What grade do I need to get on the final to get a ___ in your class?
I have had students asking me this for the past two weeks. Guess what, I don’t want to tell you.
No, I don’t.
Because what does it matter? Will it make you study more? Not likely. And besides, you already know if you are near failing or doing well.
My answer: You should try to do your best, ALWAYS.
Posted by Melissa on December 4th, 2007 under Histoire d'Art7 Responses to “What grade do I need to get on the final to get a ___ in your class?”
Leave a Comment
Recent Posts
- Happy New Year, Darlings
- New Year’s Eve Menu
- Now, how does one throw a New Year’s Eve Party?
- Holiday Love
- Can’t. Keep. Quiet.
December 4th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
i don’t recall ever asking an instructor such a thing…at least i hope i didn’t!!
December 4th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
I always just say, well, I’m not so great at math, to be honest. They also seem to think we have our entire gradebooks memorized. Dude, I don’t even know your name!
December 5th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
I have to admit liking when I knew this information. Especially because I am the classic underachiever. I could not study as hard for the test if I needed a ridiculously high score for an A or if I’d get a B with any ole score. I think it’s what made my parents go grey!
December 5th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
What if you just told everyone s/he had to get an A?
I am evil.
December 6th, 2007 at 9:46 am
I always tell my students I can’t do math. Or, a variation on that, “Dude, if I could do math, I’d be an engineer, like my daddy wanted.” It cracks them up and they leave me alone.
December 6th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
I like the I can’t do math excuse. Because I can’t do the damn math anyway!!
December 9th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Well, I agree completely on principle with your sentiment that one ought to try always to do one’s best on a test. I don’t see the point of taking a class if you’re not trying to learn something from it, nor the point of taking a test if you’re not going to try to excel.
But, at the same time, I can kind of sympathize with the students. I imagine they have a lot of exams to study for, and they are trying to budget their limited time and figure out which ones they absolutely HAVE to ace to do well, so they can prioritize those, and many of these are kids that, tragically, have been taught by their entire school experience so far that school is really about test scores not learning, and I imagine some of them may not even be thinking of how ignorant and how insulting to you questions like this can sound.
I remember when I was an undergrad at WASHU, I swear, 75-80% of my professors every single semester would say to the students on the first day of class, “I want you to make this class your first priority.” Yeah. Great. If I have four out five professors telling me that, should I just drop three of my classes? And really, given I was paying my own way through school, MY first priority was actually paying for food, followed closely by my second priority, which was paying for rent.
Of course, my professors were probably all saying this “first priority” stuff because they were sick of damn slacker students saying, “What is the minimum I have to do in this class to skate by?”