SUCCESS IN COLLEGE

The first purpose of education is to acquire wisdom and understanding.

The second purpose is to acquire knowledge and skill.

Wisdom translates understanding, based on knowledge by discerning truth, into good judgment.

    The concept of an "educated" person is to have a basic understanding of many different areas and the ability to apply that knowledge wisely for personal and public good.

   The key attribute required to obtain education is self-discipline, which can sometimes profitably be augmented by external discipline.

    Education requires both a willingness and an ability to learn. While a natural ability to learn makes learning easier, it is overrated in importance. Discipline, willingness, and following well-established principles can overcome lack of natural ability for most people.

    Education requires an inquisitive mind, but is hampered by a rebellious mind. If you are still rebellious, put your education plans on hold until you grow out of it, whether your are 16 or 60 years old. You will not learn all you are capable of learning, and you will inhibit the learning of others. An inquisitive mind seeks and thoughtfully filters information. 

    Education brings you the tools for life. It provides you with the means, not the ends. Education itself will not make you a better or more moral person. For a moral person, education can help in the acquisition of wisdom. For the immoral person, education brings the power of knowledge to do more evil. Most people are not exclusively moral or exclusively immoral.

    Education will not make you more patient, kind, empathetic, just, good, humble, tolerant, or wise.  Fortunately, many who seek education already have some or many of these attributes, but this is certainly not universal.  There are many well educated, bitterly jealous, selfishly ambitious, arrogant jerks. There are also jerks who are not well educated.  The basic personality bent of a person is not usually changed through education.  Education gives a person tools to become more of what they already are.  Only on rare occasion does a person change the direction of their lives as a result of education, but it happens to some.

    You might be required to study some subjects that are outside of your area of natural gifts and talents or present day interests.  Part of the process is one of discovering abilities you did not know you have.  Sometimes you will excel, and sometimes you will fail. You can do neither if you do not even try.  The honor goes to the warrior in the arena, not the spectator on the bench.

Why Are We Here?

How is College Different than High School?

    Good colleges are fundamentally different than high school.  A major expectation by professors is that students are in college because they want to learn and will assume personal responsibility to take the initiative to learn.  Professors teach courses because they are interested in the general subject area, and they hope to pass on some of their knowledge and experience.  While someone pays a lot of money for a student to go to college, the professors do not generally get paid a lot.  They are there because they want to be, and they also have sacrificed to be in the classroom.

    The implied social contract is that both the student and the professor will give significant effort to the course.  The professor expects a student to spend about 3 hours outside of class on course material for every lecture hour (or 50 minutes) spent in class.  Unknown to most students, professors spend even more time per class.

    Grades in college represent only academic merit that is earned in the subject of study.  A grade in college makes no statement about whether a student is a "good" person.

Will it be Hard?

What are the Benefits?

These Guidelines

    These guidelines were written by someone that does not know you.  The author is not your parent or disciplinarian.  While the directions may sound authoritarian, the sole intent is to help you do better for yourself.  If you do not care, surely no one else will either.

    Grades and Time Commitment
    Physical Readiness and Disabilities
    Study Skills
    Education Level of Thought
    But I Do Not Want to Take This Course
    Transfer Courses
    Syllabus and Schedule of Topics
    Text
    Teacher
    Personal Responsibility, Attendance, Active Learning, Certification
    Class Preparation, Participation, and Review
    Homework, Projects, and Other Assignments
    Examinations
    General Personal Conduct
    Political Correctness
    Necessary Unpleasantries

Basis of Grades

Commitment

    Those of you who are balancing work and family life and taking courses deserve great respect.  Taking a course under such circumstances requires a commitment of scarce time and money.  Honoring your job and family commitments first is expected.  The decision to attend class and complete assignments is your responsibility.  Understanding this does not make the course easier.  This will cause stress during the class.  When you complete this course, you will be able to take pride in your accomplishment.

