Giving a douchebag the silent treatment can lead to better grades! | Source: ShutterStock

Dealing with douchebags isn’t easy, but one method works better than the rest: giving them the silent treatment. In fact, ignoring jerks can actually help you get better grades on assignments!

Have you ever been dealing with someone who is really lame, obnoxious or otherwise annoying and realized it literally feels exhausting? You’re onto something: A new study says that instead of actually trying to reason with a douchebag or hear them out, it’s actually better for your brain and your soul to just get the heck out of there and ignore them.

While it may seem like common sense, actual experiments were done just to be sure. Half of the volunteers in the research were given either the job of acting like a complete jackass–think bigoted, loud, irritating douchebag types–or normal, likable, charming person (like you!).

The other half of the participants were led to private rooms to do an assignment after dealing with either the douchebags or the nice folks. And guess what? The people who gave the douchebags the silent treatment did a lot better than those who ignored the awesome people.

Applying this to your own life: if there’s a jerk in study hall who just won’t shut up, don’t try to argue or get through to him or her. Just cover your ears and go about your business. And if there’s someone cute and fun? Chat him up–you may do better on your exam next period!

How do you deal with obnoxious douchebags? Have you ever given someone the silent treatment? How’d they react? Do you think not wasting your energy on douchebags can help you get better grades? Tell us in the comments!

You won’t believe how this teacher gives out grades!

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The reality is that it is very rare to get good grades 100 percent of the time as even the most studious among us can have an off assignment. Don’t get me wrong – working hard in school and trying to do well is really important, but it also isn’t worth making yourself sick or crazy over a bad grade every now and then. Here are seven ways to handle getting a bad grade:

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Relax, Relax, Relax

Okay, you just got that paper back and you can feel your heart sinking when you see the grade. Take a couple deep breaths. It is very important to remember that you're not stupid or dumb. This is not the end of the world. Getting stressed isn't going to make it go away, but it will keep you from being able to focus on anything else for the rest of the day. Just take a deep breath, put it away, and try to relax until you can deal with it later.

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Cry It Out

If you are able to maintain that relaxation from the moment you get the paper back, that's awesome. If you feel like you've been fighting back tears all day, a good cry may not make it go away, but it does always make me feel better to throw a little pity party. Sometimes getting all that frustration out of your system actually makes it easier to relax and believe yourself when you say "It's not the end of the world."

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Do Something You Love

Done crying? While it may seem like you should get right back to work to your schoolwork, you may still need some buffer time or you'll probably get frustrated too easily or get distracted thinking about the bad grade. Take about an hour to do something just for you - go for a run, catch up on last night's TV, take a nap. It'll help center you and remind you there are some other things going on in your life that make you smile.

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Keep It In Perspective

This is like, "Relax: Part 2." Often, teachers give many assignments during a semester because they know that every student has an off day now and again. That paper may have seemed big at 8 pages, but it may only be 5 percent of your total grade. That gives you plenty of other assignments to try and even it out. Things like class participation can also be a way to snag extra points that will make you feel like your one bad grade is no longer overshadowing all your other work.

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Don't Play The Blame Game

It's easy to just blame your teacher or group members for the bad grade, but before you start flipping out at all those other parties, take a pause. True, sometimes you couldn't have done anything different. That said, I remember getting a bad grade on a French paper and kept blaming my teacher until I finally admitted to myself that I never even bothered to proofread it. It doesn't make it go away, but you can use it as a teaching moment and avoid starting drama with others.

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Talk To Your Teacher

In my experience, teachers love when students care enough to take time besides class to meet with them to talk about work. Do not be scared or embarrassed about going to talk to your teacher about your grade - this is all part of their job! Be prepared for their honest feedback though, but also, you never know if they may offer you the opportunity for a re-write or extra credit. They also may keep in mind your hard-working attitude later in the semester.

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Plan For Next Time

Once the grade is done, you may not be able to change it, but you can look ahead and try to get the grades you really want from now on. All the bad grades I remember were because I put off my work until the last minute. Try to plan a schedule for yourself where you can get feedback along the way. Maybe it is swapping papers with a friend to have another set of eyes check for mistakes, or asking your teacher to suggest some websites to do sample problems before the test.

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Do you get stressed out about grades? How do you handle it when you are disappointed in a grade? Tell us in the comments!

How To Nap Your Way To Better Grades

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If your parents offer to pay for, or help you out with, your college education, could they be doing more harm than good? You would think no, right? But a new study was just released that states that the more money parents give their kids for college, the lower their grades will be.

This study looked at the students and parents in a bunch of different schools, considering both the competitiveness of the institutions and the socioeconomic statuses of the parents. Researchers found that grades were the lowest for students who were getting a lot of support at private and more expensive colleges. But throughout all of the different factors, the result remained pretty much the same: the more money parents shelled out, the worse the grades were.

