Avoid These 7 Mistakes and Score Good Grades

It is late at night, and you trudge through the halls at the end of another long day of lectures only to be reminded of a case study that needs to be turned in just two days hence. What happens next is no secret to students who have faced similar situations. The case study does get turned in within time, but the two days prior to that is when you will have to pull all sorts of tricks to somehow make it all work in the very little time that you have left before the submission deadline.

This is just one example from the thousands of such cases where students are faced with time constraints and other issues before writing their assignments or preparing for the examinations that cost them their grades.

In case you are wondering where you are going wrong despite trying your best to match steps with the topper of your class that results in you getting poor grades time and again, maybe it is time you revise your strategy of studying. Here are the 7 commonest mistakes that students are prone to making that have a detrimental effect on their grades. Read on to know how many you had been making all these years unknowingly and the ways that you can avoid them to achieve superb grades.

Not paying heed to the assignment guidelines

At first, you will need to understand what the assignment requires you to do. One of the biggest mistakes that you can make at this phase is not go through the assignment guidelines properly. Most colleges and universities make it a point to deduct marks for assignments that do not meet the required word count, so that is also an area within the guidelines that you must keep in mind. This apart, keep an eye out for the referencing guidelines that you must follow for citing the external sources needed to compose your assignment. Pay attention to the topic and try to meet the specified criteria or guidelines mentioned by your professors.

Not having a proper writing plan

You will need to have a proper writing plan and stick to it if you want good grades. There is simply no going around this one. Without having prepared a proper structure for your assignment, there is no way that you will be able to compose it to the best of your potential. Have a clearly-outlined writing plan and divide your writing tasks into portions that you can tackle throughout the busy schedule of having to manage lectures and part-time jobs, and you will be good to go.

Throwing grammar-punctuation caution to the wind

Many students feel that it is okay to turn in a paper riddled with grammar and punctuation errors as long as they provide brilliant insights and relevant stats for their assignments. They could not be further from the truth. While you do need to pack in relevant information in your academic assignments to score well, you must also remember to compose the assignment in a flawless manner that helps you highlight your impeccable writing style. A grammatically robust assignment always has chances of scoring better with the professors than one that is strewn with errors.

Lacking deft time management skills

Many say that going to college is like a harsh reality check for many students due to their lack of time management skills. One moment you are this dorky teen from a sleepy town and the next you are transported to the busy and bustling campus life in the middle of a city, and you practically have no clue how to survive the college years that lay ahead. Well, we have all been there, done that. The faster you learn to manage time efficiently, the better your college survival skills are going to be, and with them, your scoring abilities are also bound to improve by many notches.

Biting off more than you can chew

Never take on too many things to do all at once. Learn how to say no, and you will see how that makes a world of difference when it comes to your studies. Say no that party, you would not be any less of a friend if you turn down just one the weekend before the mid-term examinations. Learn to sort your priorities as well, and that will give you a clear idea of how much is becoming too much. Juggling part-time jobs, studies and social commitments is tough indeed, and you need to learn the perfect balancing act to champion that.

Procrastinating

Well, this is a mistake for which you might have to pay a cost heavier than dropping a few places in the rank card for your class. Procrastination is a plague that seems to be the thing for most students in college but staying in bed over a tub of ice cream will not get that case study done by itself, you know. It is best to not leave things until the last minute for it can bring about grave consequences for your studies and life overall if allowed to fester unchecked. It is one of those most-hard-to-get-rid-of habits, and it is best that you try improving on this right from day one.

Not paying heed to the need for revisions

Finally, if you are guilty of turning in your assignments without thorough revisions, then you should be rectifying that right now. It is the stage that you are able to identify the aspects in your writing that need to be improved upon, giving you clues to score better grades just by tweaking them a little. A flawlessly revised and edited assignment that is written impressively has way more chances of scoring a higher grade than the ones that are not revised. Revisions are thus a must for all students.

No matter what level of study you are in, you should be learning from the mistakes that are keeping you from scoring better grades. Just bring in these seven changes, and you are sure to achieve you dream grades in no time at all!