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12 Ways on How to Get Good Grades That Actually Work

12 Ways on How to Get Good Grades That Actually Work

This article explains practical ways to get good grades by improving study habits, managing time wisely, staying organized, and using tools like StudyAgent to support learning and writing tasks.
Olena A.
Olena A.
Dec 8, 2025
How to Get Good Grades
Study Techniques
10 min read
Table of contents
Getting better grades comes from smart habits, including showing up prepared, managing time with discipline, keeping track of assignments, and studying according to your learning style. Data from the NCES shows that students who study in shorter intervals perform better across subjects, which means that steady effort matters far more than last-minute cramming. The tips in this article break these habits down into steps you can take without overhauling your routine.
Although it can feel overwhelming, improving your performance doesn’t need to be complicated. StudyAgent prepared 12 non-banal, actionable strategies to help you!
Ways to Improve Your Grades

1. Learn to Set Effective Goals

Setting SMART goals is one of the most effective ways to improve your grades. It helps you stay focused, allows you to see the specific steps you need to take to achieve your objectives, and creates accountability.
To use this to your advantage, learn to set SMART goals:
  • Specific: be clear and precise in what you want to achieve.
  • Measurable: progress should be quantifiable using specific metrics or milestones.
  • Achievable: Your expectations should be realistic and manageable.
  • Relevant: Smaller goals and steps should align with your larger goals.
  • Time-bound: Setting small due dates and one main deadline can help you stay on track.

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 and presentations 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. Build a Time Plan

Building a time plan is another important step to take towards getting your grades up. Here are practical time management tips that you can use and actually stick with:
  • Work in short blocks. Long sessions drain focus, while 30-minute blocks keep you moving.
  • Plan one week at a time. A small window is easier to control than a whole semester.
  • Start earlier than feels necessary. Even a slight head start softens the pressure later.
  • Match tasks to your energy. Use your strongest hours for harder work.
  • Remove obvious distractions. Keep the phone out of reach with notifications off.
  • Protect your sleep. Clear thinking saves more time than late-night scrambling.
You may also like to read how to study for a test.

4. Implement Active Learning Techniques

Active participation and learning, unlike passive learning activities like simple reading, encourage you to question facts, analyze the obtained information, shape personal opinions, and exchange ideas with fellow students, tutors, and teachers.
Follow these techniques to improve grades:
  • Quizzes: Help test how well you understand the subject’s key points and detect weak areas.
  • Flashcards: Great for active recall, material retention, and practice with other students or teachers. Most teachers will give you a helping hand whenever you need it.
  • Mind mapping: Lets you create visual representations of the studied material, write down and organize complex concepts, and remember them easily.
  • Study group sessions: Allow you and your class to participate actively in the learning process, exchange ideas, talk through complex topics or points, and act as private tutors for each other.
  • AI: Can help you improve your final grades by simplifying complex topics, helping you with note-taking or practice tests, suggesting tasks that are best for your learning style, etc.

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, even summer 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 a good night's 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 help you with maintaining good grades:
  • StudyAgent: A platform that offers a copilot for writing and studying with multiple smart tools.
  • Evernote: A popular note taking app that can help you write 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.
  • 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.

7. Don't Hesitate to Ask for Extra Help

One of the best study tips is simply to ask for help. Struggling with or falling behind in even one subject can make it difficult to stay organized and catch up on your own. The good news is that you can overcome them and reach your goals. You may just need a bit of extra help. Here’s how you can get help:
  • Ask your teachers or fellow students for help.
  • Hire private tutors.
  • Talk to your parents and ask them to participate in your home study sessions.
  • Get professional help with difficult assignments.
If you’re trying to figure out what exactly your professor’s expectations are, read our blog that answers that very question - What do professors look for in an essay?

8. Get Rid of Distractions to Stay Focused

Most students think that the biggest distractions are 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. So, try these tips for keeping your grades up and staying focused during your study sessions:
  • Find a dedicated space free of noise and distractions.
  • 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 Attentive in Class

Being attentive and participating in class discussions helps you understand material better, catch the small examples that are not mentioned in the textbook, and find out what might show up on the exam. Here are more ways to get good grades:
  • Attend every class, even the “easy” ones.
  • Listen with intention instead of trying to write down everything.
  • Ask questions the moment something is not clear.
  • Join the conversation to keep your mind from losing focus.
  • Let your professor get to know you a little so that they can guide you through weak spots.
  • Pay attention to where you struggle and use class time to fix those exact areas.

11. Practice Effective Note-Taking

When you take good notes, you save hours of confusion and give yourself a solid source of information you can return to. Rewriting your own notes will slow down your brain and help you actually understand what the professor talked about during class.
Here are tips to get good grades and what you can do to improve your note-taking skills:
  • Write organized notes during lectures instead of copying everything.
  • Rewrite the notes later that day.
  • Mark the parts that confused you in class and clarify them.
  • Add short summaries at the end of each section.
  • Keep all your notes in one place.

12. Stay Organized

Keep your school life in order by staying organized. Using a planner or a simple checklist can make a huge difference. Here are a few ways to stay on top of everything:
  • Use a planner to track assignments, deadlines, and test dates before they sneak up on you.
  • Keep your notes, handouts, and materials in one place so you don’t waste time looking for them.
  • Make a study schedule that shows when you’ll read, practice, and complete assignments throughout the week.
  • Do quick weekly cleanups of your backpack or desk to catch missing work early.
  • Break large tasks into smaller pieces so the workload feels manageable instead of overwhelming.

Final Thoughts

Turning things around after you’ve fallen behind in class does not have to be complicated. With smart study habits, a structured approach, and help from your teachers or tutors, you can strengthen both your knowledge and start getting good grades again.
As you already know, technology and artificial intelligence play a crucial role in improving academic performance. You can use StudyAgent’s AI essay writer tool and reduce the chances of falling behind in your studies.
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Frequently asked questions

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, and staying disciplined.
If you build consistent study habits, understand how each class works, manage your time, and keep your methods flexible, staying at an A+ in all subjects becomes easier to maintain. You also shouldn’t forget to take care of your health and get enough sleep every night.
Pay attention in class and ask questions, take notes in your own words, break big tasks into more manageable ones, and build a routine that leaves room for sleep and healthy meals. High-performing students also talk to their teachers or hire tutors. A quick conversation can clarify expectations, practice problems, and fix them before they turn into bad grades.
The brain pays attention when the environment is simple, the goal is clear, and the task feels doable. Clear your desk so that only the material you need is in front of you, put your phone in another room or turn it off completely, set a short, specific goal for each study block, like finishing a set of math problems or reviewing one chapter.
Several tools make studying easier, more organized, and a lot less stressful. StudyAgent fits into this toolkit as a support system for the academic side of your work. Having a tool that adapts to your assignments makes it easier to stay consistent and improve your performance over the semester.
Sources:
Practical tips
Student productivity
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