Hm. I’m not really sure how I feel about these results and this study. On the one hand, I can understand why this would make sense. Kids who are willing to pay their way through school using their own money might be more invested in their education. They also might be more likely to understand that if they don’t do well, they’re basically losing out on hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s easier to waste money when it’s not yours, but when you’re the one signing the checks, you’re probably more likely to make sure you get the most out of the experience.

But on the other hand, I sort of don’t agree with this. I think grades have more to do with a student’s general attitude towards school and a parent’s general attitude towards school. I guess I’ll use myself as an example. My parents paid for my entire college education, but I think I still did pretty well. Honestly, looking back, I don’t think I would have done any better if I had paid for school myself. In fact, I think I put more pressure on myself to do better, because the entire time, I had my parents breathing down my back, reminding me that I better do good because they were the ones footing the bill.

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So is this study saying that in order to get better grades in college, you need to tell your parents to put away their checkbooks? Not so fast. Another pattern this study discovered was that students who got the lowest grades might have been getting parental support in the form of money, but they weren’t exactly getting any pressure from their parents to do well. In fact, when it came to parents who pushed their kids to get good grades and who had high expectations of their kids, it didn’t matter how much money they paid: the kids still got good grades.

What I’m going to take from that is that it really comes down to a combination of things: how much money your parents are paying and how much pressure your parents are putting on you to do well in school. So if your parents are paying your entire college bill and almost never encourage you to study or go to class, you’re going to get lower grades. Obviously! But if they’re paying your whole bill and they’re setting some clear guidelines for your schoolwork, you’re going to do well. Obviously! That makes a lot more sense to me.

One other thing this study found? Kids who don’t pay for their education are more likely to graduate. Think about it: if you’re paying for college, but you just can’t do it anymore financially, you’re probably going to back out of it. Makes sense.

Basically, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having your parents financially help you out with college. If they’re able to do that, and if they still encourage you to work hard, I think it can only be a benefit. And I’m kind of over people saying that you’re spoiled and entitled if they do. If your parents want to help you out so that you don’t have to be buried under a pile of debt when you graduate, what’s wrong with that?

In the end, how good your grades are really just comes down to one thing: how hard you work for them.

What do you think about this study? Did your parents pay for your school or are they going to? Do you agree with this or disagree? Tell us in the comments.

Are cell phones really that distracting?

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Growing up I was a little, shall we say, nerdy. OK no that’s false. I was THE BIGGEST NERD EVER. The instant I got home I plopped down and to do my homework. The concept of going out and playing when my homework wasn’t done was…well, ludicrous, frankly.

This continued for my entire academic career, right until the end of college. And guess what? No one gives a shit. No one.

I’m lucky enough to be a professional writer, but unlucky in that no one cares 1) what my GPA was or 2) where I even went to college. People definitely want to hire a college grad—but no one has ever even verified that I actually attended.

As I sat through numerous job interviews, I began to get very bitter that I’d worked my butt off to get into the best school I could only to have my eyes glaze over when I mentioned it.

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Didn’t they appreciate how I slaved over Stats and agonized through Econ? Could they not fathom how hard I worked to pass Bio? I’m not one of those girls who, academically, is good at everything. I’m only good at words. Science, math—anything in that realm is like torture. But still, I toiled for years to not just pass those classes but ace them, SURE that one day someone would appreciate it. They didn’t.

Now, hold on here. This is a very slippery slope. You’re probably hearing me say something like “Come with me! Careen down this hill of ‘I don’t give an eff’ at my side and feel the wind of whateverishness blow through your hair as you sail away from piles of homework, towards total freedom!”

I’m not saying that. Not at all. In fact, I’m kind of saying the opposite. If I could do my academic career all over again, it’d go something like this:

Work really hard in elementary and middle school—here you learn things you actually use like how to read, how to spell, how to multiply and history. Knowing about history makes you cool as an adult. Seriously.

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Work really hard in high school—this is the most important because it determines where you go to college. What you learn at university is, in many cases, irrelevant. It matters more that you went and where you went than anything. You want to go to the best college possible so you can meet the best teachers/people/boyfriends/friends possible and make the best connections. This will make your life IMMENSELY easier. Seriously.

Slack off in college except for courses I care about—I just about killed myself to pass Econ and guess what, it’s still a total mystery to me. Looking back, I wish I’d devoted all that time to really learning grammar or reading different authors—that would have been way better for my career than diagramming, um, currencies? See, I don’t even know what I’m talking about even in the vaguest sense. SERIOUSLY.

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My point is—you should only stress over grades if you don’t know what you want to do in life. Because if you decide to go for a graduate degree or switch careers, you’ll need a kick-ass GPA. But if you, like me, know from the get-go that you’re going to pick one track and stick to it, focus your learning there and don’t panic if you don’t ace courses that ultimately don’t matter to you.

