Week 6: Spitting in the Eye of the Monster

Now is the time for a show of strength. If you are a more-or-less normal freshman, you have just received or are about to receive a bad grade or two or ten. This is par for the course; making bad grades is what freshmen do. And then many freshmen look for someone to blame about their grades (usually me and other professors) before going off and crawling under a bush and curling up to hide. A few stay under the bush until Christmas break, when they come out of hiding to try to beat their parents to the mailbox before first semester grades arrive.
There is a better strategy for survival. If you make a bad grade, sit down and try to figure out what went wrong and how to correct the situation. Talk about it with others, including any of us in the Scholars' Program. But don't talk about it too long or worry about it too much. Be honest with yourself and find ways to study more efficiently. Then get over it and get after it. One bad grade or even one round of bad grades does not a smester make. In almost every course, you still have most of your grade out in front of you. Shake it off and show some determination. If you stay after it, you will always improve over the couse of a semester as you learn what is expected of you in each course. This is especially true during your first semester. Rest assured that most "F"s (and "A"s, for that matter) are made in December, not September. Don't quit on yourself this early in the ball game.
The same advice applies for any of you who made very good grades on your first round of tests. Every year I have numerous students who make an early "A", slack off, and fall back deep into the pack. You are in a marathon, not a sprint. Keep on chugging.
King Joseph

Sincerely,
Dr. Joe Pratt
Executive Director
Scholars' Community

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