Too-Low scores - can you change now?

   Okay, so chances are, you are someone who wants to get good scores and who wants to be smart and to be able to get into a good college. Personally, I know a lot of people who are very smart and who always get good scores in exams. However, whereas some people are able to keep up the work all the time and they all get high scores, some people, either it's because of luck or a bit of under preparation, there are some times that they will get low scores in exams. In response to this, some people may be a bit scared, because, if you haven't watched YouTube videos of people who have gotten into top colleges, they all get 4.0 GPAs - they always have very good scores and they're always that perfect student. So some people may be worried that if they have low scores, it can pull the GPA down, and they will not be able to get into a good college. Therefore, the question that I would like to answer you in this post is: can you change now, and will this affect you in the future?

   First of all, remember that a low score does not define you, and instead of grieving over the past, think more about the future - about the future exams. Please be aware that even if you're sad, even if you're miserable, the scores are already there, and you can not change it. So, why waste your tears over something that you can't control? Why don't you focus on things that you can control, which is to prepare yourself for future exams? Remember, an exam is only one exam, and there are going to be a lot of exams to come. So please, focus your mind into preparing for the other exams to ensure that they could get high scores, instead of minding over something that you can’t control anymore, which is your grade.

   I also have good news for people who tend to be scared of low scores because it can affect your GPA. Please, don't worry too much about GPA, because after all, it is only a component of your college application; it only takes into account around 25 to 30% of your college application, and there are things also might as well. For example, volunteer  experience, extracurricular activities, letters of recommendations, as well as other factors that you need to take into consideration. Don't be stressed about the idea of 4.0 GPA though. A lot of people don't get 4.0 GPA and they still went to top colleges just so you know. Additionally, I will not like to say this, but some people pay money to make schools give them higher scores, and there are also schools that boost the students’ GPAs just so that the demographic can be impressive. Of course colleges do realize this, therefore don't be so stressed out.

   Just to ensure yourself of how to be ready for your cash application in case you don't have that high GPA, you can also focus on other aspects of your application. Let's list some things that you can improve on: for example, your standardized scores - work hard for the SAT, work hard for the ACT, and always realize that you are actually able to retake them again, so don't be too stressed out about that. Next up is extracurricular activities: try to spend quality amounts of time towards this section, try to become the cop leader, the club president, try to do volunteering, try to do everything that can impress colleges. Another thing are recommendation papers: make a list of who you want to ask for a letter of recommendation and build a good relationship with them so that the letters can be impressive for college. 

   At the end of the day, GPA is not the thing that matters the most in your life, but by that, I don't mean that you just ignore your score completely. Please work hard, but in case you don't have a very good score, don't be too disappointed and don't think that because of a low score alone, you will be rejected from your dream school. There are also other things that you need to do other than studying, so you can do other things that can boost up your application as well as outweigh the low scores that you may get from some exams. With that, I wish you good luck with your academic life as well as your application process, so that you can get into your dream college and that you can be proud of yourself for what you have done, over such a long time of studying and working hard.