Help How do I raise my GPA? I have a full schedule with hard classes

[transhuman_autonomy]

Considering I barely passed summer semester with embarassingly terrible grades (which was only 2 months long and exams are on campus and were binary multiple choice question meaning no partial grades so you either know it or you don't and there is no close in science) are as follows:

Course Code Course Grade Letter Number Grade Credits
EENG350 Electronics I D+ 69% 3
EENG350L Electronics I Lab B 80% 1
CENG380 Microprocessors C 74% 3
CENG352L Digital Logic Lab B 82% 1
EENG385 Signal Processing C+ 75% 3
EENG388 Electromagnetics D 60% 3
Total Credits 14 Credits
Semester GPA 2.1
CGPA 2.91
My Schedule for Fall Semetser:

Course Code Course Credits
EENG400 Electronics II 3
EENG400L Electronics II Lab 1
EENG410 Power Electronics 3
EENG410L Power Electronics Lab 1
EENG435 Control Systems 3
EENG435L Control Systems Lab 1
EENG447 Analog Communications 3
EENG467L Analog Communications Lab 1
CENG430L Linux Lab (Raspberry Pi) 1
Total Credits 18

Labs are 1 credit but each prelab takes on average of 4 hours of work, and I have 6 labs so 6 lab reports per week, and that's not considering lectures and preparing the material for the regular course which are extremely difficult.
I know I must raise my CGPA to at least 3.0 in order to make it easier for me to get a first job as well as apply to grad schools overseas.

I aim to get A's preferably at worst B. I also have another problem I am not really smart and not a bright student and I tend to be pretty excited at the beginning of the semester but I lose interest quickly and I felt burnt out after thinking I did great in my midterms during summer semester when my actual grades were 66, 65, 61, and 80, and made me question my choice of this major and should have done compsci because they have far less problems

If you have taken a heavy workload of difficult classes what did you do to achieve good grades? And how did you manage your time

PS: Classes are online and so are labs for now but exams will be on campus and we don't have any office hours or counselors or any extracredit and most likely only midterm weighing 45% & final weighing 55% of the resultant grade.

 

[jrmichler]

I had a semester like that. My average work week was about 100 hours all semester. That was also the semester that I started dating my (now) wife. I promised her that I would set aside Friday evening after supper for her and almost always kept that promise. Many of those evenings were napping on the couch snuggled up to her. Work - eat - sleep. That's the secret. You can save some time by eating only two meals per day. I had a semester once where I had to skip lunch because I had classes.

I had another semester where the man in the adjacent dorm room had a part time job, a full time job, and was a full time student. We knew when he was in his room because he played a song where the refrain was "You can do it if you try". Over and over and over for hours on end. Loudly.

Now, how hard are YOU willing to work?

And stop obsessing about percentage weightings and multiple choice and spend your efforts learning the material.

 

[mpresic3]

I tend to be pretty excited at the beginning of the semester but I lose interest quickly

I do not know if you have the same problem,that I once had but here it is. I would be really excited in the beginning of the semester. I would get off to a good start, and then start socializing, playing bridge, frisbee etc. Most of my friends were not in a technical major, and their classes were far less structured than mine, In addition, these friends were not going to grad school and a GPA in the low to mid 2 range was OK. Anyway, around the last two weeks, after doing poorly on a midterm, I started engaging in the material. I mean I really studied, and grew to love the material. I would get a good mark on the final (just to pass) , end up with a C or maybe a B in the course, (already devastating for my GPA), then I would spend summers learning the material I should have learned during the semester. This would replay itself every year.
It really was not bad after I got into graduate school. ( It took me a year longer to convince admission committees I was a good risk.) After all, I did learn the material, just not when it counted. I even passed the doctoral qualifying exam. I know this would have been impossible if I really was a C-student, throughout undergraduate, without the willingness to work during summers and offtime.

If I could meet my younger self, I would say:
1 Avoid any distractions, especially friends that do not share your goals. Your friends will wait after graduation. It's only one semester.
2. If your goals include learning the material, you better learn it when you can demonstrate your expertise. Try not to be "classified" as a C student. Keep on good terms with the professor. You will need recommendations.
3. Work like crazy. I remember a time in life, in graduate school, I was on the 9:30 am bus to campus and on the 12:10 a.m. bus home, week after week. I told my brother later, "Now it can be told" Once the librarian left me in the library, and just said, "Lock up when you leave"

Now specifically in your case, do you relly need all these classes. Seems like you are "specializing" in three widely different areas of EE: 1. Electronics, 2. Power Systems, and 3 Control Systems. Do not most EE's choose 1 or 2, to specialize in. Steinmetz would have a hard time under this workload.

I also note your best grades seem to be in Lab: Mine too.
I often worked harder for the 1 credit course than the 4 credit course. You can learn a lot in labs so I am not sorry, but, this is important to note.

 

[transhuman_autonomy]

Now, how hard are YOU willing to work?

I am willing to put in all my energy for this. Like I said I have another problem that as soon as the semester starts I am very excited and study hard but when half-way through I begin losing interest. So what tips do u have?

