I have never understood why so much can ride on one test, one paper, one assignment. Why do people expect all or nothing from students to pass? It's one thing to have a midterm or a big exam, but for a paper to be 30% of your grade just doesn't make sense. It causes some major anxiety, and professors really don't seem to care. Sure they want you to do well, but they don't think that giving you five assignments for the entire semester that are all worth a huge percentage of your grade is a big deal.
"If you pay attention, you'll do fine." What if I don't retain information well? Sometimes, in those classes, I feel so dumb for asking questions because I feel like I'm expected to know the answer.
Sure, big assignments are important, but having all of your assignments be worth 20% or more of your grade is a bit excessive. Especially if your teacher doesn't really teach.
Personally I am so thankful to be a senior this year. I am counting down the months until I no longer need to have a massive load of anxiety for submitting a paper worth 25% of my grade that won't be graded for the next two to three weeks. It's exhausting.
I've seen the decline in standardized test requirements, and I really hope the same will come around for college class assignments, as well. I don't understand how everything can ride on so little.
We work our butts off to get where we are, and so often we're met with a pass or fail society, when in reality life doesn't always work that way. There is so much more that goes into things than just black or white, pass or fail.
This article is mostly me ranting my frustration about having a class with only four assignments that are all essays worth their own large percentage of points, but I'm really hoping for a change for the next generation of students because it's a lot to deal with.
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