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Even the brightest students can sometimes find themselves academically underperforming, often through no fault of their own. When students find themselves in this situation, itโs often because theyโre stuck in a rut and are not sure what to do to improve. If this sounds like you, the first step is to work out the reasons why you may be underperforming, and the next step is to work out how to tackle the problem. If youโre not sure how to go about it, this article shows you what you can do to form an improvement plan to help you achieve the grades you know youโre capable of achieving.
1. Adopt a positive mental attitude
In the face of lower-than-expected grades, itโs only human to react by feeling disappointed with oneself. When youโre frequently receiving lower grades than youโd hoped for, you may start to feel depressed or defeated, and feel like giving up. The first step on the road to improving your grades is to turn this negativity on its head. You need to be positive about the situation if youโre to stand a chance of improving it. Acknowledge that your grades arenโt what youโre aiming for, but believe that you can do something about it. Start by mentally taking control of the situation: instead of thinking โIโm a failureโ, think โI can and will do better than this.โ Donโt give up โ take positive steps towards achieving the improvement youโre more than capable of achieving.
2. Work out where youโre falling short
You need to work out which areas need targeting before you can draw up a plan of action, so the next step is to figure out the areas in which youโre underperforming, and why.
Are your grades consistently lower than youโd like them to be across all your subjects, or is there one particular area youโre struggling with thatโs bringing down your overall performance in a particular subject? Take a look at your grades over the last few months and look for patterns.
Has there been a general decline in academic achievement, or have your grades in certain areas always been lower than youโd hoped?
Are your grades always low in the same areas, such as one problem subject?
Youโll probably already have a vague idea of the answers to these questions, but seeing your grades written down on paper โ perhaps even in graph format โ can help you see things more clearly.
Next, think about the reasons why youโre not performing to your full academic potential in the areas youโve identified.
Are there external factors that may be negatively affecting your grades, such as a family problem or worrying about a social situation at school?
Are you struggling with any particular academic skills that might be dragging you down, such as essay-writing or note-taking?
Are you studying in a way that works for you?
These are all factors that could be affecting your academic performance, so once youโve isolated what the problem is โ it could be a combination of more than one of these issues โ youโll be able to start tackling it. If the problems are external, youโll need to take steps towards getting them to a point at which they no longer adversely affect your studies; seeing a counsellor might help, for instance. If theyโre academic, read the rest of this article for some suggestions on how you can improve.
3. Talk to your teachers
Your teachers know you best, so itโs worth talking to them when youโre drawing up a plan of action for improving your grades. Ask them where they think you need to improve, and theyโll probably have some advice on how you can go about it. Coupled with the advice in the rest of this article, this should allow you to tailor an action plan to your personal situation.
4. Pay more attention in class โ and ask questions
If youโre prone to daydreaming in class, itโs time to start focusing on the here and now:
Listen to what the teacher is saying rather than talking with friends or allowing your mind to wander.
Donโt simply copy down whatโs on the board without thinking about it; make sure youโve understood the content.
Make neat notes so that you can understand them when you come back to them (more on that later).
Donโt be afraid to speak up if thereโs something you donโt understand or want to clarify with the teacher. Itโs much easier to ask a teacher to explain something differently than it is to trawl through books trying to find a clearer explanation for yourself, and they wonโt think less of you for asking.
5. Start organising your life
Clutter of any kind inhibits our ability to operate efficiently, so another way of improving your academic performance is to get organised.
Keep your workspace tidy and all your notes and textbooks organised in such a way that you know where everything is.
Start thinking more about your time management, too, as this will allow you to prioritise your time effectively, freeing time for problem subjects.
Write yourself a daily timetable that incorporates your school schedule, dividing your day into slots of time and fitting in plenty of time for studying.
Allocate extra time to subjects or topics youโve identified as being ones youโre struggling with; it could be that the reason for your underperformance in these subjects is that youโre simply not devoting enough time to them.
6. Improve your note-taking skills
You may have identified your lack of ability to take sufficient notes as one of the reasons that you are underperforming. Hurriedly scrawled notes from class can be difficult to make sense of when you come to revise from them, or even to write an essay based on them. Itโs all too easy to misunderstand your own notes and fail to get a strong enough grasp of the topic. Itโs imperative, therefore, that you produce good notes from each of your classes and from the books you use โ notes that you can read, that are useful, and that are logically organised. If you make notes by hand โ in class, for example โ try to type them up at the end of the day, while theyโre still fresh in your mind.
