A big part of the strategies I used to boost my GPA revolved around how I studied for my classes. As an aspiring engineer, I knew the importance of understanding the theory behind the more complicated topics, and how understanding that theory made it easier to not only comprehend the topic but apply it elsewhere. This is a big part of my first GPA booting method: Understanding the what, not the how. Especially in the sciences and maths, properly understanding the reasoning behind what you are learning makes it much easier to wrap your head around the steps to complete problems on whatever topic you need a boost in. It is also common that the most complicated topics will often be the foundation for topics learned later in class, which is why learning to properly comprehend these topics is so important as establishing that foundation will boost your performance in the class far later down the line.

Another big GPA-boosting strategy I have picked up was proper time management, something I learned from my time as Captain of our school’s robotics team. While a very broad life skill, it is very effective at boosting GPA. Time management can help you ensure assignments get done, study time gets used, and essays get written, all within a matter that still allows for much-needed R&R. Not only does efficient completion of the actual assignments lead to a GPA boost, but that extra R&R you get from proper time management helps you space out all of the work you do. This ensures that work done after the R&R is just as good, if not better, as the work you did before; compared to crunch sessions of multiple essays/assignments where the quality degrades as time ticks on.

This leads to what I found didn’t work for GPA boosting, constantly trying to study. I was always a person who struggled with allocating proper time for studying, a trait that persisted even after my diagnosis and treatment of ADHD (story for another day). Whether it was because I wasn’t interested in the topic, I wanted to do something else, or (most likely) I was already doing plenty fine in the class, proper study schedules never worked out. So I tried forcing myself to study, dedicating multiple days to multi-hour sessions on whatever topic I thought I somewhat struggled with. This resulted in a stress-induced crash at Mach 5, where I barely had the willpower to do anything and anything I did force myself to do was barely failing if I was lucky. It was here I took the strategy mentioned in the last paragraph, spacing out studies and only working when I was mentally able, which fared out much better.

Overall, the best strategies that worked for me were ones that didn’t involve constant grinding, ones that understood the need to take a break, and ones that were willing to respect my time if I respected the grades I wanted to boost. Now, with my 3.91 unweighted GPA, I’d say it all worked out pretty well!