The Secrets to Getting Better Grades in College
Improve the GPA by Re-thinking the College Experience
Oct 16, 2009
The overwhelming majority of college students who do poorly in class are not dumb; they simply fail to (or choose not to) approach the classroom with a winning strategy. Colleges or universities are not like high school. A student will not be passed just for showing up (at a quality institution, that is). Nor will teachers or counselors be chasing after students to make sure they go to class, do their work, and keep their self-esteem high. In college,one has to realize that what is being purchased is a service and if the customer doesn't take full advantage of the way in which that service works they are liable to join those in the ranks of the under or unemployed.
These tips will provide a behind the scenes look at the way the college classroom works and it will demonstrate how to use the system to gain an advantage. The important point is to remember that those who chose to go to college go there to learn, and they must be willing to do their share of the work to make that happen.
The Right Course = Better Grades
Colleges spend a great deal of money and time on placement testing. The purpose of this is not to ritually humiliate freshman; the purpose is to make sure no student gets in over his head. When a student is given a placement test, he must take it seriously. Then students must take the results seriously.
"Developmental" courses are not assigned to make money for schools. They were created because high schools are simply not preparing students for the college curriculum. If an academic advisor tells students that they aren't ready to take Calculus, they shouldn't be too proud to take the developmental course. An A in Developmental Algebra looks a great deal better on a transcript than does an F or two in Calculus.
Prerequisites and sequenced courses are there for a reason as well. One must build the foundation of knowledge base before taking advanced classes. It is a mistake to press to take a course out of sequence just because it's a better fit into one's schedule. The Intro courses and 2000 level courses teach the language of a field and its basic practices. Professors won't waste class time to go back over the material they expected the students to have learned in the 2000 level courses. That's why they structured the course sequences numerically, so even Math majors could figure them out.
Know Thy Syllabus, Increase the Grade
In every good course, each student will receive a syllabus within the first two course meetings. This syllabus is much more than just a pile of paper that tells what books to buy and when the final will be. The syllabus is the binding contract between student and professor/college which tells exactly what students have to do to get the grade they want as well as the ways the prof can cut points from a final grade.
Read the syllabus carefully; if it is too vague about the course requirements and how one will be graded, that is a bad sign. It can mean that a professor is either just making up the class as she goes, or she can use the vagueness of the document to assign grades based on personal preference rather than student performance.
It's smart to keep the syllabi for all classes for as long as one is in college (even after a transfer) because, in the case of a grade dispute with a professor, that syllabus may be the student's strongest weapon. If the syllabus says that a project will be graded using a particular rubric and point scale, but in reality the teacher employs a simpler (for her) means of grading which ends up reducing a student's score, that student has a case. The student also has a case if the teacher has more or fewer examinations than the syllabus establishes. Teachers can amend syllabi, but most schools require them to do this in writing.
So, to work the system, one must know the system. A smart student is always sure that he or she is in the right class at the right time. A savvy student knows that the syllabus may be the most important piece of paper he receives from the professor all semester. These tips are but a start, because, as with any service, the smartest customers know that to get the best service, one gets to know the people providing the service.
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