The all-important G.P.A. is the bane of the existence of far too many college students. You have one bad class and you end up paying for it for the rest of the year. I’ve heard it said that it takes 3 good grades to balance out just one bad grade. While this may or may not be true, I’ve got a very simple way you can boost your G.P.A. Take easier classes.
I know what you must be thinking, “wow, take easier classes, thanks Scott, I could have told you that.” However, what I mean is over-schedule yourself at the start of every quarter and semester, see what the easiest classes are, and stay in those one’s while dropping the other’s. All schools will generally have a grace period at the start of each term when students can withdraw from classes at no penalty to them.
This technique won’t get you out of the hard classes that are required for your major, but it can help you avoid extremely difficult professors. Too many time’s have I gone into a class only to realize that the professor was terrible and I was certainly not going to do well. Because I purposely over-schedule myself, I have the leeway to drop out of the class and not have to deal with the devastating effects a C or D would have on my point average.
Another great thing about dropping a class is that it allows you to also preview a class to see if you’d like to take it. If not, then there’s no harm done. If a very difficult professor is teaching this semester, but an easier professor will be teaching next semester, then you can drop the class and take it up later. Just giving yourself the option of having easier classes is a great way to boost that GPA. The hard required classes will always be unavoidable, but taking them with some easier classes can help soften the blow and potentially increase your grade.
However, I have one word of caution. Some schools charge differently depending on how many credits you are taking. So, if you can’t get refunds for dropping out of a class, I suggest not using this method. If you just play a flat full-time tuition, then you’re good to go.