The Introvert's Guide to Academic Excellence

Posted on Jun 27, 2023

tl;dr: Introverts can be as successful in school as extroverts, but introverts might need to approach their studies differently. In this article, I guide you on maintaining high grades and achieving a high GPA without sacrificing your introverted personality.

Updated 3 April 2024.

You are the shit
You must think that you are the shit,
and that if you work hard,
you do get to have all that shit.

― Unknown

Introduction

Yeah, if you work hard, you do get to have all that shit, but you’ve got to believe you are the shit.

It’s best to believe in yourself first; you’re the one who can get what you surely want.

When you believe in yourself, your forward step is the start, and then you take the next step and the next.

Each deliberate step can be a smooth or rough progress toward what you truly want and your goal.

First day of school

During my fifth year of employment at an investigation services company, I decided I had enough of giving away 12 hours of my day working at a job that gave me no real inherent satisfaction.

I enrolled at a nearby college and became an eager, bright-faced, full-time student.

I wanted to gain more knowledge to better myself, find a specific career, and make it something I steadily wake up to before sunrise, following my habitual morning coffee routine and flavoring my morning, noon, and early evenings.

My college goal was to get and keep high grades and graduate with pride.

I wanted to experience exclaiming, yes, I did it, with my arms outstretched and hearing the imaginary crowd of supporters cheering, exuberantly inhaling and exhaling my breath of victory, feeling triumphant, relieved, and grateful that I completed something because I gave my best.

To aid me in gaining more confidence to reach my primary goal, I bought Cal Newport’s book titled How to Become a Straight-A Student.

My hard-earned savings also aided my efforts; I paid for my tuition, school supplies, and textbooks.

My urgent interest made my heart beat fast on the first day of the 2018 Spring Semester.

In writing this, that first day feels like it happened yesterday. I gazed out from the college’s main building beyond its pathways and greenery, and my academic future looked like a desert mirage.

Breath of victory

Looking back, I’m amazed that I graduated with a cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 3.8. This result means a lot to me; I worked hard with patience and self-discipline through many moments when I could’ve quickly dropped a frustrating class or chosen to play a video game all day.

I did it! I’m proud, relieved, and grateful for the effort I put into completing all my required courses and graduating with a high GPA.

My grin was ear to ear, and it looked like it had split my face.

The imaginary crowd roared, I exclaimed, arms outstretched. I was triumphant. I felt like I could bottle and share this feeling with the world.

And so, I created this guide with you in mind, my fellow introvert. Are you the shit? If you are, you, too, can succeed. 🔥👏🏼

☝🏼

What is this guide about

My memorable experience maintaining academic excellence and my Dean’s List status inspired me to write this guide.

Academic excellence as an introvert is achievable! There are many ways to approach it, so discover what suits you best.

This guide isn’t a get-a-high-GPA-quick guide.

You’ve come to the right place if you prefer something other than just getting average grades.

This practical guide is about succeeding in school without sacrificing your introverted personality.

Take the high road

There is no right or wrong method of success, but there are unethical ways, and only you can prevent yourself from taking that route.

In a college syllabus, your teacher reminds you that cheating or other unethical practices undermine the value of one’s academic achievements and can have dire consequences, like academic probation or expulsion from school.

Unless you’re into that sort of reckless risk-taking thrill, why would you want to cheat on your exams, plagiarize your essay, sit in an academic probation box, or risk having your school kick you out? 😩

Cheating is the easy way out of a challenge. 🤨

Maintaining high grades and GPA are you just competing with yourself through challenging work and dedication while keeping your commitment with academic honesty and integrity.

☝🏼

What exactly is a 4.0 GPA

A 4.0 GPA is a perfect score on the traditional 4.0 scale used in the United States and Canada to measure academic performance.

It is the highest possible GPA and shows that a student has earned straight A’s in all classes.

The GPA scale typically ranges from 0.0 to 4.0, with letter grades corresponding to numerical values.

