Tips on How to Get Straight A’s in College

[LevelUP]

I thought it would be neat to start a thread on how to get straight A's in college.  

Does a High GPA Matter?
1. Some master's programs require a minimum 3.0 GPA.
2. Lots of Federal jobs require a minimum 3.0 GPA.
3. Some internships and jobs in the private sector look at GPA when hiring.
4. Medical School, Law School, and others could look at your college GPA.
5. Scholarships often require students to maintain a certain GPA.

I'll start with an obvious tip:
1.  When writing a paper, follow the instructions and rubric to a T.
The rubric will tell you everything you need to know such as what format the paper should be in, points for each section, and what information needs to be included.

So whether your college experience has been Alt credits, pass/fail college courses, or graded college courses, post in the thread what has helped you to pass the course.  Sharing tips should help everyone save time and earn a higher score.

[ss20ts]

I am often amazed at how many people I see on other platforms submit papers and are surprised by the grades when they admit they didn't follow the rubric or instructions. If you need APA or MLA or whichever writing style help please ask your school for help! It's out there. Most writing centers and libraries are extremely willing to help students out.

[rachel83az]

This won't directly help you with your assignments, but this is still a useful course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn

[MNomadic]

Literally read the syllabus and find out how the grade is broken down. Some courses have the majority of your grade come from tests while others have only a small portion of your grade come from tests. This will tell you how to prioritize your time whether you should study for tests or do us on assignments. I've had courses where I've skipped assignments and finished with an A because I did the math and knew I could.

Also, focus on maximizing your grade early on when the class is going to be slower/easier so you can give yourself a buffer for when things inevitably get harder or for when "life" happens.

[Alpha]

I have two tips.  
Always do more than you think is necessary.  Find the other students who have straight A's and hang out with them.

[LevelUP]

In my CC and on Study.com, APA wasn't that big of a deal, so I didn't know that I was making lots of mistakes with APA until I started my capstone.  I was lucky that my professor was patient, and I was still receiving grades in the '90s even though there were errors with my APA.

TESU recommends Purdue Owl as an APA resource:
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_...ction.html

Citation Machine was also useful to me though you still have to learn all the exceptions to the different rules and sometimes it will make mistakes.
https://www.citationmachine.net/

Another thing that helps is to get organized and write a schedule of due dates, so you don't turn in assignments late.  This can be done on Google Calendar or a spreadsheet.

[tpowell]

In my CC and on Study.com, APA wasn't that big of a deal, so I didn't know that I was making lots of mistakes with APA until I started my capstone.  I was lucky that my professor was patient, and I was still receiving grades in the '90s even though there were errors with my APA.

TESU recommends Purdue Owl as an APA resource:
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_...ction.html

Citation Machine was also useful to me though you still have to learn all the exceptions to the different rules and sometimes it will make mistakes.
https://www.citationmachine.net/

Another thing that helps is to get organized and write a schedule of due dates, so you don't turn in assignments late.  This can be done on Google Calendar or a spreadsheet.

1) I  highly suggest investing in Grammarly or readability.
2) Layout your paper sections using the rubric framework, then write each section according to the step-by-step instructions.
3) Recheck for cohesiveness
4) Submit and wait for your A OR A+

[Alpha]

In my CC and on Study.com, APA wasn't that big of a deal, so I didn't know that I was making lots of mistakes with APA until I started my capstone.  I was lucky that my professor was patient, and I was still receiving grades in the '90s even though there were errors with my APA.

TESU recommends Purdue Owl as an APA resource:
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_...ction.html

Citation Machine was also useful to me though you still have to learn all the exceptions to the different rules and sometimes it will make mistakes.
https://www.citationmachine.net/

Another thing that helps is to get organized and write a schedule of due dates, so you don't turn in assignments late.  This can be done on Google Calendar or a spreadsheet.

1) I  highly suggest investing in Grammarly or readability.
2) Layout your paper sections using the rubric framework, then write each section according to the step-by-step instructions.
3) Recheck for cohesiveness
4) Submit and wait for your A OR A+

Writing is an important skill and academic writing is a very structured approach.  Tools like Grammarly are designed to help transition people up the ladder and I've seen some good results with people using it as a learning tool, not just as a glorified spell-checker.  As for the APA method, I'm in favor of any useful learning tool.  I don't think there's any real value in memorizing all those rules and exceptions (although you do memorize a lot of it if you use it frequently.)  I think that another benefit of the learning tools is that it helps you in reading academic essays and research and you come to appreciate good academic writing as well as bad academic writing.

[LevelUP]

Everything usually starts with the school and courses that you pick. So here are some tips related to that. 

• Select a college that doesn't have lots of landmines, such as many classes with high DFW rates
  
• Select a major that you're interested in, and that fits your strengths
  
• Select courses that don't overload your schedule
  

A bad school can make your life a living hell. After which, Employers won't know or care that you may have had a crazy professor that failed half the class, and despite all this, you still earned a B. Instead, they'll see the letter grade B, which is ordinary, not extortionary.

I wouldn't suggest going into engineering if the highest math you had in high school was algebra. In order to find a major that fits you, read some books and explore what you're interested in. If you like doing something as a hobby, explore academic subject areas related to your hobby.

We all have weaknesses. Then you have family, social, work, and other commitments to deal with. Loading up your schedule with too many challenging courses all at the same time can lead to trouble.

[ReyMysterioso]

Don't leave "money on the table." It drives me crazy when my stepdaughter will post 1 or 2 discussion board posts instead of the mandatory 3 out of ....I dunno.... Laziness or apathy?
"You lost points there. The posts aren't graded for content, only quantity. Discussion board is 1/4 of your grade. That's an easy segment of the grade to get 100%. Why would you leave money on the table? Now you have to ace the exam to get an A."
"Iunno."
"Why would you not do one of the Ceregos? You can't not get 100% on those!"
"Iunno."
"Never give up 'free' points! Never leave money on the table!"
"I knooooowwwwwww. *eyeroll*"