    Those of you who are full time students represent a major commitment by someone to your learning.  Some are in college because you want to have a college education.  Others are here only because someone else wants you to have a college education.  In either case, do not let this opportunity slip by.  Be a good steward of your time.  Put your whole attention into your studies and make the best use of this brief period of your life.  Do not assume you will be capable of such intense study at a later time, and do not assume resources will be available in the future, even if you come from a wealthy family.

 Prerequisites

Performance Standards 

    Ideally, an exam will have a variety of levels of questions that test your ability to think about the material.  The proportion of questions at each level will depend on the discipline (subject area), level of the class (Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior, Graduate), category (remedial, normal, honors), whether the course is for majors in the discipline, a service course, a vocational course, or a continuing education course.

    When you compute your own projected grades, do not overlook the positive effect of homework and lab scores. Doing your homework has a tremendous impact on your grade directly.  Doing your homework on schedule also improves your grade indirectly through improved test performance.

STAY AWAKE IN CLASS

    If you suffer from inability to stay awake, regardless of cause, stand up and quietly move about (except during exams) where you do not block other student's view. 

    If it is chronically too hot or cold, let the instructor know. Sometimes another place to meet can be found.

DISABILITIES, TESTING CONDITIONS, AND TEACHING ENVIRONMENT

    Let the instructor know on the very first day if you have a disability the instructor needs to know about in order to give you a fighting chance at success in the course. It is your responsibility to make the initiative. Instructors are not good at guessing.

    If you have a hearing, sight, or attention keeping disability, it is your responsibility to sit in the front row.

    Do not expect the instructor to lower performance standards for you.  If you want the credit for an achievement, you must achieve.  What you can expect is reasonable accommodation to remove learning barriers.

HEALTH

    Tired and sick people that cannot see do not do as well as rested, healthy people with good vision. 

    Get your vision checked annually. If you need to get new glasses, do it.

    During the school term, establish a routine that reserves time for rest. Stick to that routine for getting up in the morning and going to bed at night, even on the weekends. That way, you do not need to readjust.

    Minimize eating food from fast food restaurants. If you have ever worked at one, you know that food handlers often have colds.  If they do not show up to work, their hours get given to someone else, and your pecking order for getting preferred hours is lower. Therefore, they show up sick.

    Colds get passed faster in crowded places, like classes, dormitories, and public gathering places.

BASIC QUESTIONS

    I have 7 friends, they taught me all I know. When you look at my notes, this is what they show:

Elmer I. Caldwell (1956).

HOW TO STUDY

Dr. Eric D. Bowman, Director of the Academic Center at the U.S. Naval Academy, gives the following advice in Academic Effectiveness: A Manual for Scholastic Success at the United States Naval Academy:

Reading Skills

    When you read "how to study" guides, remember that most are directed to people studying non-technical material. This is particularly true in discussions on how to read. Short cut reading techniques do not work when reading technical material.

    Reading technical information requires a different approach than reading in non-technical subjects.  In the social sciences and humanities (at the introductory level), the emphasis is on speed reading, skimming over filler material and developing the skill to locate facts that are necessary.  In technical material, you must read and understand every word.  You can expect your reading speed for technical material to be 20% to 25% of your speed for reading history, psychology, or English.

    Try getting a clear plastic ruler to help guide your eyes. Force yourself to read a complete line of text before going on to the next line.  A wide sticky note (like a Post-It note) is also useful.  If you must stop reading temporarily, the note will help you remember where to restart reading.  Sticky notes are particularly useful when working through labs.

    For a text book that is descriptive or analytical that does not involve problem solving with formulas, make an outline of each chapter. Include all the subheadings. Under each subheading, make a brief note of what was important in that section.  Copy terms important to the main idea for each subheading.

Distractions

    You have information sensors for sight, hearing, smell, temperature, pressure, and humidity.  When you study, you want to minimize input of information that is not relevant to your subject of study, and maximize input of information that is relevant.

