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10 Ways to Improve Your Grades When You’re Struggling
Study Techniques
8 min read

10 Ways to Improve Your Grades When You’re Struggling

Are you tired of a bad academic performance in school or college? Stop settling for less and achieve greater academic goals with a guide for boosting grades and helpful tips from StudyPro.
10 Ways to Improve Your Grades:
Written by
Catherine B.
Published on
May 15, 2025
Table of contents
The issue of academic performance has always been relevant, whether in middle school or university. According to the U.S. News, public middle school and high school teachers and administrators estimated that roughly 49% of their students were behind grade level in at least one subject as of the 2022-23 school year.
If you are struggling with getting good grades, these numbers clearly show that there are many students who do too. Still, leaving it as it might not be the best idea. After all, scoring good grades can help you:
  • Boost confidence and self-esteem;
  • Open doors to more schools and colleges;
  • Unlock scholarship, internship, and bootcamps;
  • Enhance your resume, and career opportunities .
“Okay, but what can I do to improve my grades?” Although it can feel overwhelming, improving your performance doesn’t need to be complicated. StudyPro prepared 10 non-banal, actionable strategies to help you! Here they are:
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1. Learn to Set Effective Goals

Having a specific study goal is beneficial for several reasons. Most importantly, it helps you stay focused, allows you to see the specific steps you need to take to achieve your objectives, and creates accountability. So it shouldn’t surprise you to see this tip topping our list of 10 ways to improve your grades as a student.
To use this to your advantage, learn to set SMART goals:
  • Specific: Not vague or broad, but very clear and precise in what you want to achieve.
  • Measurable: You should be able to quantify the progress using specific metrics or milestones.
  • Achievable: Your expectations should be realistic and manageable.
  • Relevant: Smaller goals and steps should align with your larger goal (i.e., graduate with a high GPA or score good grades on your final tests).
  • Time-bound: Setting small due dates and one main deadline can help you stay on track.
Example: “I need to have 6 tutoring sessions with my math teacher to improve my math grade from a C to an A by the end of the second semester of high school.”

2. Prioritize Key Academic Tasks

Once you have a well-defined goal, you need a plan. But before you create and write that plan down, it is important to identify when and where your focus is needed most. These are the types of academic tasks that require extra attention and should be scheduled during your peak focus hours:
  • Homework: Well-done and timely submitted homework helps you maintain your reputation and affects your final score by around 15%.
  • Projects: Bigger homework assignments like research papers, PowerPoint presentations, and others give you a chance to show off your abilities to your teachers and improve your performance.
  • Quizzes, tests, and exams: These directly impact your GPA, so make sure to highlight them in your plan and leverage advanced preparation and test taking strategies to handle them.

3. Develop a Strategic Plan and Manage Your Time

Once you define your key academic tasks, you can write a detailed plan for your days, weeks, or even months that includes all the important commitments you have to take care of. For example, if you want to study better, your daily study schedule can look like this:
Time
Activity
6:00-7:00 AM
Wake up, light exercise, morning routine
7:00-8:00 AM
Breakfast & reading or thorough note taking
8:00-3:00 PM
Classes
3:00-4:00 PM
Lunch & break
4:00-5:00 PM
Doing current homework (having a session with a tutor or one of your teachers)
5:00-6:00 PM
Additional after-school session to practice problems or write an essay due next week
6:00-7:00 PM
Dinner & extracurricular activities
7:00-8:00 PM
Subject-specific (for addressing weak points or extra credit) or project-specific session
Structure your days and weeks like this for maximum productivity. Use study planners or apps to keep your schedule organized, and apply time-management techniques to stay on track and get better results.

