Hi, Marki.
That’s a very interesting question, and I understand why you feel concerned about not getting straight As.
So the question is why, consider that you used to?

Because you feel like you are trying really hard, I’m wondering if you may have some aspect of a learning deficiency?
There’s a couple of causes: high stress and burn out usually makes it harder to get good grades because it is harder focus and remember concepts well enough to build a foundation to understand instead of route memorization.

The other one is just the way you were born, as we get older, the academic work can get harder.

I highly recommend to see if you can somehow figure out if you do have a learning problem. If there is, there are definitely ways to work around it. But you have to be specific what learning problem it is.

I was in the same situation you were in. It didn’t matter how hard I try, I kept on getting bad grades in the upper high school grades and completely lost it in university. I was diagnosed with a learning problem, specifically, with anxiety and symbol conversion (math was my toughest subject) and short term memory deficit. What I will tell is that even if the test results come back and there is something in deficit, there are ways to work around it. I recommend seeing if you can see a psychologist that will run a test for you. I was tested for 3 hours, they used laptops to check for ADHD and reading and numerical skills. They will give you a series of tasks for you to perform, and the materials they used are only be able to be purchased by licensed psychologists.

The other tip I’d suggest is to look at your track record of marks in high school and figure out which subjects you were weaker at and which subjects you were stronger at, it might give you an indication of your weaknesses. Like, if you weren’t strong in English, maybe it’s because there’s a certain deficit in your literacy skills due to your eyes not being able to track lines.

It might require money but will make your life easier if you get a diagnosis.
You might find that certain career prospects just can’t be for you due to the competitiveness of needing high grades, but it doesn’t mean you won’t be able to find a career you love. I was crushed and relieved when I found out that I had some problems with learning.

Other suggestions:
1) this could be a problem due to stress and pressure
2) study in a group
3) Get a blood test done to see how your health is? Are you suffering from fatigue and while you’re spending time studying, you’re also spending a lot of time sleeping due to hormonal problems?
4) How is your vision? Do you need glasses?
5) You’re not actively engaging in the learning process, but learning passively.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 8 months ago by Cassie H.