A quarter has ended, and an new one has begun.  A lot of students are probably satisfied with their grades, but some of you may not. If you’re not happy, try to reflect on what may have gone wrong. The last quarter is in the past, giving students a fresh slate to start anew.

One thing that may have thrown off your average was learning your teacher’s expectations. The first few weeks were brutal for me. I had no teachers I’ve had before so I had to adjust to what my teachers expected from me. My first few grades were low but as I got adjusted to what they wanted, my grades started to rise.

Another thing that might have thrown you off was sports. I don’t play sports so with this I’m taking a shot in the dark. You probably had to practice a lot and sacrifice a lot of time. That time commitment  can make it easy for your grades to take a back seat to sports. As I said in my previous article, “Freshman Year Madness”, it is important to make sure this doesn’t happen. Low grades will not only hurt your GPA, but if they drop too low you might even get cut from the team. If your grades dropped this quarter and you attribute it to sports, create a time management plan to avoid this next quarter.

Lastly, one of the biggest pitfalls I see other students fall into is that they don’t care. They simply just don’t care about the  quarter and how they do throughout it. This is a bad mindset to be in. If you find yourself in that  position,remind yourself of your grades’ impact on college selection or whatever else motivates you to keep your grades up.