You’re partially through the school year, but when you check your grades, your heart drops into your stomach. How did you let your grades slide so far and what will you do now? Here are some tips for recovering from a rough start:

• • Don’t dwell on the bad start.
• • Focus on your scores and check them often.
• • Develop a plan of action.
• • Consider online tutoring or homework help

Don’t Dwell On It

What’s done is done, and it can’t be undone. Rather than dwelling on what can’t be changed, this gives you an opportunity to practice shifting your mindset. Don’t give up! Remember that school is a series of successes and failures, and your life is going to have ups and downs. The beautiful part of our failures is the opportunity to learn how to face them and regroup. By taking a breath right now and shifting gears, you’re learning an important life skill.

Today is your day to move forward on a different path. The choice of your path is yours and yours alone, so set some specific, achievable goals and start your journey on a different path. Visualize your success and then activate it.

You’re going to have to take a hard look at what you’ve been doing with your time and re-evaluate your priorities. Ask yourself the hard questions: What is stopping you from success? What do you need to let go of that’s preventing you from doing what it takes to achieve your highest goals?

It’s time to evaluate these things and eliminate anything standing in your way, replacing them with the work it’s going to take to bring up your grades. 

Focus On Your Scores

Moving forward, your mindset must be that every single assignment counts at maximum capacity. Get into your course gradebook and become a serious investigator. Go through every assignment with a fine-toothed comb. 

Do you have any quizzes, essays, or exams you can retake? What scores do you need for the rest of your assignments? What will you do to make sure you earn those scores? Do you need to ace the final exam? Once you’ve laid the investigative groundwork, it’s time to dive into the planning stage.

Make A Plan

Your first step is to set a study schedule and stick with it. You’re going to have to dig deep and dedicate a lot of time to bring up your grades. There’s no working around that.

What days can you dedicate to working on your classes? You will want to dissect your schedule and make time for as close to daily review and study as you can arrange. Your goal should be to study at the same time each day. This repetition and consistency will help you turn your study time into a routine, something you do not skip or ignore. Something that you hold in priority, although tough at the start, will become a natural part of your day.

Once you set a schedule and dedicate yourself to it, share it with your family and friends. It might be hard, but you are going to want to give them permission to hold you accountable for how you spend your time. Everyone wants independence, but there is absolutely no shame in admitting that you need help. Asking friends and family to hold you accountable for something as important as this is a great time to do just that. Everyone needs to ask others to help hold them accountable for different things throughout their lives; this is another opportunity to practice an important life skill.

Study time is a wonderful opportunity for review. During your scheduled study time, take notes, review your notes, re-write your notes, and get yourself organized. It might be time for you to re-evaluate your notetaking style. You can do a quick Google search and find many different examples of styles for notetaking. Find one that suits you and experiment with it. The more you personally identify with your notes, the more you will connect with them and remember them when the time comes to use them on exams.

In the end, when you’re struggling, it might be time to find and schedule time with an online tutor. Busy students sometimes think that this is impossible. However, platforms like Train the Brain allow you to schedule one-on-one tutoring online with a tutor of your choice. You can view the tutor’s profiles online and reach out to them to arrange time on your schedule. You don’t have to leave your home, and in fact, you can access your tutoring session any time and any where you have an internet connection. If you’re in over your head and it’s time to schedule with a tutor, you can check out your options and easily enroll online. 

Train the Brain is ready to help you get back on track. Get your mindset focused, do your investigative work into your grades, and develop a plan of action. It’s time to move past the mistake and onto a new path of success.