For example, an A is usually worth 4.0 points, and a B is worth 3.0 points.

The school calculates the GPA by adding the total number of grade points earned and dividing by the total number of credits tried.

Academic experts consider a 4.0 GPA an excellent achievement.

A high GPA is often a requirement for admission to highly competitive colleges and universities, as well as many scholarships and educational programs.

However, it’s important to note that GPA is among the many factors colleges and universities consider when making admission decisions.

Other factors, like standardized test scores, extracurricular activities, and essays, also play a role.

☝🏼

It’s not the end of the world if you can’t keep a perfect 4.0 GPA

You could maintain a cumulative 4.0 GPA every semester. I didn’t do that.

During my first semester, I wasn’t interested in Public Speaking, so I got a C grade. During another semester, I didn’t have the natural math abilities to achieve an A in Algebra, so I got a B in that class.

But I felt good with my C and B. I didn’t want to fake my interest in Public Speaking, and I didn’t see a career in public speaking in my future. Problem-solving captured my complete interest, so I was early in every class, submitted homework before due dates, and thoroughly studied before every quiz and exam in Algebra.

A high GPA can be important for fantastic opportunities like scholarships, internships, or admittance to graduate school, but a high GPA isn’t the only factor they consider.

On our planet, you’ll see that many successful individuals achieved their goals and careers without keeping a perfect GPA or even completing college.

Developing your:

time management,
communication,
research & analysis,
critical thinking,
problem-solving,
creativity,
leadership,
self-discipline,
adaptability,
and emotional intelligence skills are essential and skills you can bring into your field of interest.

Also, a high GPA is only sometimes an exact reflection of any student’s abilities or potential.

You might also have other strengths, such as leadership, creativity, or critical thinking skills, that you can highlight in your profile or employment application.

You must always give your best and work hard to reach your goals.

Why?

You learn a lot - Even if you don’t reach your goal, you might develop new skills, understand yourself better, and discover your capabilities.
You leave your mark - You might have a unique idea or a creative concept you’re working on, like willing your iPhone to brew your coffee or teleport you to your favorite hangout. 🤔
You inspire others - Someone noticing you dedicating to your goals can be contagious.
You enjoy your journey - The process, the challenges, the breakthroughs, and the journey towards your want and goal are like exploring an open world in a role-playing video game.
Your self-confidence increases - Perhaps some unsupportive jerk told you, “Nah, you can’t do that.” Working hard to get what you want might be a powerful way to prove them wrong. However, proving yourself wrong feels extremely better.

Know that your high grades and GPA are a part of your overall profile.

Having a 4.0 GPA doesn’t guarantee anything

Maintaining a 4.0 GPA every semester is an outstanding achievement.

While a high GPA can provide many advantages, more is needed to guarantee success or acceptance to your chosen college or university.

☝🏼

Introverts keep secrets!

A Pinterest photo reference and 5 Things Introverts Do Better Than Extroverts article inspired my above illustration.

Are you an introvert

Introversion doesn’t randomly occur by magic after you wake up one morning.

Science says you’re born an introvert, but you might not realize you are as a child.

You know you feel different and don’t need constant company from family and close friends.

Family relations, whom I wasn’t close to, kept advising me to socialize more. That didn’t make sense. I felt awkward when they, who thought they knew me more than I did, gave that unsolicited advice.

I can tolerate being around anyone for a few hours and not more.

Outside of my family, I can socialize if I want to, not every day, not with a crowd, but with a handful of select friends I know and trust who know and understand me.

I naturally enjoy my alone time and seclusion a lot. I yearn for alone time, silence, quiet rooms, or places. My yearning is a necessity that’s at level with needing water, food, or sleep.

I focus, concentrate, and work better and harder when alone.

Group work distracts me and promotes average outcomes from me.

Introversion is different from feeling shy. Shyness does not equal introversion.

Shyness is an emotion. When I’m shy, I feel insecure, nervous, self-conscious, and uncomfortable. I get breathless, or my cheeks feel warm.

