How to Set Academic Goals

Setting goals can be very helpful when trying to achieve any objective. As a student, you can use these goals to create a schedule for yourself, obtain better grades and eventually graduate. Seeing years and years worth of credits can be intimidating when you start your classes. Breaking it down piece by piece can make you feel less stressed about the tasks that are ahead of you.

Come up with one large goal. “Graduating with honors” or “Raising my GPA by a letter grade” are examples. Once you do this, you can break the one objective down into smaller tasks.

Write down things you will need to do in order to achieve that goal. If your goal is to raise your GPA, write down things such as “study more often,” “take good notes” and “pay attention during each class.”

Point out your academic weaknesses and what you can do to improve upon them. Many college students struggle with attending every class. If this is the case, write down which classes or days you struggle with, and make an effort to rectify the problem. Be honest with yourself when thinking about your flaws. This is the only way that you will be able to start fixing these problems.

Make a daily schedule of things you will need to do to achieve your goals. This schedule should include when you're going to study, which assignments you're going to work on and when you will do so. This is something that will change with each week during the semester.

Have broad academic goals. Saying that you're going to study for 25 hours every week during the semester or that you'll get a 98 on the next exam is counterproductive. Instead, you should aim to study more than you did in previous years and want to get an “A” on your test. When you have a goal ahead of you that is more realistic, you're more apt to achieve that goal.