So, you've enrolled in a course, you want a Diploma or a Certificate in Multimedia. You have your programs, applications, etc, and now you want to know: How can I become a better Graphic Designer?
Maybe you're calm and happy, but maybe you're fuming and pissed off: How can I be a better Graphic Designer? You browse dribbble.com and behance.net and you're wondering how on earth do people do these things? No one teaches this in school! So, fear not, brave knight, I'm here to give you my personal insight on how to be a better Graphic Designer.

1. Practice
This is probably not new to you. Every one keeps saying, "Practice makes perfect" yada, yada. You've heard it all before. You practiced a bit at first, but now you're a pro at using the programs, whether it's Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop, and you feel as though you don't need anymore practice. But you still can't do what those dribbblers are posting. Maybe you feel like you don't have enough creative juice in you, or you're just not cut out for GD. Give yourself a mental slap-negative thoughts are not tolerated in this industry. You've got to keep practicing; no matter if you're a newbie or a professional. Hunt down tutorials all over the web. Repeat after them like there's no tomorrow!
 My personal favourite place for tutorials is this marvelous website by envatotuts called design.tutsplus 
Go here to visit it.
It's great, really. They have step by step instructions for everything graphics related, not to mention tutorials in other topics such as java and programming. So here you can follow the tutorial and then post your results in the comments section and the author of the post will reply you, say it's great or critique your results. They are new tutorials everyday, not to mention hundreds of pages of tutorials for you to browse through.
Sometimes I check out a tutorial and I can literally see all the steps followed just by looking at the final picture. When I hit that stage the number of tutorials I did actually started going down. That was wrong of me, I should have kept going. Doing more tutorials. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that you need over 1000 hours of practice to call yourself so much as a amateur. And you know what? These tutorials will give you ideas in future, that's what you're doing the tuts for, right?
Here's the deal: One person attends all the classes blah blah, but another goes ahead and does tutorials-You be the judge; who's gonna learn more, who's gonna be the better designer?

2. Copy off other people's designs
I know it sounds scandalous, but it's for the sake of your betterment. Don't post exactly the person's work. Don't post it online anywhere, in fact. Don't say you heard it here. Just to make it clear, don't point fingers to me when you get caught. I'm saying just do it at home or whatever as practice.
Here's how it goes: go browsing for cool graphics, and try to recreate them. Do your best, the designer probably didn't use the steps you're using. The whole purpose of this is to be able to see how Graphic Designers work; what do they do? Here's where you collect your ideas. The professionals, see their work, see their creativity.

3. Browse through Graphic Designer Portfolios
I stated dribbble and behance before. Here, millions of designers come to post their work. You can collect inspiration, motivation, creativity and ideas. Check out the new trends, communicate with others like you. In addition to the sites listed above, many designers have their own website portfolios. They showcase their work for potential customers, and you can take a look at how they work with the customers, usually on their About page.

4. Keep your eyes out for Graphic Design.
Graphic Design is literally everywhere. On TV, outside on billboards, on books, magazines, you name it. Watch out for what is trending, how graphics vary for different topics. For example for a Women's Magazine we could be having bright colours, nice fonts, elegant pictures, while for a Men's Magazine it could be dark colours, bold blocky fonts and solid pictures.
Maybe you're driving out, check out what fonts people use, how they arrange their work for large audiences, what colours, etc.

The most important thing is to keep practicing! In fact, just after this I have a tutorial waiting for me. You can check it out here. I'll finish it up and be sure to post it in the comments below.
If you have any tips for the budding designer, don't hesitate to add them in the comments section of my blog below. I really hope you get to become a successful GD.