How to Improve Your University Grades Every Year

In our busy student lives we rarely take the time to pause and evaluate what we have experienced and learned. We submit one essay and immediately start work on the next.

We’re always looking forward, counting down the time until we graduate. We rarely stop for a minute to analyse what our experiences provide us.

We slam our books closed at the end of the academic year and try not to think about studying too much until it all starts again.

Before you start a new academic year is a great time to look back at what you’ve experienced, discovered and achieved in the past year. It’s a time to reflect on where you’ve been and the lessons you’ve learned.

Don’t worry if you’re already part or halfway through your university year. This self-reflection process will still be helpful. It’s important to celebrate your achievements regularly, and right now is always the best time to make positive change in your life.

So what is self-reflection?

Self-reflection is defined as, ‘careful thought about your own behaviours and beliefs’.

Two elements of self-reflection needed to improve your university grades

1. Understanding your methods and questioning why you’re using them

It’s easy to fall into the habit of taking notes, organising yourself and revising in the same way. Self-reflection will help you determine the effectiveness of these strategies and if there are changes you could make.

2. Celebrating the positives

We often race onto the next goal without any recognition of what we’ve achieved. But, celebrating your strengths, skills and wins will keep you motivated throughout your studies and give you the confidence to persevere and push for your goals.

Three benefits of self-reflection

1. Strengthens emotional intelligence

Self-reflection involves looking inwards. You’ll build self-awareness as you start to understand your strengths, weaknesses, emotions, drivers, and goals. You’ll understand why you do things and how to control your emotions, impulses and behaviours. These leadership skills will help you throughout your studies and in your career.

2. Builds confidence

Think about how being more confident could benefit you and the choices you make in your education, career and personal life. As you reflect on your studies you’ll become aware of your strengths and how you can build upon them. This will make you more confident in future as you’ll know where your strengths lie and how to close the gap by improving your weaker areas.

3. An important life skill

Learning to reflect is not just valuable in your studies. Self-reflection is also an important career skill. Many professions will require you to participate in ‘lessons learned’ type activities to learn from issues and errors to make improvements for next time.

Self-reflection may seem a little woo woo and vague to some of you but it’s key for your development.

The first step to making improvements in your life is to recognise a need for change. Self-reflection provides this first step by guiding you to question what you do, why you do it, and what you want.

I’ve come up with six areas of questions you should explore if you want to understand where you’re at in your studies. Answer these questions to recognise your successes and progress and identify areas you could work on to improve your university grades in future.

1. YOUR GRADES

What grades did you achieve and are you happy? Why do you think you got these grades?

2. YOUR STUDY METHODS

What study methods do you use and do they work? Could your methods be improved or should you experiment with new ones?

3. STRENGTHS & ACHIEVEMENTS

What successes have you had and which are you the most proud of? What are your study strengths and what new skills and habits have you developed? What did you enjoy learning? What topics really interested you?

4. IMPROVEMENTS & LESSONS LEARNED

What are you not happy about and are there areas you fell short of your goals? What are your weaker study skills? Where could you make improvement?

5. WORK/LIFE INTEGRATION

Are you happy with how you integrate studying into the rest of your life? What problems do you face in staying on track with your studies?

6. MOTIVATION & MINDSET

How do you feel when studying and how do you want to feel moving forwards? How do you motivate yourself to study and how do you celebrate your hard work and successes?

Schedule 20-30 minutes into your calendar to dedicate to this super powerful exercise. When you’re ready, get rid of all distractions so you can focus on answering the questions fully. Get comfy at your desk or on the sofa and grab some yummy snacks. You could even pour a glass of wine!

Invest time in yourself and reap the benefits of more confidence and more clarity going into your next academic year. Complete this powerful exercise if you’re determined to improve your university grades.