At some point in your college career, there’s going to be a class or even an entire semester where you didn’t do as well as you hoped. That was definitely the case my first semester in college. I had a hard time adjusting to college academics and my grades reflected that. 

In a perfect world, we would never encounter any academic hurdles, but that’s not reality. It’s so easy to become disheartened in college, but by working hard to get back on track you can use this experience as a lesson.

With a new school year starting up, now is the perfect time to get back on track academically. Here are five steps to success from someone who’s been there:

Table of Contents

1. Stop Beating Yourself Up

Failing a class or just not doing as well as you know you could sucks. Especially when you’re paying money for it. 

It’s okay to be disappointed and sad for a while, but getting stuck on failure doesn’t do you any good. 

The first step to doing better in school is to realize you messed up and everything is still going to be okay. All you can do at this point is learn from your mistake and move forward.

2. Reflect and Figure Out What Went Wrong 

The silver lining in making mistakes is the lessons you learn from them. 

In high school I, like many other people, made A’s and B’s easily while putting in minimal effort. However, once I got to college, I quickly learned that I couldn’t get away with that anymore.

A big part of why I didn’t do as well I wanted my first semester is because I wasn’t spending as much time studying as I should have. I wasn’t prepared for exams and it showed in my scores.

Now, I plan out specific times to study and exactly what to study. I schedule study time into my life so I don’t miss it or skip it.