Sometimes I get shy. I’m shy when I’m not sure of myself or if I’m in an unfamiliar situation.

If you’ve nodded to the above information, you might have an introverted personality.

If you like taking personality tests, check out Am I an Introvert?.

Disclosure: I’m not affiliated with the website and haven’t taken that test because I already know I’m an introvert.

☝🏼

What’s your goal

Why do you want to succeed?

Are you in it to prove your academic success and excellence to the world?

Do you want to give your best in every class and earn the highest possible grade?

Are you in it for career opportunities where your high GPA will help you stand out to potential employers or graduate schools to show them your high grades demonstrate your dedication, intelligence, and work ethic?

Are you in it to satisfy your standards and goals and feel pride and accomplishment at maintaining a high performance throughout your academic years?

Are you just completing requirements or want to receive scholarships, academic honors, or admission to prestigious programs or institutions?

☝🏼

Stay authentic

It’s a given that maintaining high grades requires a lot of challenging work and dedication, but staying authentic and maintaining a balanced approach to schoolwork is also essential.

Below are tips to stay authentic while keeping high grades:

Set realistic, achievable, small, measurable goals for yourself.

Always, always, always pat yourself on the back after you’ve reached your goal. 🤗

I usually celebrate my accomplishments with a video game play, movie time, or a day off from schoolwork.
You’re the boss of your time.

Balance your time between your academic responsibilities, job, and personal life.
Your schoolwork is your priority.

Pay attention to deadlines.

I complete the easy assignments before the difficult ones and consistently send my homework two days before the deadline.

Use fear as your guide.

I’m deathly afraid of sending my assignment late, and I fear seeing the dreaded red all-caps LATE word.

I also dread feeling overwhelmed.

I prefer completing all my assignments before the deadline to have a ton of free time.
Know your limitations.

Always seek help by contacting your teacher, school tutor, or classmates when struggling with a concept in class.
Your mind and body need your attention too.

You know the spiel: say no to all-nighters, get enough sleep, get some fresh air or exercise, moderate eating junk food (if you’ve vowed never to give up on that addiction 😜), and always take breaks.
Focus on your why.

Remind yourself why you’re striving for a high GPA, and stay focused on your long-term goals.
Remember that maintaining a perfect 4.0 GPA is not the only measure of success.

☝🏼

Introversion is your superpower

Introversion is a secret weapon, a helpful superpower. 💪🏼

Below are four reasons why:

We have focus and concentration on our side.

We innately wear focus blinkers like the ones driving horses and racehorses wear to encourage their eyes to look forward and not see distractions.

Our focus blinkers can help us concentrate when completing assignments and studying for exams.

Our concentration can go on for hours while we’re solitary within the walls of our room or library, allowing us to sponge in more information.
Our inner forces are self-motivation and independence.

We rely on something other than external approval or stimulation to excel.

We set lofty standards and do what we can to achieve them, even when no one notices our efforts.
We are discerning thinkers and expert solutionists.

Our natural, thoughtful, introspective approach to learning new concepts and ideas helps us consider and analyze information before we form conclusions.
Our pensiveness and self-reflectiveness are positives.

Our advantage to positive brooding is that it helps us process and absorb information to understand the world.

We use the time to help us ponder what we’ve learned and how what we learned relates to our beliefs and values.

☝🏼

You’re at the controls

Consistently position yourself at an advantage; you can do this in the following ways:

Attend all your classes, whether in-campus or online.

Absences and tardiness are only allowed if the situation is so extreme that you cannot attend class or come in late.

Stay active at taking notes, and ensure you understand the subject the teacher is teaching.

Participate in class discussions and always ask questions when something is unclear, even if you think the question is stupid.
Staying organized is critical.

If you keep things in order and have a structured approach to managing your time and tasks, staying organized is natural to you, and this part is easy.

