Bournvita is the secret of my success.

Getting back on topic... I think the difference between mid 80s and mid 90s is all in the details. Personally, I try and work through things once, and then focus on my mistakes. I'll circle every one I made, then go back and redo the problem at least once. I'll never leave myself with a gap in knowledge; if there's something I'm unsure of, I make a point to work on it. In the end, if I understand something, I end up working on it very little, and anything I'm bad at get worked on until I'm perfect at it.

There are many factors. Mark inflation is most definitely one of them, but certainly not the only reason. I agree with one of the first responses, there are different types of smart and I hate when people get caught up in being school smart. On the other hand, it is important to find out what way you learn best. Personally for me, I have horrible memory. I have always had to learn the concepts in order to do well. This takes a little bit more time and is a real hindrance to subjects that require memorization, but in the end I feel as though I truly know the material and am able to think more critically as a result. However, most importantly of all is caring about what you do and then backing that up with hard work (and this applies to more then just school).

Good luck!
-Pupil

Haha. That's funny because your signature says you are in University of Toronto - TrackOne Engineering 1T5 Hahahaha. xD

Anyway, to get back on track (LOL again), I am not smart at all. I like learning though and I think the most important thing is just being interested in what is being taught. So instead of saying, "Damn it. I need this for marks," you would say something like, "Damn it. This is so cool! I want to know more!"

:)

Grade inflation. It's incredibly depressing, especially for those who work their butt off for their mark and can barely receive a 90. It shows who'll actually survive in the long run!

Truly motivating.

I find that it is easier to work harder when if you know what you want to be in the future. If you truly want to live your dream, then youd probably tell yourself to study more or pay attention to class. I guess its always good to contribute since it is like telling yourself that you understand what is happening.

The high 90s you saw, probably some of them are fake. There are some schools that just hand out 90s. And also some people even take summer/night/private school, where what you learn is shorter and easier. Of course, not all of those people fake their marks, there are some people who work hard.

High marks can result from two different ways, both from inside you.

The first one is ability to memorize massive quantities of information accurately, and the second one is having a strong understanding of the subject and being able to draw conclusions from context and experience. The latter is something that you either accumulate over your life (such as a strong background in mathematics or being very politically aware for classes such as Law or Politics) and the former is the thing that varies with your effort and is needed to make up for anything that you don't have in previous knowledge. For some, very little effort is needed, for others, their success comes completely from their raw labor.

There are definitely classes and teachers which contribute towards mark inflation, but if that's your excuse as to why you weren't able to compete with other people, then you're just going to have to get used to being inferior in the grand scheme of life and be satisfied with justifying your failures by angrily muttering to yourself that life isn't fair.

You're going to take easier classes, and you'll also take harder ones. Your job as a student is to allocate more of your effort and resources towards the classes that are more difficult to compensate. To say that you got teacher X who marks harder than teacher Y and use that as grounds to explain why you didn't get your first choice program offer is useless. Don't waste time wistfully listing off "shoulda-woulda-couldas" when you could be putting time towards making up the difference. You get assigned your hand of cards. You can choose either choose to bitch and moan about how terrible your hand is, or make the best of it and play your best cards.

In the end, it's about how much of a beating you can take and still come out shining as opposed to debating whether or not your school inflated your marks as much as other schools did. Most of the time, they didn't, and it's just a crappy excuse that people use when they are outclassed by the competition.

Either way, good luck, only a few more months left :)