That's the Feeling of Better Grades!

By Amelia Johansson
February 9, 2022

Where did GoStudent come from?
Why are grades so important to GoStudent?
Are good grades really everything?
As well as the GoStudent tutors, what else can help boost grades?

Here at GoStudent HQ, we’re in 100% celebration mode. Want to know why? Firstly, we’ve just celebrated our 6^th birthday, secondly, we’ve just received €300 million worth of financing, and thirdly, the icing on the GoStudent (birthday?) cake, our new TV advert will be hitting UK screens in February. There isn’t an emoji quite happy enough to show how delighted we are, so for now, this will do. 😀

And to show our appreciation – because none of this would be possible without you – we want to share our GoStudent story and also, tell you why your child’s grades are at the heart of everything we do. Let’s go!

Where did GoStudent come from?

It’s hard to believe that GoStudent started as a WhatsApp group, isn’t it? But that’s what happened! Let’s start right at the beginning…

Dreamt up by CEO, Felix Ohswald and co-founder, Gregor Müller in 2016, GoStudent began as a free chat group in a bid to help children with their homework.
After realising there was a gap in the market for tutoring services, we opened our first office: a humble storage container that was kept at a sailing school.
Building a business certainly isn’t easy and as with all great ventures, setbacks are inevitable. While building our first online platform, our money was stolen. 😔 But, as the famous French playwright, Molière, once said: “The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.” So, with hard work and tenacity, we continued to move forward with our goals.
Proving that determination and persistence really do pay off, in 2021, GoStudent hit unicorn status (a unicorn is a privately held start-up company that has been valued at over $1 billion).
And now? As GoStudent celebrates six years in business, we boast an international team of 1500 with offices in over 22 worldwide locations and have been valued at a whopping €3 billion. Oh, and did we mention that we’ve been awarded the much-coveted ‘Mumsnet-Rated’ badge? 😇

Why are grades so important to GoStudent?

Firstly, it’s not just grades that are important to GoStudent. Our main priority is your children and their success. We want to uncover their potential and help them shine. We all know that school years help shape the rest of our lives, both academically and personally, and so we want to do all we can to make these formative years that much easier. As we can all agree, when it comes to tests, exams and schoolwork – it’s not always a walk in the park!

Secondly, grades aren’t just important to us – they’re important to everyone! Acing a test, getting a top score on that essay that took all weekend to write, having one of the highest percentages in the end-of-term exams – with each win, your child is learning to become more confident in their abilities, and therefore, more determined to go after their goals. Sometimes, the feeling they get after being given good grades can become more important than the grades themselves! 🌟

In our new TV commercial, you can see a group of children all being given their grades, and it turns out, they’re so super-happy with the results that they start busting out some seriously cool dance moves. And why? Because that’s the feeling of better grades! If your child is putting in the hours and the effort, being rewarded with awesome marks makes all the hard work worth it. We’d start dancing too, wouldn't you?

Are good grades really everything?

While GoStudent places great value on your child’s hard work and successful academic career, we also appreciate that it’s not just about grades when it comes to their life goals, dreams and ambitions.

Yes, getting a top mark feels amazing, and sure, reaching top of the class is guaranteed to have them grinning from ear to ear, but what if your child is just not that scholastically inclined? What if they’re interested in business, art, food, or music? Well, that’s one million percent fine too. Some of the world’s most successful people didn’t do so well at school, and look at them now…

Simon Cowell

We all know Simon Cowell as the somewhat sour-faced judge on The X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent and Pop Idol, to name a few, but he’s also a hugely successful record executive and entrepreneur. Did he get straight As? Actually, Cowell only achieved one O Level (what we now know as GCSEs), but that didn’t stop him becoming one of the wealthiest celebrities in the world. 💰

Carey Mulligan

Not dispirited over being turned down by London’s top drama schools, Carey Mulligan went on to forge a super-impressive acting career. Her top films include Promising Young Woman, Drive, The Great Gatsby, Shame, Far From The Madding Crowd and Suffragette. 🎥

Richard Branson

After struggling in school with various learning difficulties, Richard Branson went on to be one of the most revered names in business. From leaving school at 16 and starting a student magazine to eventually setting up Virgin Records, which has now gone on to include over 400 companies under its umbrella, Branson’s sheer courage, grit and entrepreneurial flair has even earned him his own tropical island! 🌴