Getting good grades can be uber stressy. Here’s to a school year with less effed-up stress and way more fun.

Are you with me in thinking that good grades don’t matter so much, or do you think I’m cray? Tell me in the comments!

You Don’t Need Perfect Grades, But You Do Need Hot Supplies

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Grades! SAT scores! Getting into the right college! It’s enough to make any student totally stressed. And when you’re not academically inclined, the stress can be totally overwhelming and make you just want to give up. Here at Gurl, we never think giving up on school is the right choice. So, we asked Meg to come up with five ways to deal when you totally suck at school.

Are you worried about sucking at school? Do you feel a ton of pressure to get good grades? Let me know what’s going on in the comments!

Feeling Like The Odd Girl Out? Here’s How To Deal

You shouldn't need a megaphone to get noticed! | Source: Shutterstock

Confidence comes from being happy with yourself, your accomplishments, and your life. If you do things you’re proud of and that make you happy, it will come naturally. If you feel awesome and know that you’re awesome, other people will take notice. Confidence gives you a glimmer in your eye and puts some swing in your step, and the people whose attention you want, whether it’s your teacher, your boss, your crush, or your parents, will perk up at attention in your presence.

Of course, in addition to being and feeling awesome, there are specific things that can help boost your visibility to the people who matter to you. So how can you capture the eye of your crush, become teacher’s pet, and get hired for that awesome summer job? Read on to find out!

Your whole future's riding on this? Okay, yeah. That's a little stressful.

Every year, around this time, a mysterious and terrifying phenomenon sweeps the nation—College Application Anxiety. If you’re getting hives just thinking about applying for college—the forms, the essays, and then the worst part: waiting, you’re far from alone. In the last couple years, high school students have been applying for college in record numbers, which, as you probably already know, can make it even harder to get into your dream school. To keep your head from exploding, we’ve put together a handy-dandy list of insider information. Get reading, and good luck!

Give yourself options, but you don't need too many!

1. You Don’t Have to Apply to a Billion Schools: High school counselors are saying that students who are applying for college go out to around seven to eight schools each, but some kids are sending their stuff to 10 or more. With the average application fee at $40, and some schools charging even more, I have to wonder—how are they paying for all those apps, and is it even worth it? I mean, knock yourself out if you really want to put yourself out there, but sending that many applications just isn’t necessary for most students. Try my Fab Four strategy instead: One super-reach fantasy school (it’s a long shot, but you can’t not apply!), and then three others that you think you’d be happy at that you have a better chance of getting into—including one that you or your parents could afford with little to no help.

2. Know your odds: The average college gets over 5,000 applications, but some top schools get closer to 50,000—I know, I know. It’s freaky, but don’t lose hope. The New York Times has an awesome feature on their site that lets you see which schools let in the biggest percentage of applicants; and  from just cruising it for a minute, I learned a ton. Did you know that while Harvard only lets in about six percent of students who want to go there (that’s six out of every hundred! ouch!), NYU lets in roughly a one in four? Good to know! And there are other incredible, super cool schools that have higher admissions rates. Rice University in Texas, where Candance Bushnell went, lets in almost one in five applicants; Oberlin College in Ohio, where Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs went, lets in almost one out of three; and Occidental College in California, where Luke Wilson went, lets in almost two of every five. The takeaway? When you’re applying for college, don’t just think of the fancy schools that everybody talks about. There are a billion amazing schools who would love to have you—it’s up to you to find them!

Meeting your deadlines is good. Beating them is better.

3. Get Stuff In Early, Up Your Chances: Even though you may have spent weeks or even months on the perfect application, your materials might only be in front of the woman in charge for about 15 minutes before she decides to put you in the “yes” or “no” pile. Application deadlines are creeping up fast—in fact, some are November 30—but try, try, try not to hit “send” on your application at the last minute. Why? If yours gets in even a week or two early, before all the other procrastinators (and there are a ton of them!), the admissions officers might not be as swamped and will have a little more time to look at your essay, grades, and letters of rec. Applying to college is a biggie. Your application is worth their time. Make sure you get it.

Even this little guy's feeling your anxiety!

4. Hug a Friend: Does applying for college have you on the verge of crazytown? Find your bestie (or your bear—shhh, we won’t tell!) and get a big hug in right now. Sure, a super-squeeze won’t guarantee you’ll get into your top choice school, but it might just make you feel a teensy bit better.

Are you applying for college right now? Is the whole process enough to drive you nuts? If you’re already in college, are you happy with your choice? Do you wish you’d applied somewhere else? Let us know in the comments!

Definitely don't forget about the power of coffee.

What’s on your mind? Heather can help! Send her your question at heather@gurl.com.