    Study in the location that has the fewest distracters (radio, television, web surfing, other people, strobe lights, etc.).  If you watch more than one hour of television per day, throw the television away.  If the sum of the time in a day you spend on all forms of entertainment is more than one hour, you are wasting your time, whether it is television, computer games, chat rooms, music, pleasure reading, or other form.  Any form of entertainment that you spend more than one hour a day on should be gotten rid of while you are a student.

    Myth: Listening to (fill in the blank) helps me study or learn.  
    Fact:  If the (fill in the blank) is not relevant to the subject material, you are not learning as efficiently as you might without listening to (fill in the blank).  This is particularly true if (fill in the blank) is entertainment.  If (fill in the blank) has a calming effect on you, it also is preventing you from focusing your full attention on your studies.  Save this for use during your breaks.

    Do not eat snack food while studying. Save this for your breaks.

    Sometimes you do not have complete control over the presence of distracters in your study space.  The usual problem is conversation or entertainment media.  Instead of listening to music, you would be better off listening to white noise to mask out the distracting noise.  A common way of generating white noise is to turn on a small fan.  An expensive solution is to get a white noise generator, such as used in some modular offices.  A less expensive (and mobile) solution is to use a tape recording of white noise.  This is not as effective, but it is better than listening to (fill in the blank).

    The level at which you prepare yourself should be determined according to the highest education level you want to achieve. Start preparing yourself by using that level of thought now. Otherwise, you will merely be training to a test rather than getting an education.  You will end up with a piece of paper for a diploma that will look pretty, but you will not have the knowledge needed to prepare you for a lifetime.  

    The below standards of thought are cumulative.  Each level of thought expected includes all the earlier levels.

    The time required for grading of exams varies according to the type of tests given.  Consequently, the type and number of tests given is often a function of the number of courses a teacher has to grade.

    If you are at a major university, graduate assistants will be teaching your freshman and sophomore courses. Undergraduate seniors often grade freshman and sophomore courses, and graduate assistants grade your junior and senior courses, and some first year graduate courses.  These students have their own courses to study for, homework to complete, and thesis research to do.  They usually like having their students to excel, and often wish they could spend more time in their service, but there is a limit to what they can do.

    Learn what tutorial services exist at your university.  

    If you need to ask your teacher for help, prepare and think through your question before you go ask.  Don't waste both your time and your teacher's time.

    If you get comments on a test or homework paper, read them.  It takes time for your teacher to write them.  You should take at least the same amount of time to think about them.

    In the community college setting, tuition and fees are low.  Community college teachers teach more course sections than typical of 4-year college professors.  Research university professors (often using English as a second language) teach one or two sections of a course per academic year, and graduate students (often using English as a second language) teach undergraduate courses.  Community college teachers do their own grading.  Typical 4-year college professors have work-study students do grading.  Research university professors have graduate students grade lecture and lab courses.

    This means that most of the testing at a community college (and often, also public schools) is done in an expedient fashion (multiple choice tests).  Ideally,  you should be tested at the level of thought expected for the education level you are now at.   

    Schools that receive most of their funding from taxes based on the number of students focus on recruiting and retaining students.  How do you do this?  You offer remedial courses, tutorial services, day care facilities, and sometimes limited health care.  Some institutions also set faculty evaluation goals based on the percentage of students who pass a class.  While intended to weed out teachers that cannot teach, this policy causes teachers to fear giving honest evaluations, inflates grades, and students play teachers off against each other to lower standards.  Consequently, the average community college "A" is about equal to a "B" at a main campus state university in terms of what a student must learn to get the grade.  If you are planning on continuing your education beyond a 2-year associate's degree, you need to plan your own personal standard of achievement to match the standards at the school you intend to transfer to.  It is very possible to get a high quality level of education at the freshman and sophomore levels at a community college, but the true burden of responsibility for quality control falls primarily on the student.

