School in general is stressful for everyone, but it doesn’t always have to be. With a few simple strategies, you can improve your grades quickly and keep from being stressed out all the time. I hope they are of as much help to you as they are to me.

Listen In Class

As Obvious as this seems, this is the most surefire way to tackle school with no trouble at all. Pay full attention in class, and you’ll find yourself knowing material on the test even if you Never studied it for a second outside of the classroom.

Take Notes

Almost as apparent as #1, taking notes is extremely important, even if you feel as though you have a grasp on the material. Simply copying down the notes or jotting down a few things really quick will help you remember them better than you would think, even if you’re paying No attention to what the teacher is discussing.

Quiz With Friends

Before a test, get in a group with two or three other friends and have one of them quiz everyone with a study guide. I have found this to be 100 times more effective than studying alone, as the questions will be repeated over and over without me having to sit and read them over and over. It also creates almost a sense of competition, which I have found to be subconscious incentive for taking in more material more quickly.

Memory Trick

When I was in middle school, a teacher of mine gave or class a small lesson on how the memory works while we memorized Latin roots. She told us that you remember things best that are associated with any extremity of any emotion. In other words, you will remember events or words that were hilarious, extremely sad, horrifying, disgusting, shocking, etc. In knowing this, you can associate words to Completely random things that bring about any form of extreme emotion and remember them Much more quickly and efficiently. For instance, when learning guitar, a friend told me to use an acronym to memorize the strings in order. He then proceeded to make up a random one, and it was ‘Elvis Ate Diarrhea Gushers Because Everyone else did.’ (EADGBe). Yes, ridiculous. But, it made me laugh for about ten minutes, simply because That was the first thing to come off the top of his head. I haven’t forgotten the order of the strings (or that acronym) since.

Extra Help With Teachers

If you are anything like me, you may have thought this was completely pointless for a while. ‘Why try and relearn something I didn’t learn in class? It’s not like it’d be taught any differently!’ I was wrong. When the teacher is one on one with you, he/she will spend much more time working on Exactly what you had trouble on and, I’ve found, shorten the lesson a great deal. In focusing on only bits and pieces of a lesson in a concise form, you should be able to easily fill the gaps you had in understanding.

I know that most of these skills are basic and obvious, but I chose the Top 5 ways and these are them. Even though you may think that these are no help to anyone, trust me. They will come in more handy than you may realize.

-Kevin F