I have met many fellow premeds on my journey through classes, extracurricular activities, and various online networks. Just the other day, I was introduced to a girl who is nervous to begin her junior year this fall. She expressed her deep concern about “only having a 3.5 GPA,” feeing uncertain that she could bring it up before application time. Her worries resonated with me as I remember having a nearly identical uneasiness in the middle of my own undergraduate education.

As premeds, we all too often have the destructive tendency to base our chances with medical schools too heavily on our GPAs. Luckily for many, these applications are holistic processes- your GPA alone does not define how well you’ll do in medical school or how successful a physician you’ll be. An impressive GPA alone does not guarantee admittance, but it is still an important component of an application. A GPA below the cut is enough to keep certain opportunities out of reach. For these reasons, I thought I’d share with you how I was able to get straight As my last two and a half years of college.     

Preparation is Key

This one is a lot easier said than done. Go into lecture prepared. Don’t let lecture be the first time you’re seeing the material. If your professor assigns pre-lecture reading, strive to complete all of it before going to class. At the very least, read through the lecture slides if they’re posted ahead of time. Make it a priority. Between a full course load, extracurricular activities, and other commitments, I know just how difficult it is to find the time to prepare for class work that hasn’t even been covered by your professor yet. But trust me, investing a little bit of time every day will pay off come test day. By thinking ahead and preparing for what’s to come, you’ll understand and retain more of the material covered in class. Once I learned to be more efficient and effective in managing my pre-lecture study time, I saw a huge payoff in my grades. As odd as it sounds, I no longer had to study for exams. Instead of cramming for hours before tests to teach myself the material, all I had to do was review and practice. The bulk of my efforts had already been done. A little bit of prep can go a long way in improving your performance and comprehension, while lowering your overall stress.     

Why > What 

General chemistry was easily the subject I struggled with most in undergrad. I remember getting so frustrated while studying. I focused most of my attention on finding patterns on which equations to use for which question types. Oh boy, don’t even ask me about some of my quiz/midterm grades. I don’t think I realized what a superficial way that was to approach “learning” until I began peer tutoring for other subjects. Higher education courses put much more emphasis on how to get to an answer rather than whether or not you know it. Don’t get me wrong, knowing details is important, but the more challenging and significant understanding comes from knowing how fundamental concepts interconnect. I’m talking inference and application, rather than factual recall alone. When you review, think critically about the material. I grew a lot throughout my undergraduate education, but I think my most memorable lessons came from learning how to think rather than what to think.

Get involved  

Learning is an active process so the way you study and review should be too. I can’t tell you how many times I used to lay in bed rereading my notes to prepare for an upcoming quiz or exam. We tend to think that if it was printed on a powerpoint slide then it must be fair game…everything else is irrelevant for getting a good grade. Wrong. I learned that knowing all of the details front to back is not sufficient to master the material. Engage with it. Try to get away from rereading your textbook or watching a lecture podcast a second time- those are passive ways of reviewing the information. Instead, switch up your routine with some more creative study methods. About halfway through college I ditched the lined paper, left my computer at home, and took all of my notes on blank printer paper. I was able to manipulate the material to be more understandable and memorable to me. Start with a blank slate and build from there. Personalize your notes to be organized in a way that makes sense to you: draw concept maps, make diagrams, color code.

My last piece of advice is don’t just think, talk. Start up a discussion with some of your classmates. Be the type of student who actively participates in office hours. If you’re doing office hours right, you should already have reviewed your notes and identified which concepts you need a little extra help with. Most importantly, show up with specific questions. It’s okay not to know all of the answers, after all, you are taking the course to learn something new. Nothing is more exciting to tutors and professors than seeing students who want to work towards the answers rather than just being handed them.     

I hope this advice finds you well if you’re looking for ways to give your academic performance a boost. Unfortunately, there is no magic formula to guarantee you’ll get that A you want. These are just the three major changes I made that led to significant improvement in my education and performance. Keep working hard and your efforts will begin to pay off. Please feel free to leave comments below sharing your own strategies towards achieving academic success.   

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