College Life

Posts about college life, students, professors, and grades.

Checking in at mid-term time

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

For some of you, midterm time has already arrived. For others, it may still be a couple of weeks away. Whenever it is for you, let’s take a moment or two and see where you stand.

How are your grades so far? One poorly-done exam will probably not destroy your grade for the class, but if you have not performed up to snuff, now is the time to step back and get a handle on things.

What upcoming projects do you have? Does your teacher offer free feedback at any point in time? (I offer free feedback to anyone who brings me a rough draft of a document one week before it is due. In my face-to-face classes, I will immediately look over the document and tell them what I think and how to improve the work. For online students, they can take advantage of Free Feedback Thursday, when a document is due the next Sunday.) Have you taken advantage of that opportunity? For my online students, I find only 3 students out of 25 will organize their time effectively enough to get the feedback. When they do use the free feedback, they usually get an A on the assignment, compared to a C when they “do their own thing.”  For face-to-face classes, one or two students out of 25 will use the free feedback offer.

Do you have any extra credit offers? If so, use them. You never know when you will have a bad day and will need the extra credit. Do not wait until the last week of class to ask for extra credit opportunities because I am busy grading all the final projects and you will not get it!

Hope this helps!

Dr. Sheri

Note taking in college

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Have you seen them? They are the clear-eyed students sitting about halfway back in the room who never seem to need to take notes. They tell themselves that they will remember everything the instructor says, so note taking is for wimps. I see them all the time, usually in a class that they are on track to fail.

In eleven years of teaching face-to-face classes, I have only run into ONE student who literally did not need to take notes. The fellow watched my every move and seemed to memorize the Power Point slides. He made an A on every test. He came up to me at the beginning of the semester and told me ahead of time that this was his preferred way to take a class, so that I would not be insulted by his failure to write anything down.

Folks, I usually have between 50 and 75 face-to-face students per term. Multiple that times two terms per year (fall and spring) times eleven years and you have a boatload of students. In all those years, only ONE student succeeded with this method. What does that tell you? (Hint: That this method does not work for other folks.)

What ideas have you found helpful to taking notes in your classes? It would be great if we could share tips.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Do you want me to fail?

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Today’s college-related post is based on what a student asked me recently, “Do you want me to fail? ” My short answer is “no.”

The person in question is one of my online-only students; I will never met him. Still, it is not my wish to fail the individual. It is my goal to teach him how to write.

He wrote a paper recently that received a 49 out of 100 points, so it certainly seems as if I wish him ill, but let me explain how he went so far astray. First, he did not follow the directions, so his format was totally off base (he had been given an example paper to follow, but he chose to ignore it). Next, he took his research references (he used the absolute  minimum required) and dumped the information into his paper. This lead to almost page-long paragraphs, which are dreadful on the eyes. Next, he made no effort to analyze the information, which was required. The paper had no introduction and no conclusion. Finally, what was supposed to be a APA-formatted Reference page was just a bunch of website addresses, with no format at all.

Was I making him fail? No, he was doing pretty good at that all by himself.

Discussion board postings were another issue. The requirement was for two five-sentence paragraphs as a minimum for both initial threads and replies. I was lucky to get two to three sentences out of him, one of which was usually “good post.” Every one of his postings got feedback from me; none of them were changed, even though I gave him 24 hours per posting to fix them.

Do I sit up at night, working on ways to make him fail? Nope. I would love it if he passed with flying colors. The ball, however,  is in his court.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Free feedback on college assignments

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

If your college instructor offers you the opportunity to get free feedback before you have to turn in an assignment, take it! Every semester, I offer my students the chance to show me assignments one week before their due date and I will give them information on how to improve the document for a better grade.

Do you know how many take me up on that offer? Usually, I get 1 out of 5 students or fewer. Why do you think that happens? I am not asking for the entire assignment in perfect readiness for grading, just a rough draft. It’s nice to make sure that students are on the right track for a document, and this gives me the chance to assure them that they are or to wave them off if they aren’t.

