Help Your Students Turbo Charge their GPA

I just found a book called, "How to Turbo Charge Your GPA: The Lazy College Student Solution "Cheat Sheet." The author, Victoria LeVane Cayce, had a self-proclaimed tough childhood. SIn education she had to deal with being dyslexic and having ADD. However, she managed to put all of aside, and managed to graduate with
honors. For more on her background check out her book Beautiful Scars: Moving on and Creating a Joyous Life from the Ashes of Childhood Abuse (pictured on the right). 

The book, How to Turbo Charge Your GPA: The Lazy College Student Solution "Cheat Sheet" (Learning How to Learn) gives students some solid advice for studying and even gives teachers some reminders on how to give effective lessons.

First she reviews what she feels most students know, "Read the assigned text before you go to the lecture. Start studying the most important information first. You will also need to study often..."

Then she goes into her own advice, a lot of it is helpful and she is quite humorous. As a teacher here are some things I took out of it to help students.

1. VISUALIZE! Have students write down the GPA you want. Also have them track every grade they earn. I use engrade to help students see their grades.

2. Make things memorable. Move students to the front of class to help them focus if they get distracted easily. More importantly I feel like teachers can do their part to do this as well by making unique lessons with vivid visuals or audios students can use to remember what was being taught.

3. Pre-Test Teachers can help with this by giving pre-tests, you can either make it optional, for extra credit or as part of a homework grade.

4.   Memory Aids I usually have my students do these with vocabulary words. This is where we have them make an initialism, picture, or sentence to remember.

• Such as, "Ameliorate" Amelia the nurse makes people feel better.

5.  Enjoy it I have discussed the fact that birdsong seems to help people be more productive before. That's because people feel safer and happier. If you can play some birdsong in your class or maybe burn a nice smelling candle before class students may associate learning with something pleasant.

Her book offers lots of other advice for students to follow (Zen thinking during tests, The Fast and the Furious Study method, Why not to cram etc.)and many students may find this a quick and helpful read.

If not, as least they can have a teacher who makes it easier for them to raise their GPA.

What's the book you suggest students read if they need some help? Or what's the one tip you give students to boost them a bit?