Robbie Williams

In a disappointing twist of fate, Robbie Williams was predicted to get top grades at school, but he failed all of them. However, this did not deter him, and he went on to join one of the ‘90s leading boy bands, Take That. After quitting Take That, Williams enjoyed an illustrious solo career and now owns his own clothing label and is worth hundreds of millions of pounds.💸

Sarah Millican

Famous for her inappropriate yet hilarious sense of humour, comedian Sarah Millican got a D and an E in her A Levels. While this would have stopped many people in their tracks, not Sarah; she is now one of the UK’s most successful comedians and has made appearances on TV shows such as Mock the Week, QI and 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, and has headlined her very own tours.

Lord Alan Sugar

Lord Alan Sugar’s first job was at a greengrocer after having left school with no qualifications. But as soon as he put his entrepreneurial skills to good use, he started selling electronic gadgets, and now has his own show, The Apprentice. 📺

As well as the GoStudent tutors, what else can help boost grades?

Doing homework, studying and revising for exams are all tried-and-tested ways to help your child reach their potential at school, especially if you choose one of our GoStudent tutors to help. But sometimes, the answer isn’t always to be burrowed in schoolbooks. Here are some extracurricular ways to help boost your child’s performance at school.

School competitions

If your child is particularly gifted at a certain subject, why not suggest they join a school club? Whether it’s for maths, science, IT, or their chosen language, enjoying their favourite subject outside of lesson time can help them find enjoyment in learning new things and mastering new skills without the pressure of knowing that an exam is soon to follow. 😵‍💫

Physical activity

Whether it’s dancing, sport or yoga, studies have shown that physical exercise readies the brain for peak performance. Dr. John J. Ratey, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School says:

“First, it optimizes your mind-set to improve alertness, attention, and motivation; second, it prepares and encourages nerve cells to bind to one another, which is the cellular basis for logging in new information; and third, it spurs the development of new nerve cells from stem cells in the hippocampus.”

So not only does movement assist the brain in getting ready to learn, but it also makes it easier for us to retain new information. Sounds like a win/win to us!

Biology aside, physical movement makes us feel good and when we feel good, we have more motivation. When utilised correctly, that motivation and positivity can be used to boost concentration and study habits. Just look at the kids in our new TV commercial, they’re so happy with achieving better grades that they burst into dance - that’s the feeling of better grades!💃🏼

Something new and fun

Learning how to play a musical instrument, starting a podcast or creating a vlog – these are all fun ways your child can enjoy their time while also learning valuable skills they could utilise or build on in the future.

It’s also important that your child finds something that relieves stress; students can face many triggers at school, such as important exams, study overload and, who can forget, classmate dramas! So, finding something they care about that also acts as escapism is the ideal combination, especially if it’s something they stick to. 🎸

Reading

Reading counts if they’re not reading curriculum-set books, we promise! Not only is reading relaxing, but it’s also a form of passive learning. Your child will pick up new vocabulary while absorbing new information about the cultures, characters and stories they’re reading about. And the bonus? Students who read more independently become better readers, which will come in super-handy when they’re studying Shakespeare next term! 🎭

Writing

Not only does reading lead to better writing but, surprisingly enough, writing leads to better writing. Now, we don’t want you to start assigning essays to your children while you’re tucking into a Sunday roast, but you could encourage them to start journaling. Simply tap ‘journal prompts for kids’ into Google and there’s a plethora of starting points for them to choose from. Besides being an excellent way for them to hone their writing skills, journaling is also said to be relaxing and cathartic.

So, we hope you enjoyed your trip down memory lane with us and we’re really excited for you to see our just-landed UK TV commercial. 😃

If you’re interested in getting some extra study help for your child, take a look at our tutoring superstars, and book a free trial lesson to see if we’re a good fit. Not only do our tutors create tailored learning plans for each student so that your child gets exactly what they need in their chosen subject, but every one of our UK/IE tutors has to complete an advanced DBS check before they start working with us – safety is extremely important to GoStudent and we want you to use our services with 100% peace of mind. 🥰