Do you know what the average grade is that a student who asks for feedback usually gets on a document that I have previewed? It doesn’t happen 100% of the time, but the students normally end up with an A on the assignment. With the odds in your favor, why wouldn’t you use the chance to do better?

I am curious about your “take” on this idea of free feedback. Would you use it, if you were offered this chance? What would you have to do in order to be prepared enough to take advantage of this type of opportunity? I look forward to reading your thoughts.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Writing assignment gone bad

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

I recently received a 7-paragraph list of answers to questions that had been posted for a writing assignment. While the answers were rather nice, they did not follow the assignment’s instructions. Instead of writing a 17-page paper like one of the other classmates, this individual wrote a total of 2 pages. [Note: The other papers in the class were a minimum of 8 pages, with most of them 10-12 pages, so the other students clearly understood what they were to do.] Instead of having a full page of references, this person had no references at all. Instead of having an APA-formatted, well-written essay on the topic at hand, this person wrote an un-formatted, hastily-written discussion board posting.

When you have an assignment to do, do not wait until the last minute to throw something together. You will not do your best writing in this situation and you will not have time to email the professor (and get an answer back) if you do not understand the assignment. In this particular case, the student assumed that 7 paragraphs with no references would be sufficient to earn a good grade on an assignment that was worth 15% of the final grade. That was a poor assumption.

What kind of stories do you have about assignments that either you or someone you know did not follow? What words of advice would you give in this situation?

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Time Management

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Today’s blog is about time management, at the request of one of my students. How do you keep on top of things when juggling work, school, and family? Here are some tips that I have used:

First, keep a month-at-a-glance calendar that shows all of the homework you have due for a specific class. If you have more than one class at a time, which is pretty common, color-code the assignments. I mark up my calendar as soon as the syllabus is available, so that an assignment does not show up unexpectedly. (Now that I am a teacher, I obviously get the syllabus first, but teaching for three colleges, I mark up each college’s work on my calendar accordingly. I know which students will be turning something in and when to expect it, so that I can track my own grading schedule).

Then you need to mark in work commitments, family commitments, and church activities. Take a careful look, so that you know well in advance when you will be having a particularly busy week. Work ahead as much as possible, if you know a busy week is coming. Is there some reading that you can do ahead of time? Does your professor release discussion boards a week ahead of the due date (one of my colleges requires that I do this, to make accommodations for our large groups of military students).

Finally, chart in some down-time. This may be difficult, but you do need to relax. Note: Do not try to guilt-trip your professor into letting you submit things late just because you are overwhelmed. It is not our fault that you work full time, are taking 7 classes for a double-major, and are expecting identical quadruplets the second week of class.

Hope this helps!

Dr. Sheri

Some kids and college

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Today I would like to approach the thorny subject of kids and college. Some students I meet would be better off going to trade school than sitting in a college classroom where they don’t want to be.

I know this is shocking news, especially since I teach at three colleges, but the world needs trade school graduates- we need electricians, welders, plumbers, and the like. Case in point: We had a problem with our hot water heater recently. My hubby tried to fix it, but the heating element was fine. He called an electrician who showed up two days later (hey, it was Christmas, so we understood).

What happened? The breaker needed replacing. The electrician sized up the problem, fixed it, and was on his way in 15 minutes. The price tag? Two hundred dollars. That’s not bad, for a guy who never went to college. Instead, trade school taught him what he needed to learn.

Here’s the deal: He was the boss, so he got to keep the money (after expenses). The bottom line: Let your child follow his or her own pathway to success. It might not be what you had hoped and dreamed for, but our electrician loves his work. He shaves the boss every day (or maybe every other day, judging from his looks) and he is very, very good at his job. He also makes good money!

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Heading into the home stretch!

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

For those of you in college, you are heading into the home stretch- the end of the semester. This is not the time to let your guard down. I have had students who were very, very close to the next highest letter grade, yet who chose to skip the last few days of class.

What does this say to the professor? It tells the instructor that you really don’t care about your education. Unless you have a huge emergency, show up until the bitter end! I once had a class of 17 students, 6 of whom chose to have a family emergency keep them from class on the same day (the final exam). What are the odds of this happening? Slim to none, I would argue. One of the girls admitted later that the entire family had been needed to take Grandma to the hospital. It turned out that Grandma was constipated. Was the girl really needed there for that????? Really?

