Want Better Grades? Read This

The MBA can be an overwhelming experience. Balancing school, internships, and a social life at the same time are difficult. And, often times, MBAs can find their grades slipping as they attempt to keep up with everything.

Dr. Amarendra Bhushan Dhiraj, CEO and editorial director at CEOWORLD Magazine, recently offered some tips for b-school students on how they can keep their MBA grades up during their two years.

MAKE ATTENDANCE A PRIORITY

It’s easy to miss a class and not think twice about it. Yet, it can become a slippery slope and before you know it, your grades are dropping.

If you truly want to keep your grades up, the first step is to become a regular in lectures.

“Being regular to your business school lectures can act as a stepping stone in achieving better grades,” Dhiraj writes. “It will help you to maintain notes which come handy during your exams. In addition to organized notes, some business schools do allot a percentage of marks for regular attendance and though these marks may not seem to be significant enough initially, they really can come as an angel in disguise for passing your internals.”

STUDY PREVIOUS EXAMS

Dhiraj says the best way to prepare for an exam is to go over the previous year’s questions.

“Although the probability of previous year questions repeating is very slim, going through these examination papers can help you get an insight on the kind of questions that will be showing up in your upcoming exam,” he writes. “It also helps to assess the difficulty level and enables you to prepare accordingly. To the people who start their preparation last minute, going through past year question papers can easily help prioritize the topics and eventually pass with flying colors.”

TIMING IS EVERYTHING

While cliché, Dhiraj admits, starting your preparations well in advance can help you keep your grades up.

“Starting your preparations well before and not hanging onto that last-minute reading and cramming will definitely improve your result drastically,” Dhiraj writes. “You will have abundant time to clear your doubts and make notes and preparing better for those topics you might feel you are weak at. Although, it is the oldest trick in the book, trust us, it is the best.”

BENCHMARK AGAINST YOURSELF

It’s easy to compare yourself to your peers. However, it isn’t necessarily helpful.

In an interview with Forbes, Charu Subramanian, a student at Kelley School of Business (Indiana University), advises MBAs to benchmark against themselves instead.

“The learning curve and baseline are completely unique for each and every arriving student,” Subramanian writes. “Keeping this in mind will allow you to appreciate what you have learned, how much you have grown, and make sure you are prepared for your future career.”

Sources: CEOWORLD Magazine, Forbes