4. Implement Active Learning Techniques

Active learning techniques, unlike passive ones like simple reading or attending classes without participating, encourage you to question facts, analyze the obtained information, shape personal opinions, and exchange ideas with fellow students, tutors and teachers. As a result, they greatly improve your critical thinking, information retention, and motivation.
To gain these benefits, integrate the following techniques into your study schedule:
  • Quizzes – Help test how well you understand the subject’s key points and detect weak areas that you are struggling with the most.
  • Flashcards – Great for active recall, material retention and practice with fellow students or teachers.
  • Mind mapping – Lets you create visual representations of the studied material, write down and organize complex concepts in an easy-to-digest manner, and remember them easily.
  • Study group sessions – Allow you and your class participate actively in the learning process, exchange ideas, talk through complex topics or points, and act as private tutors for each other, which all helps you understand certain subjects better.
  • AI – Can simplify complex topics for you and help you understand them, quiz you, help you with note taking or practice tests, suggest tasks that are best for your learning style, etc. The applications are diverse, and you can read this "How Do I Use AI" article for more ideas.

5. Don’t Neglect Your Physical and Mental Health

Though it may not sound like an obvious study tip, taking better care of your physical and mental health can directly impact your academic success. According to Mental Health America, there are four key health-related factors that support strong performance in middle school, high school and beyond:
  • Regular exercise. Physical activity regulates your stress levels and emotions, helping you feel more energized and positive. It also helps improve brain function and cognitive abilities.
  • A balanced diet. Eating healthy and balanced meals that provide you with all essential nutrients can help you have optimal energy levels and fuel your brain for more productive work during and after classes.
  • Sufficient rest. Taking breaks and getting enough sleep is essential for keeping you energized, attentive, and positive. At the same time, high-quality rest can also help protect you from excessive stress at school.
  • Relaxation. Providing extra support for your mental health with meditation, yoga classes or other extracurricular activities and stress-coping techniques can help you feel calm, confident, and empowered to achieve your study goals.

6. Make the Best Use of Technology

How important is technology in education? It enhances learning accessibility by letting you access the needed information and all types of learning materials wherever you are and whenever you need them. Also, technology can aid planning, time management, note taking, preparation for classes and many other activities, helping you find your own way to study more efficiently.
Some specific apps that can support learning include:
  • Evernote – A popular note taking app that can help you write good notes, organize them by class, and synchronize your study materials across all devices.
  • Notion – A productivity application that lets you keep your goals, calendars, projects, classes and documents in one, customized space. It also has teamwork features for your study group sessions.
  • Pomofocus – A timer app that lets you leverage the Pomodoro technique for productivity and study in small chunks of focused time.
  • Quizlet – An app that allows you to create custom flashcards or use ready-made sets to enhance your learning. It also lets you take short tests to check how well you understand the subject’s key concepts and find areas for improvement.

7. Don’t Hesitate to Ask for Extra Help

Struggling with or falling behind in even one subject can make it difficult to stay organized and catch up on your own. There are countless challenges that can get in the way of achieving good grades and even put you at risk of failing your classes. The good news is that you can overcome them and reach your goals. You may just need a bit of extra help.
Luckily, there are many ways to get such help. You can ask your teachers or fellow students for it, hire private tutors, talk to your parents and ask them to participate in your home study sessions, and even delegate some of your assignments to professional writers.
What’s important, however, is that you shouldn’t wait until the last moment or hesitate to ask for help. Imagine you have a big and complicated project and an important test scheduled for the same day. If you ask for help early, it can let you score a good grade for your project and, at the same time, prepare for your test well. But if you put it off too long, the positive outcome is highly unlikely.

8. Get Rid of Distractions to Stay Focused

These days, there are plenty of distractions that can throw you off track and make it harder to reach your study goals. You probably guessed that most students find the biggest ones to be social media, messaging apps, video games, and other digital temptations.
Your productivity can take a serious hit if any of these things begin to take up parts of your study time or, worse, classes. So, try these tips to eliminate these and other distractions and stay focused during your study sessions:
  • Find a dedicated space free of background noise.
  • Organize your space wisely so that you have all your academic materials and supplies at hand.
  • Remove anything that might break your focus, including TV, gaming consoles, comic books, etc.
  • Disable notifications on your smartphone.
  • Consider focus apps that block access to social media or messengers for a set time period.

