Improving Low Grades
"Do you know what the difference between hitting .250 and .300 is? That's 25 hits...25 hits in 500 at bats is 50 points...ok. There's 6 months in a season. That's about 25 weeks, that means if you get just one extra flair a week, just one..." (from the movie Bull Durham, 1988)
Most people who have failing grades don't have terribly low grades. Most people have slightly failing grades, such as 53% or 56%. Very rarely does anyone have a grade below 50%.
This is encouraging! That means you are probably within a few percentage points of passing!
When people don't pull their grade up, a lot if times it's because they think they have to be perfect in order to get their grade up. That's not true. You don't have to be perfect; you just have to do better than you did previously.
Baseball and grades
Look back at the movie quote from the top of this page.
Since you're likely under the age of 20, I don't expect you to know anything about baseball. So I'll give you a basic overview. Each batter has a batting average, which is a percentage value of how often you get on base by getting a hit. This is displayed with a number at three decimal points. For example, in 2001, Mariners 1st Baseman John Olerud got hits in 30.2% of his at-bats. This gives him a batting average of .302, which is pretty good. Good enough for a place in the All-Star game that year.
Two years later, Olerud's batting average was merely .269, a drop of .033. That year, Olerud was not a member of the All-Star team, and it's easy to see why. His average was much lower. When you get in a little closer, you see that Olerud had 28 fewer hits in 2003.
That seems like a big difference...
But it's really not.
One more hit...
Baseball season starts at the end of March and goes through the end of September. That's right around 28 weeks of games. Where did you see the number 28 recently? Look up in the last section. The difference between hitting .302 and making an All-Star team, and hitting .269 and staying home during the All-Star game is approximately equal to ONE HIT PER WEEK. He didn't produce superhuman statistics. He just had one more hit per week.
This applies in your instance as well. If your grade is in the 54% range, it probably means you have been missing some assignments. What would happen if you turned in one more completed assignment per week? How dramatically could your grade go up in a short period of time? What if you turned in two more completed assignments per week?
Remember, that means you don't have to do absolutely every little thing perfectly. You just have to become more productive than you were before.
Of course, you do need to take into account what point you are in the semester. You can't raise your batting average or grade percentage much if there's only two weeks in the season. But if you start soon enough, you can make a huge improvement in the time you have remaining. You might even become an All-Star!
Most people who have failing grades don't have terribly low grades. Most people have slightly failing grades, such as 53% or 56%. Very rarely does anyone have a grade below 50%.
This is encouraging! That means you are probably within a few percentage points of passing!
When people don't pull their grade up, a lot if times it's because they think they have to be perfect in order to get their grade up. That's not true. You don't have to be perfect; you just have to do better than you did previously.
Baseball and grades
Look back at the movie quote from the top of this page.
Since you're likely under the age of 20, I don't expect you to know anything about baseball. So I'll give you a basic overview. Each batter has a batting average, which is a percentage value of how often you get on base by getting a hit. This is displayed with a number at three decimal points. For example, in 2001, Mariners 1st Baseman John Olerud got hits in 30.2% of his at-bats. This gives him a batting average of .302, which is pretty good. Good enough for a place in the All-Star game that year.
Two years later, Olerud's batting average was merely .269, a drop of .033. That year, Olerud was not a member of the All-Star team, and it's easy to see why. His average was much lower. When you get in a little closer, you see that Olerud had 28 fewer hits in 2003.
That seems like a big difference...
But it's really not.
One more hit...
Baseball season starts at the end of March and goes through the end of September. That's right around 28 weeks of games. Where did you see the number 28 recently? Look up in the last section. The difference between hitting .302 and making an All-Star team, and hitting .269 and staying home during the All-Star game is approximately equal to ONE HIT PER WEEK. He didn't produce superhuman statistics. He just had one more hit per week.
This applies in your instance as well. If your grade is in the 54% range, it probably means you have been missing some assignments. What would happen if you turned in one more completed assignment per week? How dramatically could your grade go up in a short period of time? What if you turned in two more completed assignments per week?
Remember, that means you don't have to do absolutely every little thing perfectly. You just have to become more productive than you were before.
Of course, you do need to take into account what point you are in the semester. You can't raise your batting average or grade percentage much if there's only two weeks in the season. But if you start soon enough, you can make a huge improvement in the time you have remaining. You might even become an All-Star!