t have been a bad idea to let them know beforehand that this past semester brought up a lot of the same struggles. I’m sure they would’ve pointed you in the right direction with regards to help with schoolwork and such.
You said you studied harder…but what did you do differently? Clearly what you did isn’t working.
Here is what I suggest:
GO TO CLASS, BUY THE BOOK, READ THE CHAPTERS, AND DO THE HOMEWORK!
Go to Professor’s office hours early in the semester and Ask this question: “I know this is a really difficult class-- what are some of the common mistakes students make and how can I avoid them?”
If you have problems with the homework, go to Prof’s office hours. If they have any “help sessions” or “study sessions” or “recitations” or any thing extra, go to them.
Form a study group with other kids in your dorm/class.
Don’t do the minimum…for STEM classes do extra problems. You can buy books that just have problems for calculus or physics or whatever. Watch videos on line about the topic you are studying.
Go to the writing center if you need help with papers/math center for math problems (if they have them)
If things still are not going well, get a tutor.
Read this book: How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less by Cal Newport. It helps you with things like time management and how to figure out what to write about for a paper, etc.
If you feel you need to withdraw from a class, talk to your advisor as to which one might be the best …you may do better when you have less classes to focus on. But some classes may be pre-reqs and will mess your sequence of classes up.
For tests that you didn’t do well on, can you evaluate what went wrong? Did you never read that topic? Did you not do the homework for it? Do you kind of remember it but forgot what to do? Then next time change the way you study…there may be a study skill center at your college.
How much time outside of class do you spend studying/doing homework? It is generally expected that for each hour in class, you spend 2-3 outside doing homework. Treat this like a full time job.
At first, don’t spend too much time other things rather than school work. (sports, partying, rushing fraternities/sororities, video gaming etc etc)
If you run into any social/health/family troubles (you are sick, your parents are sick, someone died, broke up with boy/girlfriend, suddenly depressed/anxiety etcetc) then immediately go to the counseling center and talk to them. Talk to the dean of students about coordinating your classes…e.g. sometimes you can take a medical withdrawal. Or you could withdraw from a particular class to free up tim for the others. Sometimes you can take an incomplete if you are doing well and mostly finished the semester and suddenly get pneumonia/in a car accident (happened to me)…you can heal and take the final first thing the next semester. But talk to your adviser about that too.
At the beginning of the semester, read the syllabus for each class. It tells you what you will be doing and when tests/HW/papers are due. Put all of that in your calendar. The professor may remind you of things, but it is all there for you to see so take initiative and look at it.
Make sure you understand how to use your online class system…Login to it, read what there is for your classes, know how to upload assignments (if that is what the prof wants).
If you get an assignment…make sure to read the instructions and do all the tasks on the assignment. Look at the rubric and make sure you have covered everything.
If you are not sure what to do, go EARLY to the professors office hours…not the day before the assignment is due.
You might think that this is all completely obvious, but I have read many stories on this and other websites where people did not do the above and then are asking for help on academic appeal letters.