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My story:
Good grades?
I grew up in a small rural village in Southern Philippines. Although I was in the top 3 of the entire school, we usually finished last in city-wide spelling bees and other academic contests.
When I entered High School in town, it took me two years to catch up with my classmates. My best was simply not good enough. It was the same thing in college when I went to the capital city of the country. This time it took me three years to enter the honor roll.
I learned three things that earned me good grades:
Read ahead and widely. My computer skills is mainly self-taught. I do this by reading extensively, beyond what is required. If you read only the requirement, you are not a leader. You will just be mediocre. To achieve the extra-ordinary, you must be willing to put in that extra effort. Just to catch up with my urban classmates, I had to burn the midnight oil. Nothing in life worth doing comes easy.
Learn how the teacher thinks. Each teacher has a style and method to his/her logic. Once you understand this, you will be able to phrase your answers in a manner that is acceptable. Grades are not a measure of your intelligence. Rather it is a measure of the degree of effective communication and feedback between teacher and student.
See the real-life application of abstract ideas to understand them. In logic-based courses like math, accounting, etc., it is crucial that you have a 3-d model in your mind of what is happening. In the arts and social sciences, you must see the applicability of abstract ideas to your future life.
Learn the principles. It is easier to memorize or download articles from the Internet. But unless you extract and understand the principles of the things you study, you are wasting your time.
I got promoted ahead of my peers in all the jobs I had BECAUSE I understood the "why" of things, not just the "how". Those who know merely the "how" will
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