    Be sure you chose the right course before you sign up.

    If a course is required by your major, remember that you chose your major and therefore you indirectly chose all the courses required by that major.  

    Courses are added to a curriculum for a variety of reasons.  Courses that are offered by your major department are usually there for accreditation reasons, or experience has demonstrated that this topic is important to support additional study in the major, or is often needed for employment after graduation.  Courses required outside of a major are often negotiated among the faculty to establish a broad education experience that helps prepare a person to live productively as a citizen of the community and the world.  Such courses are almost always part of a 4-year degree program, such as history and psychology.  Some courses are so important that they are required even within a 2-year degree program, such as reading comprehension, writing, and mathematics through algebra.

    Some courses are added because they are the fad of the day and are required by all students at that school before being admitted to upper division (junior and senior) status and graduation.  You cannot always tell how a course will be taught by looking at the course title.  Some teachers approach controversial topics of the day analytically, coupled with applying personal values for decision making.  A good grade depends upon your knowledge of the issues, and your ability to defend value decisions rigorously, even if your values differ from the values of the teacher.  

    Some courses are indoctrination courses.  A good grade in such courses often depends on your willingness to tell the teacher what the teacher wants to hear.  Conflict over such courses have led to students being expelled, and court battles.   You will need to ask specific questions when you are shopping for a college.  Find out if such courses are required by the college.  If there is no path through the degree program that does not require you to compromise your values, you need to choose a different school.  As an alternative, you can inquire if you may take a substitute course at another college, and transfer the credits.

    Sometimes, dislike for a course occurs early in the semester because you cannot stand the teacher.  That is not uncommon.  Do not confuse dislike for a teacher with dislike for a subject.  Those are different issues.  Not all teachers have the gift of being likable or entertaining.  When you listen to opinions of prior students about that teacher, find out what grade the student made in that class and how much that student studied for that class.  You need to decide on your course of action immediately.  Some options are:

    Changing Schools:  Most schools will require you to take at least half of your curriculum at that school to be allowed to graduate from that school.  Some schools are very restrictive about permitting incoming transfer transfers.

    If you must move often, it is difficult to complete all the requirements of a college and earn graduation.  Colleges vary greatly in quality, and therefore in the transferability of academic credits.  Even if credits are accepted as transfer credits, this does not guarantee those credits will fulfill specific degree requirements, even if the proposed transfer course is at a more advanced level that the new school's course requirement.  Some of the credit transfer decisions by colleges are driven by true concerns over quality and curriculum continuity.  Some schools are also driven by an economic consideration.

    To maximize the chance that your credits will transfer to a degree-granting school, and will not be wasted effort, you need to carefully shop.  The right starting point is to choose the school you want your degree to be issued from.  Contact that school and discuss your educational plans.  Talk with the head of the department you plan to major in.  They can give you good advice about what credits will transfer in and be worth your time.

    Education is a business.  Like many businesses, some schools stretch the truth about claims that their courses are transferable for college credit.  This is true even within state supported institutions where state law "guarantees" transferability of courses between schools within the state university system.  This is often a rude awakening when a person takes two years of courses at a local state-funded community college and transfers to a state-funded university.  A school can claim transferability of credits all they want, and the claim is almost meaningless.  The value of a course to your own education plan depends only on whether the school you want to graduate from will allow the credit to transfer and be granted as fulfilling a specific degree requirement.

    When you transfer, credits are often evaluated by two different offices, for different purposes.  An admissions office might review transfer credits for the purpose of granting credit against the total number of credit hours needed for graduation.  This has nothing to do with meeting department requirements for graduation within a particular major.  Departments make a separate determination about applying transfer courses to meet department requirements for a particular major.  Do not take a chance!  Ask in advance!

    Military members should be particularly concerned about the transferability issue.  University of Maryland has catered to the U.S. military for several decades.  They have taught courses around the world, and have sponsored correspondence and distance education courses.  People who move often should consider such a school.  More schools entered the remote site instruction business in the late 1980s, and many schools entered the Distance Education market in the mid 1990s when the Internet became available to the public.

