Oh well, lots of talking today! As you might already know I finished school 2 years ago & although I never said it on Instagram the press made kind of a big deal out of the „she finished school with 1,0“ topic. Since then I got a loooot of questions about my school time, my grades, teachers etc. & today I’m going to talk a bit about my experiences and tips on how to get good grades ♡

PS: I hope you all of you university students can also use those tips!! I didn't go to university so I can only talk about my time in school.

1. TEACHERS

Ok, so teachers are human & they all have different personalities. And although your performance in class should not have anything to do if the teacher likes or dislikes you - but let’s face it: if the teacher likes you it’s easier to get good grades.

So you should definitely have a good relationship with them! Be nice, kind and respectful. Stay after class if you have questions, communicate with them and show that you are willing to learn. No brown nosing though!! That’s not cool.

And listen - this is the most important point!! Every teacher has his own system. Especially when it comes to exams. You need to figure out what kind of questions they ask & what system they have - and then start to study according to this system! Not sure what I’m talking about? I’ll give you examples.

For example my „art“ teacher: he always talked a lot during class about his experiences, his own interpretations of artworks & the knowledge he has about them - which I loved! We barely ever had a look at our textbooks. So why should I have a look at our textbooks when studying for the exam? I took a lot of notes during class, listened carefully & wrote this exact information in my exams. I got straight A’s.

Or my „ethics“ teacher: during class we only read texts in our textbook and spoke about them. One after the other. And I saw that he always highlighted a couple of lines in each text in his textbook. When he told us to study for the exams & re-read the texts I also highlighted the most important sentences and studied them reaaaally well. In the exam I basically only needed to write those sentences down ´cause they were the perfect answers to all his questions. And I’m not lying - I got full points in every exam.

SHORT: Get to know your teachers & their systems. That way you know what to expect in exams.

At my graduation in 2014

2. DURING THE CLASSES

Attend your classes & try to sit in the front. If you always sit in the back the teacher will think you’re not interested in learning something.

On top of that you will listen more carefully 'cause you’re not distracted by all the students sitting in front of you. And this leads us to point 1!! - You need to know what the teacher says in order to know what to expect in the exams!

3. STUDYING

Find a learning system that works for you. Many prefer to start studying really early, in order to have no pressure and enough time till the exam. In school I wasn’t like that. I started studying maybe 2, maximum 4 days before the exam and just studied like crazy for 6 hours with no break. And that worked for me!

So find a system that you can handle and go for it! But either way, you need to STUDY. I never ever went unprepared to an exam.

haha don't know if I should have uploaded this - 6 years ago, biology, eye dissection

4. ORGANIZATION

You need to get a planner. Whether it’s a cute textbook or your phone, doesn’t matter. But you NEED to know your dates for exams, homework, appointments etc. Nothing worse than coming to school and not knowing that you’re writing an exam.

Apart from that you need to organize all your papers, notes and things you collect during the classes. Have a folder for each class and organiiiiiiize. You’ll need that in order to study properly, okay? Okay.

5. EXAMS

As I told you, if you studied properly and already know what to expect you will feel pretty safe on an exam day.

Look through the exam first, see where the most important parts are and try to make a little time management. If you’re one of those persons who always needs too much time for everything I would suggest to start with the questions that give the most points.

Oh and a tip if you don’t know the solution of a math task: WRITE SOMETHING DOWN ANYWAYS. You don’t need to know the final answer. Teachers want to give you points because usually they want to give you good grades. So at least give them soommeeething they can work with. If you’ve got an idea than just write it down and follow it until you fail. This way you at least have the chance to get a point - an empty field means 0 points.

6. MOTIVATION & POSITIVE ATTITUDE

Ask yourself why. Why do you want to be good at school? What do you want to achieve in life? What are your dreams? Do you have a career in mind?

Good grades and a good degree often make things easier & maybe you need those grades to become for example a doctor. I mean if that’s not motivation I don’t know what it is haha.

I actually didn’t have a career in mind. But I simply knew it’s important to keep my options open by getting good grades.

And yes, school is not always awesome. And of course it's also "cooler" to say school is annoying and all the teachers are even more annoying - but where is this going to get you? You need to finish you school anyways & with a positive attitude those years are funnier and better.

7. BAD GRADES

Bad grades happen.

In this case it’s important to look through the exam, see what your mistakes were, if you maybe understood a question wrong or what the problems were. And learn from your mistakes! Maybe next time, you need to ask your teacher during the exam in order to understand everything properly. Or it was just a sequence of many mistakes that you could have avoided if you read over it a second time.

REMEMBER: Teachers are your partners, not your enemies. They want you to learn and they want you to be the best you can. So go talk to them if you have a problem. And yes, I know there are **** teachers that are bitter and mean, but you need to get along with them anyways so try and make the best out of it!!

How did or do you like your time at school? Did you learn something you want me to know? Comment below!! xx