Otherwise, practice doing the following:
- Create to-do lists,
- Set reminders for yourself,
- Set up a regular schedule.
Use a planner, smartphone, or whiteboard to keep track of your assignments, deadlines, quizzes, and exam dates per class.
Manage your time well.

If you’re employed, your schoolwork time is the first in line. Give it precedence over your time around your job’s schedule. Inform your employer that you’re a student, and they could help create a win-win work schedule.

Rich people have money. Wealthy people have time.

― Jim Rohn, American entrepreneur, author, and motivational speaker

Give yourself suitable time for studying, socializing (if you’re a social introvert), playing your favorite video game, watching movies, and chilling out.
Hone your study techniques.

Use study techniques like:
- Active recall,
- Spaced repetition,
- And self-testing.
1. Active recall:
  
  Use flashcards or similar methods for recalling concepts or key terms, or do an after-class review of your notes or materials before bed.
  
  Create questions for yourself based on the material and answer your questions without looking at your notes.
  
  Explain or teach your learned material to a family member or close friend to reinforce your understanding.
  
  Use the Feynman Technique to explain the learned material simply as if teaching it to a sixth grader.
2. Spaced repetition:
  
  Schedule time to review learned material once a day, then weekly, then monthly.
  
  You can prioritize what you learned based on difficulty or importance.
  
  You can read, re-read, summarize, or watch videos about the material during your scheduled time.
3. Self-testing:
  
  Create quizzes for yourself based on the material and grade yourself objectively.
  
  Use online resources or textbooks to find practice questions and tests to review.
  
  With the above study techniques, I recommend taking breaks between 15 minutes to however long so that you don’t burn out and give your brain a chance to keep your learned material.
  
  Look out the window, play a video game, or do something unrelated to schoolwork.
4. Seeking help:
  
  Seeking help isn’t a study technique, but I included it here because we will always want a question answered, or an idea clarified, and seeking support can help you better understand things like a confusing math formula or complicated programming language.
  
  Ask your teacher, classmates, or school tutor for help with a concept or assignment. Your asking means that you want to learn.
Take loving care of yourself.

Doing all-nighters is stupid and bullshit! So stop doing this and bullshitting yourself.

Get your needed sleep! 😴

Sleep is a non-negotiable biological necessity (I borrowed this sentence from a TED Talk).

Enough sleep helps your brain keep the material you learned.

Go for a walk, run, or exercise your brain with a favorite video game.

Eating wholesome food is better than junk food.

Have you ever noticed that junk food makes you feel awful inside?

I nixed the eat junk food in moderation idea because that still made me feel like shit. 🤢

So support your physical and mental health because your support is vital for your focus and concentration, and you are a priority above your schoolwork. 🏆

☝🏼

Work with your introversion

Below are six ways to work with your introversion:

Follow your intuition and work with your personality to your advantage.

If you like studying alone, do that quietly to your satisfaction, but don’t force anyone to believe in working independently.

Choose a quiet, distraction-free environment/location to study, like the school’s library, study room, or a quiet room in your home.
Plan your schedule wisely.

If you do this, you’ve gifted yourself mini vacations and alone time from schoolwork, giving yourself extra time to recharge and refresh.
Small groups and networking events might promote that they’re great for helping you align your interests with like-minded students, practice your social skills, and offer opportunities for beneficial future connections, but they could also distract you.

Follow your intuition.
If a classmate says let’s study together, and you’re uncomfortable with that, follow your intuition.

Without thinking it through and knowing that I much prefer studying alone, I decided to work with a classmate on my class’s final group project and soon regretted my decision.

Close to the middle of the project, I learned that they were completing the course only to complete it.

My heart sank; I didn’t feel like working with them. I was completing the course to my high standards, and I wanted to get an A.

I should’ve asked my classmate about their intention before deciding on completing the project with them.

Fearing I would get a grade lower than A, I urgently communicated my intention to get an A. Fortunately, my classmate agreed, and together we got an A grade.
Use email or Zoom, Discord, or Canvas online discussions for faceless interaction with your teacher or classmates if necessary.
Stay true to yourself. Don’t sacrifice your personality to fit in; if others respect your introversion, fine. If not, it’s their issue.

