We need to give our instructors a break and do the one thing students should do: Pay attention.
This is true for any grade. It seems, however, the older we get the harder this concept becomes to some.
Every now and again in a class, no matter what the subject is, the class will get interrupted by a student asking the same question an instructor just finished explaining.
It just blows my mind how someone could just mentally check out so quickly.
I understand if you need clarification.
Go ahead ask the question.
But to ask the same exact question that someone else asked not two minutes ago is just so amazingly dim it’s almost laughable.
Then there are the people who say they didn’t know when an assignment was due.
Chances are the teacher told you beforehand.
A lot of instructors also give us this paper that has all the assignments, with a calendar of what is due on which days.
It’s called a syllabus.
College students need to take responsibility for their own education.
Instructors don’t set us up to fail. They give us all the tools we need to succeed.
It’s up to us to use said tools.
There’s one person who asks why he did so poorly on a writing assignment and just has to make a big deal about it because he feels like it was a good paper even though his paper had absolutely nothing to do with the writing prompt.
How are you going to write three pages on why dinosaurs went extinct when the topic was on how the universe is expanding? Granted that example is a bit of an exaggeration, but still.
You get what I mean?
Most teachers give out grading rubrics to make sure we’re putting relevant information in our papers.
Some instructors even go beyond that and give you samples to show what an A+ paper looks like.
However, even with all of these tools available to you, it’s still somehow the teacher’s fault when you fail.
I recently had an essay due for one of my classes.
I didn’t do too bad. I read the rubric but didn’t understand what it was saying I should put in my essay.
I had ample time to ask my instructor but chose not to.
I also could have read the essay example the instructor had provided, but I chose not to read it.
I fully take responsibility for my mediocre grade and you should too.
