Everyone goes into college with a different attitude—some people are nervous, others are confident—but regardless, major life adjustments are to be made. Personally, I was ready to start fresh in college. I was always a good student, and I would put pressure on myself to do well in school. I don’t care what anyone says, but the teaching structure and learning environment in college is completely different from that of high school. You have to be more independent since you do not have anyone telling you what to do or what not to do. If you don’t want to go to class, you don’t have to. If you don’t want to read four chapters of the textbook for the next lecture, no one is there to stop you. Fortunately, I am one of those people that never missed a class and always did their work in a timely fashion. And with this work ethic, you would think it would show in my grades.
Well, for the first few months it didn’t. As a business major, we are required to take entry level courses for the business school, as well as breath requirements to “enhance our education.” I focused more on the business courses, as I felt that they were more important to me in my future. And wow, was I wrong.
My grades in my classes were good, with the exception of one class—cultural geography, my breath requirement. Our professor warned us that this course is very different; as opposed to a typical textbook with concrete information that we need to know, it was a compilation of various readings where the geographers, historians, etc. simply shared their definitions of the word ‘culture.’ It really was an awful course, mainly because I prefer logic over conspiracy and controversy. It made zero sense—one day he showed us a ten-minute video clip of a depressed penguin walking to his death on an iceberg. How that applies to cultural geography, I honestly could not tell you.
Our professor also said that everyone tends to do terribly on the first exam, which I don’t understand why he wouldn’t change it after all of these years of students failing it. I took this information lightly because I consider myself a decent student. I took the exam, and it wasn’t as easy as I expected it to be, nor was it painfully difficult. A week later, I checked my grade, and my heart sank: 52%. What?! I freaked out because I am a psychopath when it comes to my grades. I was determined to not let this course ruin my GPA.
I was much better prepared for the second exam, or so I thought. I read the readings three times each, and trust me, they are not pleasant readings. I swear I was confident walking out of that exam with an A.
A week passes by and the grades are posted: 58%. And this is when I lost my sanity. My scholarship is on the line, all because of one course that I now have a fat F in. I type a very passive-aggressive email to the professor demanding to meet with him to discuss this dilemma.
I am heated and on the verge of a breakdown when I enter his office. It pissed me off even more because he’s a very zen sort of dude so his calming aura was just infuriating. Long story short, he tells me that I can write a research paper for extra credit, and after Thanksgiving break, I should meet with him again to go over the exams, because he did not feel like sifting through 275 of them right then and there in his office. Understandable.
After spending my entire break toiling over this paper, I meet with him again to go over the exam. He asks what questions I have about it, but the thing was, I didn’t have any, because I literally thought that I knew all of the information. Then, the genius finally comes up with the idea, “maybe I should check the system to make sure that the grades are input correctly.” DUH. Why didn’t you do that when I asked you to? He starts furrowing his brow as he stares at the screen and he didn’t say anything so I am flipping out inside.
“So it turns out that I have been giving you the wrong grades all semester! You actually have one of the highest averages in the class.” At first, I felt relief, then I was just flat out pissed. I wrote a paper for nothing. I had various emotional breakdowns for nothing. This would only happen to me in my first semester of college. I was failing a class that I wasn’t actually failing.
Moral of the story, don’t take crummy grades lightly. Question your grades and always talk to your professor, as they usually are willing to help you out. At the end of the day, I worked for my A, and honestly, I just feel bad for the kid that thought he had my A all semester. Oops.
