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Get ahead now, so you won't have to dig yourself out of a hole later. Aim to get a solid foundation in all of your classes during the first week, and don't spend too much time in one class, keeping your grades around the B+ or A- range. Then begin working hard on the classes with the lowest grades, bringing all of them to a comfortable position at around 95%. Take part in all extra credit activities whenever possible and increase your scores to the A+ range so during the last few weeks you can focus mainly on projects and maybe even skip a few homework assignments, if your scores are really high. Find out how your school calculates GPAs, if there are weighted grades for honors classes, which grades actually show up on your transcript, the cutoff percentages for each letter grade, and anything else that might affect your final grades. Grades are a game that all students play, and the more you familiarize yourself with the rules, the better you'll do. First impressions are everything with teachers, so make sure they have a positive reason for knowing who you are. If your teacher starts off the year thinking that you are polite, respectful, and hard-working, they will be nicer to you and will grade your works more easily. It is much easier to have a good first impression than to fix a bad one. You may have to learn the art of faking intelligence and preparedness. It's always easier to appear smart and prepared than to actually be smart and prepared. Try to recall something that you think has some relevance to the topic at hand. Usually the teacher will say something about how good your point was and then give you clues to the answer she was looking for.  This method has two benefits. First, the teacher thinks you are paying attention in class, and second, they will think you are capable of independent thought and will be more likely to grade your papers easier. Teachers love students who participate, and will sometimes boost their grades by whole letters. Grades aren't rigid; teachers can manipulate an F to an A or the other way around, and although their changes are rarely that drastic, everything helps. Ask teachers, parents, and classmates to explain things that you have missed. It is easier to ask then to take more time to discover the answer for yourself. Come in before school for help. If your teacher offers to give help outside of school, accept. Even if you are struggling with the material in the class, if you show your teacher you are dedicated, s/he will be more likely to give you a good grade. In order to truly understand, you have to think in terms of the teacher. Teachers are people too. They are just as busy outside of school as you are, if not more so. Also remember that for every homework page you do, the teacher has to grade it, and since she might have over 100 students, that's a lot of papers. There's no way to grade all of them in depth. If you follow the above two steps, your teacher will probably think pretty highly of you and won't be checking your work too closely. You can be pretty sure an assignment is busy work if:  The assignment is a worksheet. You see the teacher grading the exact same papers and spending less than a minute on each before entering a grade. Organize your work in your mind and in a calendar. Don't miss deadlines as late assignments often come with point deductions. Don't lose points because you could not keep up with assignments. Tackle busy work efficiently. Busy work should take as much time to do as your teacher will spend grading it! If there is an article with questions, oftentimes the answers can be found in order in the article. Read each question then skim the article for the answer. In opinion questions, you don't need to put thought into your answer. Just make something up that sounds good. Many students already have a knack for how to handle busywork, but for others it takes practice. It's a huge time saver once you get the hang of it. This step is optional, although it will dramatically reduce your workload. Try for a style that is legible, but quick. Your teacher isn't grading you on your penmanship and neat handwriting takes valuable time, especially when doing busy work.  Handwriting that is ideal for this is quick yet legible - put down words on the page fast, but at the same time aim to make each word readable without too much effort. You may also have to consider using a different type of pen for this - 0.7mm pens best suit this purpose. The Sarasa Clip 0.7 and Pilot Juice 0.7 come to mind, however the Pilot V5 Hi-Tecpoint (0.5), or the Faber-Castell CX Plus 0.5 also work well, since they all have little friction on the nib, allowing you to dramatically increase the speed at which you write (the Sarasa Clip 0.7 is especially good for this, though the lack of friction may also take some getting used to. It may seem counter-intuitive if you are trying to get high grades with minimal effort, but learning how to do well in difficult classes will teach you how to excel in easy classes. A difficult schedule will look great on college applications, and after a while you will enjoy the challenge. Remember that these strategies work in almost every class, including the challenging ones.
Have a strategy. Understand your school's grading policies. Make the first week of school count. Ask questions and volunteer to answer your teacher's questions. Don't be afraid to collaborate or ask for help. Recognize busy work. Get organized and use your time efficiently. Revamp your handwriting. Consider taking challenging classes if possible.