How to Be an A Student

I graduated from high school with, I think, an embarrassing B average. I spent the entire four years alternating between feeling pretty smart and agonizing over unfavorable comparisons to my smart friends. I spent a little too much time thinking about boys-- one in particular-- and not enough time with homework. I love my friends, and now that I'm older, I'm so grateful that we found each other then.

In college, my first year was a disaster. I was ambitious in my course planning, and included, among other things, an 8 a.m. philosophy lecture. I worked, sometimes until 10 or 11 at night, and I swam on the junior college swim team. I was in over my head, and I don't mean in the pool. My final GPA that year was below a C, I think. Maybe worse. While I got A's in some classes -- psychology, geology, art -- I just stopped going to the philosophy class mid-way through the year, but didn't withdraw, and completely fouled up a sociology class. I was majorless, directionless, and my parents were just wrapping up their divorce. Both were using me as a sounding board for their problems. I didn't feel like I had anywhere to go for guidance or support. I was working at a movie theater. In Modesto, this is a great job for a teenager, and I never regret it. Free movies, free popcorn, and air-con-ditioning all day long. But it does not pay well.

I knew I didn't want to give up on school. I had seen my parents both struggle in adulthood to take college courses and get their degrees while working full time jobs and taking care of us. I knew I wanted to graduate from college. I was afraid to apply to a four year college, mainly because of the expense, but also because I didn't know if I could handle it. I didn't know how to get from where I was to one of the places in the many catalogs I'd sent away for.

The summer of that first year, one of my best friends moved to Santa Cruz to attend UCSC. I was still working, taking one class, and had met a guy on the swim team in Modesto. When he moved home, also to Santa Cruz, I followed, with the excuse that I wanted to move there anyway because of my friend. (I was born in Santa Cruz, and my family has history there, so it was also a place I'd wanted to go back to.) Later that summer, he was offered a full scholarship to Long Beach State to play water polo, and he went. I felt abandoned, but if I had followed him to Long Beach, I would have had to admit that I followed him to Santa Cruz in the first place. Not to mention that he didn't ask. But that is another story that ends badly.

So, in Santa Cruz, I went to another junior college, Cabrillo. I decided to make a fresh start and try to be the very best student I could be. As a long-time procrastinator, I know that part of the fear is "What if I do my very best and it still isn't good enough?" So I decided to find out. If I did my best and still didn't do well in school, I was going to quit and find a full-time job.

Here is what I did:
1. Show up, every day
No excuses, no cutting classes. When the teacher explains the acceptable number of absences, don't even write it down. Just go.

2. Sit in the front
If you're making eye contact with the teacher on a daily basis, you're less likely to drift off and more likely to engage with the subject matter. Initially I did this as part of number 3 below, to "fool" the teacher into thinking I was an A student by behaving like one, but I found that it also changed the way I behaved in class for the better.

3. Act like an A student
As above, make eye contact with the teacher, pay attention, smile, ask questions, take notes. Even if you just sit in the front, nod your head strategically and scribble jibberish every once in a while, it helps to create the impression.

4. Create "homework gaps" in your schedule
For budgetary reasons that first year (i.e., I was supporting myself and did not have a car yet) I did not buy any text books. That meant all of my homework had to be done in the school library with loaner books. Leaving hour-long gaps throughout my day, especially just before or just after tough classes, meant that I always had time to do the reading and course homework while the information was still fresh in my mind, or at least do it right before class so that it would be turned in on time. Assuming there will be homework and planning time for it without the distractions of home is huge. When I left campus for work or for home, I wouldn't have to worry about studying late at night, exhausted, or trying to study with a party going on.

5. Join study groups before big exams
This was my least favorite thing. I'm not really that social when it comes to school. I also found that I was often ahead of the curve and would end up tutoring other students, but anything that reinforces the information so that you can remember it for the test is good. Someone always has the answer to a question you can't answer. Sometimes, another student who knew someone who had previously taken the class would even show up with an old test to review, so that we knew the potential nature of the questions. Once, this happened, and it turned out that the instructor had not changed one word of the test in years. I accepted my A+ a little sheepishly, but I knew the material, so he could have given me any test and I would have aced it, and I did get the extra-credit questions.
(Always go for the extra credit, by the way.)

6. Always do your reading
This goes without saying, and fits into the study gaps above. Rather than trying to get away with reading as little as possible, prepare before class and read the subject matter that is going to be discussed. Make notes about things you don't understand, and ask the teacher. That's what they are there for.

This seems like a lot of work, but when you're in school, school is your job. It's your priority. If you really don't want to be there, go find something you do want to do, and do it to the very best of your ability. A lot of it, just like in the real world, is "Fake it til you make it." Look like a good student, act like a good student, and study like a good student, and you will be a good student. I started doing all of these things initially for other reasons, to create a false impression of studiousness, to save money, etc., but I found that together, they changed the way I approached school.

When I graduated, slightly over the recommended four years, but completely school-debt-free, it was with honors. Magna cum laude. I had raised my GPA as far as I could after that first year: I was a nearly straight A student (only one B, in an art class if you can believe it). It made me realize that I was in many ways as smart as my smart friends, and that anything is indeed possible if you put your mind to it.