How to Improve Your Academic Performance at University: A Practical Guide for First-Year Students

You attend lectures, take notes and spend the evening before a test reading them again. The material feels familiar. Then the results arrive, and your mark is lower than you expected. What should you change?

Before deciding to study longer, find out where the difficulty begins. A student who understands a topic but misreads the question needs a different approach from one who remembers the lecture but cannot explain it without notes. Your last marked assignment or continuous assessment test (CAT) is a good place to start.

1. Use your last marked paper to find your next step

Put three things side by side: the question, your answer and the lecturer’s comments. Read the question again before looking at your mark. What did it ask you to do? What did you actually do?

Suppose a history question asked you to explain how trade influenced political authority in pre-colonial Africa. You named gold, salt and ivory, then listed three trading states. Those facts are relevant, but the reader still needs to know how trade could strengthen a ruler’s authority. Another hour memorising commodities would leave the same gap.

A useful correction is: “In my next answer, I will explain the connection after giving an example.” That is something you can practise and check. “Work harder” is much less useful because it gives you no particular action to take.

2. Change what you do after a lecture

Try this after one lecture this week. Close your notebook and write down the main question the lecturer was answering. Then explain the answer in your own words and give one example. Open your notes afterwards and check where your explanation became uncertain.

For instance, if the lecture covered oral tradition, ask yourself: “Why might two people remember the same event differently, and what could a historian do about it?” Answering that question tells you more about your understanding than recognising the definition of oral tradition on a page.

Return to the question a few days later. If you still struggle, take the precise difficulty to the next tutorial. “I understand why accounts differ, but how does a historian decide what to conclude?” gives your lecturer or study partner something useful to respond to.

3. Plan a week you can actually follow

Start with the hours already spoken for: lectures, travel, meals, work and responsibilities at home. Then look at the deadlines across all your units. Give each available study period a task with a visible result. “Draft the first paragraph” is easier to begin and easier to check than “study tonight.”

Here is one way to plan for a Friday assignment while keeping up with an approaching CAT:

Adjust the days to fit your timetable. If you miss a session, give the unfinished task a new time. You do not need to abandon the whole week because Tuesday went badly.

4. Build assignments around the question

Before collecting material, underline the instruction word. Describe asks you to show what something was like. Explain asks you to show how or why. Assess asks you to weigh evidence and reach a judgement. A well-written answer can still lose marks if it performs the wrong task.

For an essay, write a provisional answer to the question in one sentence. Use it to decide which evidence belongs in the draft. In each body paragraph, make a claim, give a relevant example and explain what the example demonstrates. Record the source as you write. Searching for a page number the night before submission is avoidable work.

On your final read, look at the first sentence of each paragraph. If three paragraphs make essentially the same point, combine or revise them. Then check the brief for the word limit, referencing style, file format and submission instructions.

5. Prepare for examinations by practising the work the exam requires

Past questions, where available, are useful for practising the kind of thinking expected. They are not a promise that the same questions will return. Choose one question from a topic you have revised and attempt it without notes. If it is an essay, allow time to plan, write and reread.

Afterwards, identify where you slowed down. Could you recall the facts but not organise them? Practise short essay plans. Did you make a good argument but lack examples? Build a small set of examples from your course readings. Did you know the material but leave the last question unfinished? Practise allocating time according to the marks available.

This gives your next revision session a clear purpose. It also gives you a better basis for confidence: you have seen what you can already do under exam conditions and know what to practise next.

6. Ask for help while there is still time to use it

You do not have to wait until the end of the semester to approach a lecturer, tutor or academic adviser. Bring the question, a short piece of your own work and one thing you want to understand. For example:

“In my last CAT, you noted that I described the events instead of explaining them. I have rewritten one paragraph. Could you show me where the explanation is stronger and what still needs work?”

That is a focused request a lecturer can act on. If the difficulty is broader, such as repeatedly missing classes because of work, health or family responsibilities, say so to your academic adviser. A new reading timetable alone may not address the real obstacle.

Start with one change this week. Choose one marked answer, identify one reason you lost marks and rewrite one paragraph. A week later, try a similar question without looking at the correction. That second answer will tell you whether your approach is improving.