All Posts Tagged With: "dropping a class"
It’s time to drop a course when…
You can’t quite put your finger on it, but there’s something annoying about the professor.
The January Speech
I need to remind struggling first-year students that this is a university course. You can actually fail.
In my department, most courses are offered on a full-year basis, September right through to April, usually with a mid-year exam in December. Of course, results vary, but in my first-year course, especially, there are always a large number of students who, by January, have already made a colossal mess of things. Classes missed, of course, papers not turned in, and then there is the exam that they bombed last month.
All of this makes me feel like, in the first class of January, I need to remind these first-year students that this is a university course. Unlike your high school courses, you can actually fail this one, and, barring a stunning change in attitude and productivity, you probably will. Therefore, you need to find it in yourself to make a heroic effort in the second semester and salvage what you can of the sinking vessel that is your grade, or abandon ship altogether and drop the course.
It’s hard to know how effective The January Speech is. To be sure, quite a few students do drop the course before it’s too late (there’s a deadline for these things), but they might have been planning on dropping it anyway. Many more soldier on, though in most cases, I’m not sure why. Perhaps because their loan agreements obligate them to take a full load. Perhaps they have been forced by their parents to try university for one year and see how it goes (and now want to fail so they don’t have to keep going). Perhaps they cling to the hope that if they just keep showing up, they will somehow get a passing grade, no matter how little work they actually do.
What I do know is that I hate giving The January Speech. It casts me in the role of the stern, masterly professor and I much prefer to play the charming eccentric professor. But worse, it reminds me that no matter how carefully I plan my course and select my texts, no matter how much thought I put into innovative assignment structures, no matter how funny and engaging I may be in the classroom, for the vast majority of students, it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference.
Damage control
Failing essays or assignments already? How to deal with a mid-term grade crisis
Sarah had a slow start to her fall semester at UBC. She moved into a new apartment at the beginning of October, was waitressing part-time, and her boyfriend moved back to Vancouver and was taking up more of her time than usual.
But Sarah is a good student and is only taking three courses this semester instead of her usual five, so she was sure she could handle it. Then, in late October she got back the mark for her first assignment for her 400-level math class: she had failed. It came as a surprise to her. “I suspected that I may have done poorly,” Sarah says. “But I spent a lot of time on the assignment so I thought I’d at least pass.”
Now the semester is moving on and the workload in her courses has turned out to be enormous, and Sarah’s not sure if she can pull it together to pass her math class. What’s a girl to do?
Meghan Houghton, the Associate Vice-Provost for Student Success and Learning Support Services at the University of Calgary says that mid-semester grade crises are very common, particularly among first year students, who haven’t necessarily adjusted to the higher expectations of university.
“We know there is a natural transition period for students,” she says. “Their ‘A game’ from high school is requiring some refinement and polishing in order for that to be an ‘A game’ for university.”
If you find yourself in this situation, you should first seek out the learning support services offered by their school and refine their study skills. UBC, for example, offers writing tutorials, peer academic coaching, help hiring a tutor and piles of online academic resources, among other programs.
Another common cause of bad grades for first-years, Houghton says, is a lack of interest in what they’re studying. “Low grades on the first round of exams may be reflective of low motivation to study whatever it is they’ve chosen to study.”
Excelling is difficult if you don’t like what you’re studying. So, your bad grades could be a sign that you’re pursuing the wrong degree, and if that’s the case, you should make a change sooner rather than later. Make an appointment with an academic advisor at your school and they’ll talk you through what program is best for you.
