6 Reasons You Are Failing at School & How to Change That

When entering uni, you might think that now you only study what you like. Thus, you’ll have all the motivation in the world to excel. But it’s not the case. Alongside enjoyable subjects, you will have boring lectures and assignments that you don’t really want to do. It can feel quite discouraging.

Moreover, the lack of motivation and intense workload might contribute to you slowly failing school. But things do not have to be so grim. There are simple reasons why you might be failing. And, luckily, there are simple ways to fix them. So, here are six reasons why you can’t keep up with uni and how you can fix your performance for good. 

Losing Track of Time

The number one obstacle for a student is poor time management skills. Juggling all the deadlines, lectures, and personal life responsibilities can feel impossible sometimes. Especially, when the exam period hits. And suddenly you have to finish all your 10-page research papers all at once. 

This usually happens when you’re careless about your time. It can feel that the important paper is weeks away from submission. But you shouldn’t expect yourself to complete such a task in a few hours. Make sure that you know how much time each task will take. Trust some less important ones to write my research paper and set priorities. Make time work for you.

Years spent in uni fly fast. So, don’t let them be a nightmare. With the right attitude and organization, you can make time for it all. Learn to set your priorities with studies, personal life, and responsibilities. And it won’t feel like hours pass you by at the speed of light.   

Find Your System

The key to successful time management is finding a system that works for you. There’re plenty of ways to organize your time. But it doesn’t mean that the most popular one will do it for you. For example, students swear by the Pomodoro method. It is a convenient and comfortable system to organize your study sessions and avoid feeling overwhelmed.

However, you might find it difficult to get your concentration back after having a break between short sessions. Maybe, you perform much better with deep work practice. Look through the popular time-management systems and try them out. You do not have to follow everything to a T. You can just pick and choose what works for you and your lifestyle.

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Autopilot Mode 

Have you ever wondered why you’re failing while not skipping classes? Well, just sitting in the classroom is not enough. To have to fully participate in the lecture to gain something from it. And as obvious as it sounds, full concentration is not easy to achieve.

So, make sure to get yourself in the right mindset before class. Prepare yourself to listen and be engaged.

And even if you’re feeling a bit under the weather, take some steps to catch up later. You can record a lecture and listen to it attentively when you feel better. Then, you can allow yourself to zone out a bit. Just don’t forget to ask your teacher’s permission. You wouldn’t want to get yourself in copyright claims trouble. 

Practice Active Listening and Reading 

One of the most useful skills to develop is active listening and reading. That means being fully engaged in the material that you’re consuming. So, if a professor asks a question during the lecture, you can answer due to being fully present. And the best part is that this skill can be developed and nourished as any other one.

Try to pick up keywords when listening to the lecture or doing your readings. What is the main point here? What is catching your eye? Try to answer these questions when working with any of your learning materials. Set time to focus only on your text and don’t let yourself be distracted by your phone. And with time, taking on any topic would be a piece of cake.  

Avoiding Revisions

Another reason for your failures is the lack of revisions or their full absence. It’s impossible to do your assignment perfectly without any editing or proofreading. Anything that has not been revised before the submission is a draft. And you won’t get your best grade for sending a raw text to your teacher. So, do not lose points because you’re rushing to meet the deadline.

Plan time for revision. Doing it by yourself increases the chances that you won’t get one from your teacher. Read your paper attentively. Try to engage with it as an outside reader rather than a writer. Notice how it sounds, and make sure that it’s cohesive and has a good flow. Spend a little more time revising and save yourself worries for your final grade. 

Plan Time for Editing

Make sure that you have enough time for your paper, project, or any other task. Of course, there are tools like Grammarly to help you edit quickly. But do not leave everything to a machine. Use it as a supplementary aid. Go through your done task from the start to finish. You’re likely to find a better way to express some thoughts with small corrections.

Add at least an hour for editing to your usual time for completing a task. Thus, you can actually do a good job instead of glancing through it. Ideally, edit on the next day after finishing your homework. This way, you will have some rest from the task and look at it from a fresh perspective.

Treat editing as an additional task. And you’ll be surprised how much your grades will improve. You’re losing tons of points from your grade just for small mistakes or formatting hiccups. So, don’t waste your time and improve your GPA right now. 

Wrapping Up

Here you have it. Step up your time management game to not lose track of time and find the system that works best for you. Turn off autopilot mode when studying. Practice active listening and reading instead. Finally, do not neglect revisions and always make time for editing. Do these six changes and you won’t know what a failure is.  

Brian Robben

Brian Robben is the founder of Take Your Success, a site dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and wantrepreneurs grow a profitable business and reach freedom. For in-depth training, visit: brianrobben.com