Some students have problems with procrastination and lack the ability to estimate the length of time to do homework, finish reading assignments or complete important school projects. This leads to late work, incomplete projects and unfinished reading assignments -- and failure in the course. A planning calendar helps organize work for the semester or quarter, month, week and day. Breaking down the work into manageable units helps finish the work by the due date. Writing down the work in a list helps put the requirements on a pragmatic level.
Schedules may look good on paper, but once classes begin, the paper schedule proves impossible to follow. Work, family commitments, homework and course projects balloon the hours listed on paper. Students frequently don't have the ability, or the time, to sit and rethink the schedule to manage all the commitments. The University of Alabama Center for Academic Success warns entering students that college requires a major commitment, and homework and assignments for most students mean working harder compared to high school. Make a class chart and schedule 2 to 3 hours for nightly homework for each hour in class, according to the University of Oregon Teaching and Learning Center. Planning for these extra hours helps avoid failing grades.
The lack of necessary skills, including language or writing problems and failing to take prerequisites that give background skills necessary to do well in the class, help contribute to low grades. Investigating the course requirements and skills required to complete the class before enrolling helps students avoid failure. Students occasionally enter the class with low personal standards that don't match the instructor's benchmarks for quality work. Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate classes at the secondary level and college classes set higher standards compared to some survey classes taken during high school, and failure to set higher academic goals results in dropped courses or failing grades.
Absenteeism creates grade problems, and personal issues contribute to missed classes. Elementary, middle and secondary schools frequently have formal policies requiring teachers to fail students missing a certain number of classes. Four-year and community colleges may not list a specific number of classes before failure, but failing to attend class puts a student at risk for an "F" in the course. An occasional personal problem that makes students miss class typically doesn't mean failure, but long-term illnesses or family problems that make students miss a number of days at any level hurts grades. Absent college students fail to participate in class discussions, miss important lectures and laboratories and lack the test review to do well.