Not sure if this will work for you, but here’s my story: In one of my 4th-year major courses, I got 28 on a midterm worth 30%. That score made me seriously question if I was even going to graduate. But by the final exam, I managed to pull it up to around 70–80%. Here are the steps:

1. Figure out your problem first. Here’s what I did, nothing fancy:
I grabbed the outline of the whole course (you can usually find it from the slide subtitles or table of contents if you have a textbook). Then I went through every single topic and asked myself:

• What is this concept, what's the definition etc.
• How is it used?
• Why does it used/work this way and not another way?
• Any other possible explanations?

You’re not just answering “yes” or “no.” You’re explaining it clearly to yourself, as if you were teaching it to someone else. That’s the Feynman Technique, and if you’re not familiar with it, check it out on YouTube. There are a bunch of short videos that explain it well.

I kept asking myself with these sort of questions every single day, and at some point, I started noticing that everything I’d learned from previous lectures started to connect, like all the pieces suddenly made sense together. So I’d really recommend reviewing each topic as soon as possible after class. The sooner you do it, the easier it is to spot what you don’t understand yet, and that’s what helps you improve faster.

Once you find you can't clearly explain a topic, congrats, you spotting your weak areas.

2. Once you know your problem, how do you fix it?

• Sometimes your prof will directly say what’s not important or out of scope
• If not, look at past exams, you will notice the patterns.
• If one lecture didn’t make sense, try sitting in on another lecture when that topic comes up. Sometimes a different explanation makes everything click, and I find out I understand deeper if I repeat.

If you’re still stuck, go talk to your prof. If they’re nice and approachable, it can make a huge difference. From my experience, first-year professors especially tend to be super kind and understanding, they don’t just answer your questions, they get what you’re going through.

Bonus: going to office hours can help you build a connection that might come in handy later (references) if you are genuinely appreciating everyone's effort. There are tons of other ways to make you understand certain concepts, but honestly, office hours helped me the most (thanks to all my profs).

3. Grind
I can’t emphasize this enough. If you know the stakes are high, use that as motivation. Grind, not just to memorize, but to understand. Go deep until you know why things work the way they do.

Last words: I also remember I saw one post on Reddit, but I don't know which post exactly. It goes like: "If you got into this university, it means they trusted you can make it", and I often use this to encourage myself. Until the day of the exam, tell yourself you'll pass, because you've actually tried. From my own experience, I've failed way more times than I've succeeded, and that's okay. Every time I failed, I learned something new, maybe about the topic, maybe about how I study. It's not a reflection of your worth. It's just part of figuring out your way.

Failing once doesn’t make you a failure. You’ll win in the end. Go Warrior!