7. Improve your essay-writing skills
Another common reason for academic underperformance is that the studentโs essay-writing skills arenโt sufficient for the level required to achieve top grades. This is fairly easily fixed by improving your essay-writing technique. Good essay technique covers all aspects of essay-writing, from the research phase to the final proofread, and even how you respond to the feedback you get for your essays. Responding in the right way to feedback โ and not taking criticism personally โ will be particularly useful if you feel youโre underperforming, as this should give you the guidance you need to be able to improve.
8. Find the right learning style for you
If youโre academically underperforming, another possible reason could be that you havenโt found the right learning style for you. Weโre all different, and each of us has our own way of studying that works best for us and produces the best results. Perhaps you just havenโt found your most effective studying style yet. If youโve been trying to work on your own, for example, you might find it easier to work with a friend or two, so that you have someone else there to motivate you.
personally โ will be particularly useful if you feel youโre underperforming, as this should give you the guidance you need to be able to improve.
8. Find the right learning style for you
If youโre academically underperforming, another possible reason could be that you havenโt found the right learning style for you. Weโre all different, and each of us has our own way of studying that works best for us and produces the best results. Perhaps you just havenโt found your most effective studying style yet. If youโve been trying to work on your own, for example, you might find it easier to work with a friend or two, so that you have someone else there to motivate you.
9. Improve your memory
Many students struggle to remember all the information they need for exams, and this brings their grades down. With so much to learn across many subjects, remembering facts, figures and arguments is a pretty monumental task, and you need to arm yourself with some effective memory aids to help you. Youโll find more tips on improving your memory in our article on memory techniques for exam preparation.
10. Stop procrastinating
One of the reasons why youโre underperforming could be that youโre spending too much time procrastinating โ that is, putting off work by distracting yourself with other things, such as social media. This is a common response to a big workload; when you have so much to do that you donโt know where to start, the temptation is simply not to start. The problem is that in doing so, youโre delaying the inevitable, as well as making your task worse by eating into the time when you could be productive. If youโre guilty of procrastination โ and we all are at some point or another โ take a look at our article on five reasons we procrastinate and how to stop it.
11. Allow plenty of time for revision
If youโre achieving lower scores than youโd hoped for on timed tests or mock exams, it could be because youโre not allowing enough time for revising for them. This may be because you know itโs not โthe real thingโ, but practice exams are just as important as real ones. They show you which areas you need to spend more time on, and achieving good grades in them will give you a confidence boost. Treat them as seriously as you would a real exam, allowing yourself plenty of time to revise for them. Better still, revise everything you learn as you go along, so that you learn it properly first time round and have less need for revision. Also, be sure to read our articles on effective revision techniques for science students and humanities students.
12. Make learning more fun
Sometimes students underperform because they have simply lost the motivation to learn. Itโs not surprising, when the pressure of exams and doing well at school takes away the enjoyment of learning. Itโs easy to get so focused on achieving top grades that you forget that learning can actually be fun โ and not only that, but itโs much easier to do well when youโre enjoying it. If studying has become a chore for you, itโs time to put the fun back into learning. You could do this by making your studies more interactive and less repetitive, or by trying some of the ideas in our article on 15 ways to make studying less stressful.
13. Hire a private tutor
As a last resort, if the ideas in this article havenโt worked for you, you might consider hiring a private tutor to help you improve your grades for a particularly tricky subject. Some extra tuition may be just what you need to help bring your grade up, as youโll benefit from one-to-one tuition in an environment in which you might feel more able to ask questions without the fear of speaking up in front of your peers. If you think this would help you, speak to your parents and suggest that they place an advert in the local paper if theyโre willing to cover cost of private tuition for you.
14. Go on a summer school
A final option โ best taken alongside the other advice in this article, rather than instead of it โ is to book yourself onto an academic summer school. Taking part in a summer school would allow you to learn away from the pressures of the classroom and exams, reinvigorating your love of learning and inspiring you to take a more determined approach to your studies. Whatโs more, summer schools are great for helping you get to grips with trickier subjects, so this could be a good solution to your underperforming subjects as well. Take a look at our Oxford summer school courses to find one to help you start improving your grades. Itโs not just an option in the summer โ ever-popular Easter revision courses are a great way to get a boost shortly before your exams.