Grades are a big part of college life. You need a minimum
GPA to stay enrolled in a college or university, to be able to transfer
schools, to enroll in specialty programs (nursing, physical therapy school,
graduate school, etc.), and you definitely need a minimum GPA to keep your
parents happy if they’re helping foot the bill for college. So if there’s
something you might consider not sabotaging, grades are a good place to start.
Earning grades is a tough, long process, but sabotaging your grades is a quick
and easy task from which recovery can be difficult if not impossible.
Sabotaging your grades can show up in many forms. But let’s
start by taking a look at your priorities. Making your education a priority in
your life is critical to your success as a student, however I strongly suggest
that education is not your top priority. Your health and well-being should come
first over anything else and when you think about it it makes complete sense –
you can’t do your best work in school if you aren’t healthy and well. However,
using health and wellness as an excuse to not do your best work in school will
also not serve you. Taking a week off for a “mental health break” from school,
whether you’re in a five-week or a fifteen-week semester, will never bring you
success. In cases like this, I often refer students to academic advisors to
re-evaluate whether they truly have the time and energy to be enrolled in
school. One of my favorite excuses is the student who leaves at 8:00p.m. every
class meeting (when the class normally lets out at 9:00p.m.) because they have
to get to bed at a decent hour. When you sign up for classes, it’s a good idea
to think these things through before enrolling in that 8:00a.m. class (that you
may have a hard time waking up for) or that late-evening class (when you really
just want to go home and end the day). Your priorities here do not include your
education anywhere in the top five or ten, so it’s time to re-evaluate: rather
than sabotage your standing, maybe you need some time off from school or just
to stop enrolling in early morning or late night classes.
Lack of organization and preparedness is another way
students often sabotage their grades. In coaching sessions, we talk about the
need for organization to be able to do your best work:
·
Having a separate notebook/binder for each
course makes materials easy to find and access, for example.
·
Do you find electronic notes or handwritten
notes easier to take and work with? If you prefer electronic notes, keeping
things organized on your computer is even simpler than keeping hand-written
notes – and you have only to keep your laptop with you when going from class to
class.
·
Printing out your own weekly schedule showing
when (and where, if necessary) your classes are. This will not only give you a
quick way to keep pace with your week, but you can easily share this with your
family and friends.
Think about what your life would be like without proper organization:
a clutter of papers, a confusion of scheduling throughout the week, the
creation of conflicts between work and school, and a lack of preparation for
big school events (tests, papers, projects). A lack or organization equates to
a willing effort to sabotage your own efforts in school. Take control of this
area of your life that is so simply reined in!
We talk a lot about this in individual coaching sessions,
but if there is one thing that makes me sigh in disbelief it is when I hear a
student say that they will purposefully do poorly on an exam or assignment to
“show the teacher just how terrible they are at teaching”. Ugh. If you ever
utter these words, may the gods of education strike you down and tattoo on your
skin: “My grades are a reflection of the knowledge I have and am able to apply
and nothing more” (or maybe something shorter if the gods are merciful). If
you’re sabotaging your grades in hopes of retribution to an instructor you
don’t enjoy, I should tell you: your grades have absolutely no bearing on the
careers of your instructors. We use grades to assess how well students are
understanding and able to apply concepts we teach and nothing more. Grades
aren’t used to determine the ability of the instructor to teach or the future
career success of any instructor. So do your best work as self-sabotage holds
no weight here!
Students often form small groups that chat amongst
themselves before and after class, which is wonderful! You should always be
working together to share information and help each other – cooperative
learning grows students! Something that doesn’t grow students: groups of
students who get together and convince each other they are failures. I often
hear groups of students saying things like: I’ll never pass one of these tests,
I’m just not good at this subject, or I will never understand this topic. When
you let yourself tell stories like this, you eventually come to believe them –
and this is most certainly self-sabotage. These messages sabotage your
confidence, your self-esteem, and your ability to learn. Don’t get sucked into
group-think that sabotages you – and don’t let others around you participate in
this type of group-think!
The final way I see students sabotaging their own grades is
more passive, but certainly just as important. Students who need help and extra
study and don’t seek that out are absolutely sabotaging their grades. Every
college and university I have ever worked for offers free tutoring for students
– if you need tutoring and you’re not taking advantage of this, shame on you!
And don’t forget – you can always ask your instructor for extra help!
Instructors have office hours and email and you can use both of those to ask
questions and get answers! Be sure you’re asking specific questions so you get
straight to the information and explanation you need.
While I hope you’re not a student who sabotages their grade,
if you are there’s no time like the present to take action! Start small, with
maybe one area in which you want to improve, and you can move up from there.
Don’t expect perfection from yourself, but do expect your best work! I can’t
wait to hear how you’re doing this spring!
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