How to Be Social and Keep Your Grades

Studying without distractions is more effective than trying to perform multiple activities at once.

Maintaining a balance between enjoying time with your friends and keeping your grades up is a challenge for many students. If you forsake your social life in order to study, you will miss out on many enjoyable experiences. However, if your social activities cause you to neglect your academic work, your grades are sure to suffer. You can perform this balancing act successfully if you follow some helpful strategies.

Instructions

1. Establish a regular study time during which you are free from distractions. If you interact with your friends in your dorm room, for instance, while you study, you probably won't remember or learn much. However, if you have a regular time for quiet study, you are more likely to absorb what you are studying. More effective study time means more free time later.

2. Socialize with people who value academics. If you interact with other people whose grades are important to them as well, you are more likely to keep up your own grades. However, if your social circle does not value academics, your friends may be likely to try to pull you away from necessary study time.

3. Enlist the help of a tutor, if necessary, when you are having trouble with being disciplined enough to keep up your grades. Set up regular sessions with a tutor, who will hold you accountable on what you should be doing academically. If you don't want to pay for a tutor, find a friend with whom you can seriously study. Work to keep each other in line in terms of grades.

4. Set social times that don't conflict with your class schedule. If the majority of your social engagements occur between midnight and 2 a.m., you are unlikely to be ready for an 8 a.m. class. Hang out with friends earlier in the afternoon or evening or shift your class schedule to later classes, if possible.

Tips & Warnings

• Say no when it is necessary, but neglect your social life completely. If you have big paper or test coming up, turn down social events for a few days, if necessary, to have time to prepare for the test or write the paper.

References

• College Confidential: Balancing College School Work and Social Life
• Oregon State University; How to Balance Academics and your Social Life; Oct. 12, 2009