There are many reasons why hard-working, intelligent students may not achieve high grades. The most common problem for most students is not knowing how to study. If you’re in the STEM subjects, you will need to know how to prepare for examinations. In subjects like mathematics, you must master the mathematical theorems and their applications. To achieve this, you must do “tons” of problems from the textbook and check the answers or solutions to ensure that you understand the meanings of the theorems. This also applies to computer science, where you must practice writing programs and running them to detect errors. Similar study techniques apply in physics and chemistry. That is, understand the concepts and practice their application.
During my university years, I would write a summary of the main theorems and their types of applications. Then I would condense my 40-page summary into a 20-page “secondary summary.” And finally, I would prepare a 10-page ultimate summary that would enable me to review in my head all the main theorems and their applications. This process helped me consolidate all the ideas into a compact, easily retrievable form. I used a similar approach in preparing for examinations in physics and chemistry.
Some of my world-wise colleagues would look up past examinations that had been set by their professors and would rehearse solutions to those problems. They were aware that sometimes, professors save themselves effort by recycling old examination questions.
The most important aspect of doing well academically is to develop a deep interest in the subject. This interest will drive you to move beyond the course requirements and give you a more comprehensive perspective on the subject.
In courses other than STEM, it’s important to take detailed notes, and capture the main ideas in the readings, understanding their implications and especially those stressed by your professors. In most cases, your essays can advance arguments that might run counter to the opinions of your professor as long as you back up your arguments with well-documented research. Unfortunately, some university level courses that deal with controversial subjects like economics or politics may be delivered by professors with strong opinions and little tolerance for disagreement. In such cases, the chances of getting an “A” are greater if your opinions do not conflict with those of the professor. I hope such cases are rare exceptions, but you are well-advised to be aware of this possibility. I once told my professor of English literature that I thought Keats’ statement,
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.’
had no real meaning, because it was too vague and didn’t acknowledge that beauty is a perception while truth is absolute. Furthermore, we need to know a lot more than beauty and truth. Not only was he not amused, he judged my performance in his class as unworthy of an A.
Marks have some importance, but the real gold that you will mine at university is manifest in the development of your thinking skills. As Einstein once responded to a reporter, “The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think.”
