How to raise your grades

Raising a grade can be difficult, especially students are going through a mental block or have some distraction in their personal lives, but there are lots of ways to grasp more pillars to support themselves.

It starts with effort. Students can bring their grades up by going to tutoring, studying, asking questions, avoiding things that would distract them, completing assignments, retaking tests and more. Even going to Saturday school to make up work and to create separation from distractions at home can help.

Do the work

Stacy Prieto, an English teacher who mostly has sophomore students, said that all teachers have their own philosophies, but for her, the students just have to do the class assignments.

“Any time they fall behind, all they have to do is do the work because I always accept late work,” Prieto said.

After having too many students repeatedly turning in late work and sometimes not doing it correctly, she made a policy in her classroom that if the students want to turn in late work they must stay at least half an hour during after- school tutoring so they can ask questions.

Maintaining and bringing up grades in some classes is just a matter of turning in the work. Sometimes that might not be possible due to certain circumstances, so some teachers offer after- school opportunities, make- up work and Saturday school.

“They sometimes stay to work and other times do ask questions,” Prieto said.

Ask questions

Of course, just turning in work isn’t going to cut it all the time. If students don’t understand the work they’re trying to turn in, asking questions and looking for guidance is also a great way to understand the assignment.

Anna Valeria Hernandez, a 17- year- old junior at Southwest High School, is involved in multiple school activities such as the academic decathlon, orchestra and swimming. She said she became complacent about her bad grades, and she doesn’t like asking for help.

Asking for help can be scary, nerve- wracking or frustrating for students, so students can manage their stress and emotions to make the process easier.

“Cry, and then think of ways to bring [ your grades] up,” Hernandez said.

Crying aside, there are multiple things a student can do to try to remain focused and do their work, such as listening to music, having non- distracting background noise and staying in an area that you know won’t distract you.

However, letting emotions and negative thoughts affect you too much can make low grades feel catastrophic.

Set priorities and limit distractions

Lacey Jones, a biology teacher at Southwest High School, used to teach AP Biology and Medical Biology, said that students have to know what will impact their grade the most.

A huge part of raising and maintaining good grades is doing test corrections since most of the time tests and quizzes weigh more on a grade.

“Try to do the bigger things first so you see the biggest improvement,” Jones said.

For example, if there is a big project that has to be resubmitted and 10 other small assignments that were just too tedious to do, focusing on the big project affects a grade a lot more than the 10 minor assignments.

And, avoiding distractions is crucial to making up work because they frequently play a role in what students don’t complete their work.

“If the student works at home to have a designated time window at home, then they are going to do their work, no distractions,” said Jones.

Do corrections and retake tests

David Lopez teaches Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 at SHS, and he said a major way to improve grades is to take advantage of any offers to correct or retake tests.

“I provide after- school tutoring on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and students can stop by during Advisory as well,” he said. “Students are also allowed to retake a test only if they have completed the test corrections and come in for tutoring.”

Corrections are a crucial part of raising and maintaining grades. If for some reason a student does not pass an exam and then is given a chance to retake it and obtain the points missed, then taking advantage of this opportunity would be a wise course of action.

Overall, teachers offer many ways for students to raise their grades, as long as the students take advantage of those opportunities.