Ways to improve academic standing without going to community college?

Some state college programs are designed so that CC credits are counted the same in a state university. I even know some people who did that.

The trick isn't to transfer into a four year college as a freshman, but as a junior.

Edit: after reading your post again, I get the feeling that my advice may not be relevant to you. My comment is specifically dealing with my experience as an American.

If I go to a community college, I could improve my grades, but the material they cover is a replacement for high school classes and I'd be precluded from signing up for entry classes at the four year college.

This system is pretty incongruous with my college experience. You may get more accurate help if you specify what area you're from

Are you a current high-school student? I can only speak from my own experience about a decade ago but I'd recommend to take as many AP and dual-enrollment courses as you can. AP courses were weighted and boosted my GPA way up and dual-enrollment let me take college courses for free in my highschool. If your school offers either of these, take as many as you can. My local state university actually partnered with our community college so transferring was as smooth as could be. It might be worth actually chatting with both the community college you're considering and your eventual four-year university's admission offices and making sure that what you understand is right.

Don't discount the benefits of Community College, either.

When I tried CC, the material was absolutely high school level just with smaller font in the textbooks.

This is absolutely the case with freshman courses at a university. Only difference is that you're paying three times as much for tuition.

Well, there's two ways forward, one is that you bite the bullet and get your AA which almost always transfers as most of the first 2 years and you'll be on to most of your degree course work.

Or, you apply directly college again and you write tour essays on how you've grown as a person. The second one will require some time between being suspended and applying again so I don't know if its an option and that usually requires you have something to show for your about face, I.e. you've worked your way up in some kind ofcareerr for a few years. So that can be a real trick.

They aren't concerned with if you'll be learning anything while you raise your grades, they are concerned if you are going to put in the effort and stick with it so they don't take an opportunity from someone that actually wants to put in the work.

It's kinda BS, but also, its adult consequences in an adult world. At the end of the day, you made decisions that make colleges think you need to do some highschool work again so, you're going to have to deal with the consequences, and that includes doing redundant work, both in cc and then to fill in the gaps once you transfer.

FWIW my biggest (late 1990s) college regret is that I didn't do community college for 2 years then transfer to university. The university I wanted to go to allowed for direct credit transfer (from the nearest CC) after 2 years and one of my friends/roommates took advantage of it. He lived in an apartment with us university students and didn't really miss anything other than 2 years of student loans.

You might check with the college to see if it's possible to test (or re-test) out of remedial courses. If the answer is yes, buckle down with old textbooks, the local library, YouTube, free online courses, local tutors and whatever else you need.

The one caveat here is if you're taking more math courses later, you really need to get these basics down, because the later courses will build off of this content. So don't just "study for the test" and then forget it, try to really understand what you're doing and why.

A couple comments, from personal experience: first off, there are different ways to teach math. I've had teachers who explained something so beautifully and clearly that, if I happened to forget a formula, I could remember the explanation and recreate the formula. And I've had teachers that were teaching me stuff I already knew cold, who had me so confused on the stuff I definitely already knew, that I had to switch sections before they hit stuff I didn't know. Do you might need to look at a different book or course or something, if it doesn't make sense to you.

Second, when they assign a handful of problems out of the back of the chapter, don't do just those problems. Do every single exercise in the back of the chapter, and check yourself when you complete each one. If it's the wrong answer, do it again. If it's still the wrong answer, keep going until you get the right answer, but pay attention to what you're doing: you have some basic misunderstanding of what you're supposed to be doing, and you want to identify and correct that misunderstanding so it doesn't screw you over later. Math builds on math; if your foundation is shaky, you're going to collapse when you get to the upper levels.

I don't do well in traditional semester college cuz adhd.

So, never went to college. Started in fast food, last job was 75k/ year tech job.

I took a lot of short term accredited programs. ROP certifications. LearnIT. Studied on my own to test MVP certifications for excel, PowerPoint, word. You can study on your own to take A+ certification exam. I took community college non credit classes about various applied arts.

So, I'd show up at job interviews with no traditional college degree, but a ton of certifications, short term classes, etc. They were fascinated by my diverse tech skills, it showed I had ambition. So I got a lot of jobs easily this way.

Also, try being a career temp for a while. If you prove you'll show up for the gigs professionally, they'll send you to more assignments . I did this for a decade, got phenomenal skillset, different industries , lot of diverse experience.