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Tag: grades

  • Summer School: Why It’s Worth Your Time

    Summer School: Why It’s Worth Your Time

    Although the thought of spending a beautiful summer’s day inside a dark classroom while others are lounging at the beach may sound less than appealing, in the long run, taking summer school may actually prove to be one of the best decisions you will make while at college or university. Here’s why:

    1. Finish your degree in less time

    On average, it takes four years to complete a bachelor’s degree. However, many students are now taking an extra year to finish their degree, which allows for a less stressful and demanding course load each semester. Having said this, there is a way to keep the stress level down without taking an extra year to complete your degree. By taking two courses per summer, you can complete your bachelor’s degree in just four years, while taking a manageable four courses per semester during the school year. By opting to cut your course load by just one class a semester (and instead take these classes during the summer), you can increase your free time while at the same time decreasing your stress. In addition, taking just two classes each summer means that you will still have extra time to get a part-time summer job, go on vacation, or just relax!

    2. Smaller class sizes

    If you’ve ever been one of four hundred students in an introductory psychology class, you know that quality one-on-one time with the professor is hard to come by. Although teaching assistants are usually made available via email and office hours in larger classes, it simply doesn’t compare to the valuable one-on-one direction and assistance of the professor, which is usually an integral part of smaller classes. The smaller size of summer school classes also provides greater opportunity for group work and interaction with fellow students. Depending on whether you prefer to brainstorm in groups or to work solo, this may or may not be seen as a benefit. Furthermore, professors are generally more lenient with due dates and the formalities of the class, and lectures are much more laid-back in summer school. With a more relaxed atmosphere, classes are less daunting and more enjoyable.

    3. Shorter course durations

    Many summer school classes are concentrated into four or eight-week sessions, making it the perfect time to get the more tedious classes over and done with in a relatively short amount of time. Or, on the other hand, if you want to take a class that you have a greater interest in, summer school allows for an intense focus on the subject matter. This may seem slightly paradoxical given the shorter duration of summer classes, but the greater amount of group work and one-on-one time with the professor means that you can discuss the subject matter in greater depth and hopefully gain a better understanding of the material. And, as stated before, taking fewer courses of shorter duration means that you can still have a fun and relaxing summer while at the same time working towards finishing your degree in less time!

  • Tips for Writing the Perfect Paper

    Tips for Writing the Perfect Paper

    The perfect paper is a true work of art. It’s perfectly organized and has a clear, structured flow from thesis to conclusion. It has a flawless bibliography and citations, with no spelling or grammar mistakes in sight. It has a title that’s both concise and clever; maybe it even has headings. But that perfect paper can be hard to come by—because it takes a whole lot of work to nail down.

    If you’re in the pursuit of the perfect paper, here are some tips to help you out.

    Use your own words. You may feel the urge to pretty up your sentences with lots of figures of speech and adjectives you dug out of the thesaurus. Don’t. You’d be surprised at how effectively you can get the point across if you just use your own words. Of course, you should be professional and use academic language, but going on in circles just because you want to sound competent will actually make you seem anything but. An embellished paper is not necessarily well written; simpler is better.

    Be specific. Provide historical examples, data sets and any information that you feel will best back up your claims. Specificity provides clarity on your subject, as well as credibility that you actually understand the information you are presenting. A good paper can then connect the facts you present to broader themes in the discipline. Vague statements that don’t have evidence to support them will unfortunately fall flat.

    Cite well. This is specific to research papers: keep a detailed record of what information you got from what source. Make sure you are keeping up with footnotes/endnotes or in-text citations (depending on the required format), and that they fall in line with what is written in your bibliography. This becomes especially crucial once you enter university, because plagiarism is considered a serious academic offence (even if it’s accidental). Keep track of your information and you’ll be in the clear.

    Proofread—repeatedly. No matter how good a writer you are, you should never hand in your first draft as a final copy! Look over your paper not only for spelling and grammar mistakes, but in order to eliminate redundant words, rephrase awkward sentences and overall make your paper flow as seamlessly as possible. You should do this a couple of times until you’re sure what you’ve produced is your best work. Still in doubt? Have a classmate look it over and see if there’s anything you missed.

    Take these tips to heart, put pen to paper and get writing!

