Top 5 Secrets on How To Make Dean’s List Every Semester

This post is about how to make Dean’s List every semester in college.

Today I’m going to be sharing with you all the things I do to make Dean’s List every semester. I remember being so scared to begin the college journey because I thought I would get awful grades or even fail classes. If you are feeling the same way or are looking for tips to increase your GPA you are in the right place.

When I was going into college I was so nervous for my classes. I wanted to get really good grades like I did in high school, but I knew it would be a lot harder. The first day of my freshman year I walked into my first class, Algebra. Aggghhh. I hate math so much and am so bad at it so this wasn’t a great way to start. When I got there the professor was friendly and made me feel a lot more comfortable. He said that he knows how intimidating it is to start the college journey. His reassurance helped me get through that class and all the others that week.

Now I’m nearing the end of my junior year and happy to say I’ve made Dean’s List every semester and you can too! It’s a lot easier than it may seem. So let’s get into my secrets for success!

My Secrets:

1. Go to office hours

This might seem like a really obvious way to do better in class, but it’s all about what you ask and get out of your meeting. Before you go to office hours review what you are going there for. If you are going to get help on an essay make sure you have a rough draft for them to read. Ask them if they are willing to read over it and make any edits they see fit. This is a great hack to getting an A on your papers. If your professor edits the paper and you make the required changes your pretty much guaranteed to get an A because they just made the changes they want to it!

If you are going to review for a test make sure you read the chapters or notes prior to going. Come to them with questions to ask. Another great hack to save time studying is to ask them what you should focus on in the material. I’ve came right out and asked what questions they will be asking. A lot of the time they will give me a few test questions or totally cross things off the study guide that won’t even be on the test! This is a great way to get an easy A on exams.

2. Go to class

Something else that seems so obvious lol. But when professors say you won’t pass if you don’t go to class – they are right! It’s so important to attend lectures no matter how boring they might be. Focus when you are in class so you don’t have to spend a ton of time out of class studying.

Lectures leading up to an exam are SO important. Many times the professor will have “review questions” that are the exact questions that will be on the test. At least in my experience this happens a lot. I have a night class this semester that a lot of people don’t go to or show up really late to. Just last week only about 8 people came so the professor gave us more than half the test questions and answers for the upcoming exam. It pays off to go to class and be on time!

3. Make friends in class

Making friends with the people sitting near you is an easy way to do better. You can form a study group or do assignments together. If you have an out of class assignment you can all get together and help each other out. They might have picked up on some information in class that you missed if you stepped out for a minute or something.

I know I just said don’t skip class, but if you don’t make it one day then you can get notes from them. It’s important to have other people that can fill you in. This is one of the best pieces of advice to make dean’s list in college!

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4. Participate

Aaaahh, participation. A very scary word for introverts like me. I hate participating with a passion. I get so nervous to talk in front of the whole class. No one wants to say something wrong because they are scared of getting embarrassed. If you have this fear do your best to push past it. Even if you answer a question wrong nothing bad is going to happen. I still have to tell myself this every time I raise my hand lol.

Last semester one of my professors asked a super hard question and said if anyone gets this right they will get 20 extra points added to their next homework assignment. 20 whole points!!! That’s huge because extra credit does not exist in college. I had no idea whatsoever what the answer was, but I wanted that extra credit so I sucked it up and answered. And guess what!! I WAS RIGHT! He was so taken aback because he really thought no one would know. Because of this I got an A instead of a B+.

Don’t be afraid to take a risk because it could work immensely in your favor.

5. Make sure your professors know you

If you can get your professors to know who you are in the hundreds of students they have that will help your final grade. This might be different at some colleges with smaller classes, but at my college most professors can’t remember all the students because there are so many. If you make an impact on them then when it comes final grades they will likely round yours up. Asking questions is a good way to get them to remember you. Since I don’t like to participate in front of the class I will stay after to ask a few questions or just talk to them.

Even if I don’t have any burning questions I need answered I’ll just think of something off the top of my head. Something I do a lot is pick something they talked about in class, think of an example of that term/theory, and then ask them if this example relates to that term/theory they talked about. I hope I explained that well, haha. But if you do this that conversation will stick with them since you further thought about other examples of things that were taught.

I hope these tips on how I make dean’s list in college every semester helps you do the same! Make sure to comment any other tips and tricks you have to get straight A’s in college. Share this post with your friends to help them make deans list too!