The grades of ISU students improve as the school year goes on, university statistics show.

According to the Registrar’s Office, for the past two years student grade point averages have increased from the fall to the spring semesters.

The average GPA for ISU students in fall 2000 was 2.85, equivalent to a B minus.

The following spring, the average rose to 2.87. In the 1999-2000 school year GPAs rose from 2.84 to 2.86.

Sharon McGuire, director at the Academic Success Center, said the reason for lower fall grades may be that many freshmen and transfer students are still adjusting to life at Iowa State.

“A common story from students is that they come from high school, where they felt they didn’t need to study, and they come to Iowa State and use the same approach,” she said. “Many of those people get bad grades in the fall and say, `Gosh, that’s not me,’ and in the spring they change their behaviors.”

Samantha Olson, freshman in computer engineering, is one of those people.

“I was a four-point student in high school and didn’t have to study at all,” she said. “And now it’s a drastic change that I have to study.”

On top of that, McGuire said, many students are getting used to everyday routines they weren’t used to before, such as doing laundry and working to pay bills.

McGuire said many students – freshman or not – change their study habits for the spring if they do poorly in the fall.

“Lots of people used to just look over their class notes,” McGuire said. “After they get poor grades they start doing things like practice tests, rewriting note, and using a different reading strategy.”

In fall 2001, 1,094 students used tutoring services at the Academic Success Center. This spring, only 931 students signed up for the extra help.

Olson said in her first semester at Iowa State she studied mostly with groups of her friends, but that wasn’t always effective.

“Sometimes it ended up being a social event and other people I knew were not taking the study time seriously,” she said.

This semester, Olson decided to get a tutor.

“That started me out right,” she said.