  • Dealing With Failure: Recovering from a Bad Grade

    Dealing With Failure: Recovering from a Bad Grade

    We’ve all made mistakes in our academic careers. Whether it’s a test we just weren’t prepared for or an assignment that didn’t go as planned, a poor grade or two—or even a failure—is a normal part of being a student. That being said, it’s important to get into the right mindset when confronting your mistakes. In fact, this will actually allow you to do better in the future.

    It may seem silly to say this, but if you do poorly, it’s not the end of the world. There will be other exams and projects; you have ample opportunity to improve. If there’s no longer a way to boost your mark in one course, maybe doing well in your other courses will make up for it. In any case, school is very important, but your grades shouldn’t define who you are. When you look back on your school days in the future, you’re likely going to think about the great things you learned and the memories you made—not that one test you bombed.

    It’s only when you stop beating yourself up over your mistakes that you finally get an opportunity to learn from them. Stay positive, but consider why exactly you didn’t do well so that hopefully you improve next time. Did you not study properly for that exam and were caught unprepared? Did you leave that essay to the last minute? If you correct those mistakes early on, it’s unlikely you’re going to make them again. Treat each failure as a learning situation, and a positive opportunity for you to continue improving yourself.

    Then there’s the possibility that you have no idea what went wrong. We all have flukes—assignments that were marked “mysteriously”, guidelines we didn’t understand, tests that we just dropped the ball on for some reason. Luckily, these types of situations don’t happen very often, so one bad grade isn’t going to set the tone for the rest of your academic record. However, if you notice a recurring pattern in being surprised by your low grades, consider looking at your work more critically or speak to your teacher or professor for clarification and advice.

    Finally, it’s important to learn from failure, but you can also learn from what you did right. Chances are there are courses you’re doing much better in than others. Maybe you like the material more, so you work harder; maybe the course overall is easier to do well in. Considering these things, evaluate what you can take from one course in order to recover from a poor grade in another. If worst comes to worst and you’re really struggling, you always have options—drop the course, take an alternative credit, or look into peer tutoring or office hours.

    The next time you’re faced with a bad grade, take some of this advice into consideration. By staying positive and learning from your past experiences, you’ll see an improvement not only in your grades, but in your attitude towards learning overall.

  • What Your Marks Really Mean

    What Your Marks Really Mean

    For many students, grades can be a very stressful part of going to school. Report card time can be difficult, especially for anyone who is close to failing a course. It can also be hard for students at the higher end of the grade range, wondering if they can keep up their high scores to help them succeed in the future. With high marks, they think, they will have good opportunities and a bright future. Grades have traditionally been used to show how well students have learned their material, but how much do they actually mean? Should you be concerned about the marks you get?

    Depending on what you want to do with the rest of your life, your high school marks could be quite important. Many universities and colleges use marks to help them decide which students they should accept. For some programs an average mark is enough, but for other programs a high mark is necessary. Often, a small difference in marks could mean that one student gets into the program while another has to wait for another year or go somewhere else. This is especially true in areas like medicine and dentistry, where schools accept only a limited number of students and academic expectations are high. In fields such as education or sociology the emphasis on grades is usually much less obvious, although expectations of students are often still high.

    High marks are good for getting into university programs, but are they really useful for anything else? Probably not, except in a very general way. In your school you have probably noticed that different teachers have very different standards, with some giving high marks and others low ones. Schools all have their own ideas of what makes a good student, and there is very little consistency among them.

    One of the problems with marks is deciding how to measure achievement. Until 1967, each province required students in Grade 12 to pass a standard exam which showed that they all had the same knowledge of areas such as writing, mathematics, science, and literature. Since then, however, schools have been able to set their own standards, and the result has been very uneven levels of education.

    Another problem is known as grade inflation. Since about the middle of the 1980’s, the grades that students have received in high school and university have slowly risen, so that more people now are receiving a grade of A or B in their classes than ever before. That could mean that students are actually better than they were in previous years, but many educators are not sure. Factors that are raising the marks could be increased competition for university programs or job insecurity among teachers who want to keep parents and students happy.

    If marks are such uncertain measures of learning, what do they mean for you? If you want to go to university, you’ll still need good grades. Otherwise, you might want to think about whether marks really reflect your learning. After all, learning is what really counts.