I had a student recently who has lost several grandparents, all when something was due. Other students have told me that “oh, I wasn’t here the day it was due, so it’s not late.” Yes, it is. The syllabus clearly states that your failure to attend a class does not negate the due date. If you turn something in late, I lower the grade by one letter grade. Yes, I am tough, but your future bosses will be tougher. Get used to it now.

I hope you have a superb ending to the semester. I hope that your grades are stellar and that you are encouraged as you continue the journey of getting a college education. Not everyone goes to college, so you are special. You are a unique person who has a lot to offer; I wish you well.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Finishing the course from a position of strength

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

As my own teaching winds down for the semester, it seemed good to share with you how to finish your courses strong.

First, do the work! Do not make excuses; you have no where to go but with an “incomplete” and teachers don’t like the thought of having one student to check on over the holidays. Get your assignments done and turned in on time. Some instructors (like me) actually lower the grade by one letter if you are tardy with an assignment. Some professors (also like me) do not accept any work after the end of the semester.

Next, make sure that you have understood the assignment correctly. I had a student come into one of my speech classes recently and tell me he didn’t realize that we had a final speech due……that very day! He thought he had to write a paper, which is weird since it is a speech class. We’d only been talking about it, in-depth, for a month. Where had he been? Oh, yes, he’s the student who shows up late, if at all……Other times, he was in class but checked out, mentally.

Contact the professor in time to get a reply, if you have any questions about the assignment. Midnight the night before the assignment is due is NOT the time to email the professor with the question “So what is due tomorrow???” If you email me several days before the due date, I can see that you have waited almost until the last minute, but you still have time to do the work.

Do not wait until the last minute to do an assignment. At that point in time, you are in panic mode and you can’t really hear anything being said because you are so busy thinking “oh, my, what can I do now?” to listen to what you are being told.

Do the work in time to review it before you turn it in.  Always look over the assignment instructions one last time before you submit the assignment, to make sure that you actually did the assignment correctly. (Once I was getting ready to submit a document, only to realize that I had written the wrong paper. Because I still had two days before it was due, I had time to go back and fix it, re-writing it into the required paper.)

Once you have submitted the assignment, do not bug the professor about a quick grade. After speeches yesterday, three different students came up and wanted to know their grades right then. I told them I needed to meditate on the grade before giving it. That was apparently the right thing to say because they all walked away. I don’t meditate on grades, I calculate them in my own office, without distractions like a student standing over me. It’s too easy to make a mistake with someone breathing down my neck.

I hope these tips help you get the best grades ever!

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Preparing for Final Exams

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

This is the time of the semester when final exams take place. You need to be prepared for them, since they can have a profound effect on your final grade for a class.

First, begin preparations the first day of class (too late for some of you for this semester, I know!). Take good notes, making sure that you make a special note of anything the professor seems to dwell on. A well-organized professor who has taught a course numerous times probably has the final exam already written, so he or she will make sure that a particular topic is covered in class, to help you prepare for the test.

Second, make sure that you set aside time to study, really study. Stopping numerous times for a snack, to do the laundry, to text with friends, or talk on the phone is not studying. Set a timer for a specific length of time that you plan on studying and turn it off when you walk away to do something else. While you may insist that you are still studying as you walk over to the refrigerator, your mind is probably on that leftover pumpkin pie, not the subject at hand.

Next, make sure that your study area is well-lit and free from distractions. You may have to go to the library to study, if they have a quiet study area. Some libraries are noisier than staying at home and having your kid brother practicing his saxophone while you work.

Fourth, do not wait till the last minute to study. Cramming a lot of information into your brain over a short period of time is a very bad idea. A friend of mine pulled an all-nighter in college. When she arrived at the exam, she was so tired that she couldn’t remember her name. She left without taking the test.

Finally, make sure that you eat breakfast before the test and that you have had adequate sleep the night before. You cannot do your best if you are struggling to stay awake or have a growling stomach.

Good luck on your finals!

Dr. Sheri