9. Foster a Growth Mindset

A growth mindset is the belief that any skill or area of knowledge can be developed through dedication, practice, and effort. If improving grades is the goal, adopting this mindset can help you stay motivated and continue working toward your objectives, even when faced with challenges.
Here is how you can start embracing a growth mindset today:
  • Educate yourself on its key concepts.
  • Shift your focus from fixed abilities to continuous improvement.
  • Embrace challenges and opportunities for growth.
  • Stop being afraid of failure and understand that it is a learning tool.
  • Equip yourself with free study tools for students that help you hone your skills and gain new knowledge.

10. Be Persistent but Patient

The tips we shared above should be a part of your daily routine and not a one-time thing. They will definitely help you get good grades, but only if you stay consistent in your actions. Remember, scoring a single A on a homework assignment or a few tests is great, but not enough to make your final grade perfect. In reality, improving your grades is a gradual process that requires steady, repeated effort.
Stock up on patience and don’t forget that academic success does not happen overnight. Instead, you should be ready for slow but steady improvement. Not seeing results right away can be discouraging, which is why a good way to maintain your motivation is to track your progress and celebrate small wins along the way.

Conclusion

If you, like many students before you, have fallen behind in your classes and want to turn things around, now you know that it does not have to be overly complicated. With a smart, structured approach, and some help from your teachers, you can strengthen both your knowledge and get good grades within the time period needed.
Here’s a brief recap of how to improve your grades with 10 easy, but actionable tips:
  1. Set SMART goals
  2. Prioritize your tasks
  3. Develop a plan with a study schedule
  4. Adopt active learning techniques
  5. Take care of your health
  6. Leverage technology
  7. Ask your teachers or tutors for help
  8. Eliminate distractions
  9. Adopt a growth mindset
  10. Be patient and persistent
Start applying this advice today, stay consistent with your effort, and prepare to see real improvements in your grades and long-term academic success.
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Frequently asked questions

Your good grades are a reflection of consistent studying and effort. Similarly, improving them takes time, dedication, and a well-structured approach.
Some of the most effective strategies include setting SMART goals, prioritizing key academic tasks, creating a clear plan, focusing on active learning techniques, taking care of yourself, using helpful tools and apps, asking teachers, tutors, or other students for help, studying in a dedicated, distraction-free study space, adopting a growth mindset, and staying disciplined.
As a rule, achieving good grades requires a significant investment of your time and effort. It’s also a complex process that involves multiple strategies and demands patience. But if you take a structured approach and stay consistent, it is possible to go from a C to an A within a short time period, depending on the subject, of course.
To make this process as efficient as possible, use our advice as your guide and stay dedicated until you achieve your goals.
The best strategy is to avoid falling behind in your classes in the first place. Of course, that is not always possible or even enough.
But turning the tips shared in this article into part of your daily routine and building effective study habits can help you stay on track and maintain good grades consistently, whether you are in middle school, high school, college or even summer school. Start by setting SMART goals, creating a study plan, and following it. Then, move on to applying the rest of the tips.
Sources:
  • Camera, L. (2023, February 9). New data shows that just as many students are behind grade level as last year. US News & World Report. https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2023-02-09/new-data-shows-that-just-as-many-students-are-behind-grade-level-as-last-year
  • Mental Health America. (2024, December 3). Boost your school performance by taking care of you | Mental Health America. https://mhanational.org/resources/boost-your-school-performance-by-taking-care-of-you/
  • Time management: 10 Strategies for Better Time Management. (n.d.). UGA Cooperative Extension. https://extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.html?number=C1042&title=time-management-10-strategies-for-better-time-management
  • What are SMART goals: examples for students and work. (2023, January 17). https://www.snhu.edu/about-us/newsroom/education/what-are-smart-goals
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