The poor grades you've been getting in school may have something to do with your study techniques, according to the Association for Psychological Science.

1. port prep.com http://portprep.com/wp/2013/10/why-you-havent-gotten-good-grades-in-high-school/
Bad grades (Photo credit: quinn.anya)
Karen Kesteloot October 2, 2013
The Biggest Reason Why You Haven’t Gotten Good Grades in
High School
It’s high time to be a senior. Unlike in previous years, a lot more is at stake because it’s just not about
moving up the high school ladder. Finishing your senior year means that you’re graduating f rom high
school and moving onto the next chapter in your young adult lif e – college.
If you are interested in
becoming an art or design
major in college, you need
to showcase your
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portf olio. The coaching
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When it comes to your
grades, however, you
pretty much have to rely on
your work ethic and
perseverance to ace your
f inal year. Granted that this
is your last chance to
redeem yourself as a high
school student, a lot of
seniors will be driven to
boost their grades, the
simple reason being that
colleges are in favor of students who have amassed high grades throughout their time in high school.
While some students just have the knack f or acing exams and getting high grades, others are unlucky to have
been studying hard as humanly possible, and yet are rewarded with mediocre grades throughout their high
school lif e.
Why studying has become difficult for you?

2. English: A Student of the University of British Columbia
studying for final exams. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Table taken from the journal. Click here to learn more on how these techniques can be effective used in your
studying.
Imagine yourself studying f or an upcoming exam this
week. You’ve done everything you can possible to
memorize inf ormation that you f eel will be asked during
the test. You have re-read your notes to see if you’ve
missed out on anything. You have even joined group
studies with your f ellow classmates in the hopes of
gaining a better understanding of the exam coverage.
Despite your ef f orts, you still got an average score on
the exam, well below the time and hard work you’ve put
into studying the material.
According to the Association for Psychological
Science, it is not about how hard and how much time you
spend on studying. It is about studying smarter.
In other words, your study technique is wrong!
Students are having dif f iculty discerning which among the study techniques are ef f ective because of the many
choices out there. Also, the lack of a def initive study that classif ies how and when each of the dif f erent study
techniques comes into play.
In their journal Improving Students’ Learning With Ef f ective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions From
Cognitive and Educational Psychology, John Dunlosky and company suggested ten study techniques that
students can use to boost their grades.
A lot of
variables
are
considered
to
determine
which of
the
techniques
listed in the
table above
should be
used. The
material in
study,
learning
conditions,
student
characteristics, and criterion tasks determine which among the techniques are to be used to achieve high
grades. This goes by saying that not one technique will work on all subjects – studying mathematics may
require a particular technique as opposed to studying literature.
It is imperative that you read the journal by clicking here to gain a deeper understanding behind the process and
psychology involved in these techniques.
What you should do now

3. To get higher grades in your f inal year to boost your chances of getting into an art or design program in
college, test out the dif f erent study techniques listed in the journal and see which among them works f or you.
Again, there is no one technique that works on all students because not all are wired the same way. Some
respond well to summarizing the study material while others are better of f doing keyword mnemonics.
Also, you can try out study techniques you haven’t done below and see if it helps you study better and raise your
grades. Think of this as preparing yourself f or college by ref ining your studying habits f or the more demanding
coursework of f ered by the art and design programs.
For seniors, it is your final year. Make this count.
How about you, dear reader – are they any study techniques you’d like to share that has helped you in raising
your grades in high school? Post your suggestions on the comments section below!