As the sun begins to show its long-forgotten face in the merry month of May, college students can't help but feel the darkness and impending doom as their school year comes to an end. Chances are, right now you're either one of the two possibilities: you're either very confident in your grades, or you're in constant anxiety about trying to make sure you're final grade won't get you kicked out of school. Most likely you're the latter of the two types of students.
The process of getting that grade up in time for the end of classes can be tricky, but thankfully I've called upon the cast of "Glee" to help sum up the steps to trying to get that grade up.
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Step 1: Realizing your grade isn't as good as you thought it was.
It probably didn't really occur to you to actually check your grades periodically throughout the semester to make sure you were always on top of things. Maybe it was one or two bad quizzes or a few missed classes, but you just can't really figure out where you slipped up. So now you find yourself face-to-face with a monstrosity in your grade book that you didn't even know was there. Either way, what matters is that you've identified the problem. Now what to do? But of course, everyone's choice is the easy way...
Step 2: Asking your professor for extra credit...and being told "No."
Come on, it's May! What did you expect to hear? Chances are your professor has already offered a dozen extra credit opportunities throughout the semester (all of which you probably forgot to try and complete) and now that it's the last month of school, there's not much the professor can do about that. But fear not! The logical step next is...
Step 3: Formulating a game plan.
You're a smart individual, of course you can figure this out! All you need is a strategy and your can-do attitude! Have any missing assignments? Complete those! Know of any study groups? Go to those! You have all the confidence in the world! However, it only lasts so long...
Step 4: Break down crying during day 2 of your game plan because work/studying is really hard.
I'm not judging you if you have a breakdown due to the immense stress you're put under when you really need to get that grade up and it feels like every force in the world is working against you. Is all this effort even worth it? How much is your grade really going to improve before the final? Oh god, I didn't even think about the final yet, holy crap. You know what you need? You need the next step, which is...Step 5: Take a "well-deserved" break from studying to get absolutely wild.
Nothing gets the anxiety away by spending *one* night with your pals, just forgetting about life's troubles for a little while. Whether it's a movie night in your dorm or going out and having a fun, legal, and wild time, any way to relieve stress is going to do you some good. After you successfully have a night of fun, you get to move on to the next step...
Step 6: Realizing that all your work is still here and panicking.
Welp, I guess we kind of saw this coming. I mean, your work and studying aren't just going to disappear. Now, the first reaction would obviously be to panic. However, this isn't exactly the wisest thing to do. Instead of panicking, I recommend moving to the next step...
Step 7: Becoming a hermit to actually focus on work and studying.
The time has come to ACTUALLY buckle-down and get this stuff done and make sure you're fully prepared for the final. This means minimal social life, no video games, no Netflix; just you and your books. It's gonna suck, but this is what prepares you for the final two steps...
Step 8: Taking the final.
It's the moment of truth. Everything you've done has been preparing you for this test. You've done all the extra work you could find, re-read the entire textbook, and it all comes down to this. After this grueling step is completed, you may finally commence to the final step, which is...
Step 9: Realizing the final wasn't actually that bad and your grade might actually turn out OK.
Take a sigh of relief to finally know that it's over and you've done all you can possibly do. Turns out the final wasn't as terrible as you had imagined! You really are impressed with how you came through to do your best to get your grade up. So congratulations! You've successfully completed the steps to getting your grade up by the end of the year! Now you can actually get the nerve up to check you final grade...or you could move on to the bonus step, which is...
Step 10: Never actually checking your final grade because you don't really care and next year is an entirely new year to perfect yourself and your habits as a student.
Maybe you aced the final and got an awesome grade, or perhaps you didn't get the best grade ever. But in the end, there's nothing you can do to change it, so don't beat yourself up. We're all human, and we all mess up sometimes. Whether you ended up with a good grade or not, just know that next year is an entirely new year to become better and grow as a person.