☝🏼

Keep a cheerful outlook

What exactly is a cheerful outlook

Having a cheerful outlook is also a superpower.

It can help you stay positive and hopeful, even when things are tough.
It can also help you deal with challenges and achieve your goals.

So while you’re chasing success, taking along a festival of cheer balloons will ease your pursuit, and below are three cheer balloons that might help:

With your can-do attitude, you’re likely to
- tackle challenging assignments,
- push through procrastination
- and take the extra time to understand complex concepts
- and you’re less likely to waste time on negative thoughts or distractions
- and more likely to prioritize your time for studying, completing assignments, and attending class.
With your growth mindset, you’ll likely see setbacks as opportunities to gain experience and improve rather than failures.
With your belief in yourself and your abilities, you’re likely to take risks and try new things, like asking for help or participating in class discussions.

☝🏼

Respect your teacher

A college teacher/professor’s job is to show responsibility toward their students, give students clear and detailed instructions, be available for questions, provide feedback, treat students fairly, create a positive learning environment, ensure academic integrity, and show empathy.

As students, we show respect for them, and below are the following ways:

Arrive to class on time and be prepared. You show that you value your professor’s time and take the course seriously.
Address your teacher/professor by title, such as Doctor or Professor. Use formal language when speaking or writing to them. You show that you recognize their position and expertise.
Pay attention during lectures and actively engage in class discussions. You show that you respect your professor’s knowledge and are interested in learning from them.
Don’t use your phone, browse the internet, or do anything else that might distract you, your professor, or your classmates during class. You respect the learning environment and your professor’s efforts to create a productive classroom.
If you need help with the material or clarification, ask your teacher or professor for help. Doing so shows that you value their expertise and are committed to learning.
Avoid interrupting or speaking over your professor, making rude comments, or dismissing their opinions. You show that you recognize their authority and professionalism.

Teachers/professors have feelings, too, and they do notice your behavior. Like you, they have a lot of shit on their plate; they might handle more than one class of hundreds of students.

Stand out and help make your and their work easy.

☝🏼

Procrastination won’t help you succeed

Even though it’s important, I’m guilty of putting off something I know I should do.

Sometimes, it’s challenging to push procrastination away, especially when I have to complete assigned reading about a subject that doesn’t interest me.

Introverts often prefer to work alone, so getting the help we need can be challenging. We might struggle with a task and be reluctant to ask questions in class because we fear drawing attention to ourselves.

We’re likely to procrastinate on uninteresting assignments, so it’s easier to avoid them.

We might procrastinate on assignments requiring us to interact with our classmates because we don’t feel like having them around us or are uncomfortable in group settings.

The above can prevent us from succeeding. Getting lower grades, increased stress, and difficulty completing tasks are possible.

If you’re struggling with procrastination, below are tips you can do to overcome it.

To help you focus and concentrate, find a quiet place where no one can interrupt you.
Break large tasks into smaller, more manageable ones to make them seem less daunting and quick to start.
Set and stick to your deadlines. This method will keep you on track and prevent you from completing tasks until the last minute.
Reward yourself for completing tasks. You’ll stay motivated, and you’ll enjoy the process of completing tasks. I habitually reward myself with video game play.
Talk to a therapist or counselor if you struggle to overcome procrastination. They can help you identify the root cause of your procrastination, and they can develop strategies to help you overcome it.

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Conclusion

Now that you don’t have to sacrifice your introverted personality to maintain high grades and achieve your highest GPA, let’s conclude with the ideas below.

It’s not the end if you can’t maintain a perfect 4.0 GPA, which doesn’t guarantee success or acceptance to your chosen college or university.

Your introversion is your superpower, and you’re the master of your success.

Remember that staying real and maintaining a balanced approach to schoolwork is essential.

☝🏼