Dear Chip,

I’m worried about school. I’m struggling to balance a social life with school and other extracurricular. My grades have never been this bad and are continuously slipping. Are there any suggestions for ways to be a better studier? Or even just a way to be more organized and get papers turned in. I always feel like I’m letting my parents down because I know I can do so much better than what I’m doing. I need help.

Worried student

Dear Worried student,

This year has taken a toll on all of us and our grades, so I promise, it’s not just you. Even though it has been a crazy stressful year I know it is always hard to study especially if you don’t have a schedule down. So, the first thing I would suggest is getting a little calendar notebook so you can write down when things are due/assigned and write down extracurricular activities. Once you have everything planned out then you need to mark specific times and subjects to study and stick to the schedule. Having your day planned out makes it so much easier to do things. Another idea is if you and your friends have a few of the same classes, do a study group! Maybe do the study group once a week on a day and at a time none of you have anything going on. One more thing is your actual notes, they must be neat. Now I’m not saying they have to be Pinterest worthy, but they need to be legible. If your notes are sloppy then your studying is sloppy. I get that some people just have bad handwriting, but I also know that a lot of people write at the speed of light in a font I like to call “chicken scratch”. So just slow down a little bit while writing and I promise it will improve, also you will be able to comprehend what you are writing much better by taking your time. Just remember that not everything works for everybody so just try a couple new things and see what really helps you.

P.s. you can’t comprehend text as well when the volume of your music is all the way up! (trust me 😉

Sincerely, Chip