  • Practicing Time Management

    Practicing Time Management

    Time management is a problem for many people because there are so many distractions in our day-to-day lives that can interfere with whatever goals we have to accomplish that day, week or year. Often we can have a to-do list, but none of the items end up getting done because we get caught up in doing everything but what we are supposed to be doing. Sometimes, when there is too much to do, we feel especially challenged to make the most of our time. When we are short on time and have a lot to do, we must learn to prioritize.

    This means cutting off some of the less important things and focusing our energy on accomplishing what is the most important. Making lists that order your tasks from most important to least important is a really good trick that can save time and keep you on track. The worst scenario, when short on time, is wasting your energy worrying about everything that you have to do. What you want to do is get down to work as soon as possible, as soon as you are finished drawing out what it is that you are needing to get done.

    If, for example, you have 5 assignments that need to get done, focusing on the assignment that is due next week is more important than focusing on the assignment that is due in two months. You may want to create a short list of the tasks that you want to get done and order them by nearest date to farthest date. Think about how long it will take you to accomplish each one of the tasks, and jot this down next to the due date. Create a schedule for when you will start working on the task and how much time you will devote to it. By doing this, you are assuring that you will not forget about one project in favor of focusing on another or getting distracted entirely.

    If you are really crunched for time, you may also want to include what grade you are expecting to get on each one of the assignments so that you can put a little more time and care into the ones that will mean more to get a good mark on. In this way you will not be wasting your time doing too much research on an assignment for which a good grade will not mean much to you, or for which the overall weighting of the assignment is minimal.

    One last way of practicing good time management is to avoid procrastinating. Often, if we have a lot to do, we may be tempted to do anything but what it is that we are supposed to be doing. This is a natural tendency and we all do it at some point. The important thing to remember is that facing your challenge head on will actually facilitate the task and make it that much easier to complete. By making a list and prioritizing what is the most important (and the least important), we face the challenge head on and avoid procrastinating.

  • Athletic Scholarships and You

    Athletic Scholarships and You

    The road to college for ordinary senior high school students commonly includes the dreams of big scholarships to top universities. This is particularly true in the opening years of senior high school, just before the reality of grades and athletic competition emerges as a reality. The unfortunate fact is that typical athletic scholarships are a lot more challenging to earn than ever before. Particularly to ones top choice school with some of the most popular athletic teams.

    This doesn’t suggest that a young competitor has to shelve the hope of obtaining a scholarship, but it most certainly means that they should expand the range of appropriate universities and have some tuition back-up plans just in case they only obtain partial help. It’s equally crucial to recognize that several of the sports are much more competitive than others. Scholarship choices are still created by individuals and in that case marketing and salesmanship is still essential at the same time. Unless the youthful competitor is an absolute rising superstar, they will need to relate a compelling tale about their abilities and make an aggressive case for the style of scholarship they prefer. Here’s an excellent rule to follow – if your young athlete is presently being sought by scouts from multiple colleges and universities, you have very little to fret about. In all other instances you will have to advertise and present a convincing account about your rising star.

    Step one is acquiring information and carrying out research on the programs you’re interested in. Each and every university will have varied scholastic requirements. No amount of athletic skill will completely rise above a failing academic record. You really should become familiar with the coaching staff at each university or college and start reaching out to these people with e-mails and letters. You want them to become accustomed to your youngster’s name and maturing skill. You will need to create highlight reels and profile pages using an on-line company.

    The process of getting sports scholarships is no longer only about be the superstar high school athlete. There are many alternate techniques and success in applying for scholarships now includes a component that is almost like image management. Undoubtedly some athletic capability will be called for, but know-how of exactly what is available and the ability to promote yourself is essentially just as essential.

    If one understands that it might be necessary to put together a portfolio of scholarships and accolades to offset university fees, then the field of possibility instantly broadens. There are a host of smaller awards based upon athletic and scholarly requirements. As a matter of fact, some might not even require that the student play the sport on the official university team, which would really surprise most inbound freshman.

    Finally, historically underprivileged minorities or females might also have resources obtainable in exclusive scholarship categories. Again this falls in the category of blending a selection of awards to balance out as much tuition as feasible. However, one thing is apparent across the board – that each student will have to present themselves in the best possible light. The presentation, marketing and telling of an interesting story about your youthful student is almost of equivalent significance to the actual performance during the course of high school.