 

[transhuman_autonomy]

If I could meet my younger self, I would say:
1 Avoid any distractions, especially friends that do not share your goals. Your friends will wait after graduation. It's only one semester.
2. If your goals include learning the material, you better learn it when you can demonstrate your expertise. Try not to be "classified" as a C student. Keep on good terms with the professor. You will need recommendations.
3. Work like crazy. I remember a time in life, in graduate school, I was on the 9:30 am bus to campus and on the 12:10 a.m. bus home, week after week. I told my brother later, "Now it can be told" Once the librarian left me in the library, and just said, "Lock up when you leave"

Now specifically in your case, do you relly need all these classes. Seems like you are "specializing" in three widely different areas of EE: 1. Electronics, 2. Power Systems, and 3 Control Systems. Do not most EE's choose 1 or 2, to specialize in. Steinmetz would have a hard time under this workload.

I also note your best grades seem to be in Lab: Mine too.
I often worked harder for the 1 credit course than the 4 credit course. You can learn a lot in labs so I am not sorry, but, this is important to note.

Thing is that these classes are required for graduation and they allow me to register classes for Spring semester that are also required for graduation and in my school both Electrical & Electronics Engineering are separate majors each that overlap during the introductory and medium-level classes, Electrical is about power distribution systems while Electronics is in the name. Also in my school you can't chose classes from different majors and you need to have a valid reason for your advisor to allow you to register them

 

[Vanadium 50]

as soon as the semester starts I am very excited and study hard but when half-way through I begin losing interest.

Discipline is the art of remembering what you want.

 

[jrmichler]

Like I said I have another problem that as soon as the semester starts I am very excited and study hard but when half-way through I begin losing interest.

Are you sure that you really want to do this? The reason I ask is that I went through something similar. In my case, it was lack of motivation plus tired of school plus student poverty plus starting to realize that I was in the wrong field, all at the same time. This happened when I started my third year of college. So I dropped out of school, and joined the US military. I used that four years to think about what I really wanted to do. It was the right thing to do because I then came back with a different major, a savings account, and the GI Bill (a scholarship for US ex-military).

Lack of motivation has several causes. One possible cause is that, deep down inside, you are in the wrong field. Another possible cause is that you are not ready for this. It can be a real challenge to figure out the root cause of lack of motivation. You may need to do a full self evaluation to find out, and that takes time. It is difficult to do a proper self evaluation in less than several months.

 

[transhuman_autonomy]

Are you sure that you really want to do this? The reason I ask is that I went through something similar. In my case, it was lack of motivation plus tired of school plus student poverty plus starting to realize that I was in the wrong field, all at the same time. This happened when I started my third year of college. So I dropped out of school, and joined the US military. I used that four years to think about what I really wanted to do. It was the right thing to do because I then came back with a different major, a savings account, and the GI Bill (a scholarship for US ex-military).

Lack of motivation has several causes. One possible cause is that, deep down inside, you are in the wrong field. Another possible cause is that you are not ready for this. It can be a real challenge to figure out the root cause of lack of motivation. You may need to do a full self evaluation to find out, and that takes time. It is difficult to do a proper self evaluation in less than several months.

Actually I love my major. And I am very sure, just today I bought some microcontrollers (arduino, PIC, STM) and a raspberry pi. I think what is causing my lack of motivation is that the exams are poorly structured like I said no partial grades

 

[sysprog]

Discipline is the art of remembering what you want.

. . . "Discipline is remembering what you want" $-$ this fine adage is attributed to David Campbell, founder of Saks Fifth Avenue . . .

 

[Fervent Freyja]

I suggest that you use a digital planner. At the beginning of the semester go through your syllabus and add the due dates for assignments and exams. If on-campus, also add class times and dates. Then sit down and form a study plan so that you will be ready for each due date. Estimate how much study time you need for certain topics and assignments for each class. Schedule time blocks for study at optimal times. Get this done within the first two weeks. Tether the calendar to all of your electronics. Spend at least 5 minutes a day reviewing your schedule for the next two months. Make it part of a routine. You won’t feel as anxious.

As you go through the semester, add work schedules, bills, important days and other appointments. Schedule the minimum sleep you will need. Now, look to see what leisure time you may have left over. Plan self-care and fun days where you can. Buy tickets or book fun things way ahead of time so that you have something to look forward to when you feel like going crazy. You would be surprised at how much time you do have when you learn to optimize your time. I personally use my lunch break on days that I don’t clock out for class to get things done and I stay at least 30 minutes after work everyday to chip away something. Listen to lectures while driving, record yourself reading your notes back to you and play it while driving. And as you go along, if you see you are failing in a section, then you need to go back and at least double your study time. Make it unacceptable to happen again. When it slips once, you aren’t defeated. Try harder.

My second suggestion is to hire a tutor to meet up with at least once a week. Try to do all the work that you can before and only use them to help you with what you could not get alone. A few hours with a tutor can save you days of study.

My third suggestion is to review everything you missed in the last semester and this one. A tutor may be able to come in and help you catch up with that. What you missed might be foundational and that is going to be hard to dig yourself out of later on. Always, always find out why you didn’t get 100%.

You can do this!