    A related issue is the value of a Distance Education program.  Distance Education degrees are generally not acceptable as a prerequisite for entry into credible graduate schools.  If certified quality education is your purpose, stay away from this.  On the other hand, if taking the course is exclusively for your own personal enjoyment and self-fulfillment, and this is a cost-effective available means, the time is better spent on a distance education course than watching entertainment television or playing a computer game.

    Facts of Life about Distance Education and Correspondence Courses:  

    If your professor makes out a detailed syllabus with specific reading assignments and homework assignments, follow it.  The more detailed it is, the more likely it is to be followed, and the more likely it is that the professor expects students to use it as a guide to the class.  A detailed syllabus is appropriate for multi-section courses and large classes where the goals and methods of the class can be predicted in advance.

    A detailed syllabus is inappropriate for many courses.  Courses that focus on exploring meaning or learning how to think will be less structured than courses having information or skills transfer as the primary goal.  For example, a literature course exploring how to analyze literature and patterns of thought may have a basic skeleton of readings that the professor will add to during a term based on the strengths and weaknesses of the class.  Small classes can be much more adaptive than large classes.

    The content of a course is derived from several considerations.  Most importantly, a course must contain content prescribed by an accreditation board, if such guidance exists.  Some majors have professional organizations that set standards for undergraduate education, such as Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) for Engineering and Computing Accreditation Commission (CAC) for computer science.  In core and multi-section courses, a course must contain content determined by a course coordinator, which might be a department head or a specific professor.  At the undergraduate level, the general content of basic courses is fairly well determined, either formally or informally, by external forces.  The content of special topic courses, and most graduate courses, are determined by the professor teaching the course.

    It is the professor's obligation to fill in gaps and bring personal experience to the course.  It is the professor's privilege to relate course content to other disciplines and to current events.  It is not a requirement that you immediately see the connection between additional material and the main body of the course, but the connection should eventually be clear to the average student.  You can probably make a good case if a professor fails to conduct a class in such a way that the required material is not covered by you during the course.  

    If the professor consistently spends a significant amount of class time on material not relevant to the course description published in the catalog, make an appointment to discuss this with the professor.  If still unsatisfied, make an appointment and discuss the matter with the academic department head.  If the offending professor is the academic department head, you are out of luck.  If your academic major is not in that department, you might talk with your own academic advisor or department head to intercede for you.  It is extraordinary that a student can prevail in a contest of will over course content.  About the best you can do is to transfer to another section or drop the course, possibly with a written appeal request to the dean to have the course grade be a "W" for "Withdraw".

Role of the Text

    The purpose of a text is to provide a permanent form of an orderly presentation of a subject, possibly with some lasting reference value.  Because of publisher page limitations, it is rarely possible for a text to cover all that an author knows to be important.  There is always a trade-off between breadth versus depth of information covered.  It is impossible for a text to anticipate future events and technology perfectly.

    When you get a text, the first thing you should do is to read the title.  Next, read the preface.  Find out why an author wrote the text, and which audience the author was trying to reach.  Sometimes an author will give hints on the best way to read and use a text.  After that, glance at the table of contents.  See what the scope of material is.  Look at chapter headings, and maybe the first level subordinate headings.  Then look through the appendices.  The material at the back of a book is there to be used while reading the body of the text.  In addition to an index, you will often find tables, supplemental details, answers to homework problems, references, equation lists, short program listings, and other nuggets of useful information.

    A text is usually written from the first content chapter (often, chapter 2) to the last content chapter.  The introductory chapter is often written after the rest of the text is written.  Sometimes material in appendices are compact versions of information that had to be removed from the body of earlier drafts to meet publisher page limits.  You should look to see what is there.

Text Mistakes, etc.

Role of the Teacher

It is the role of a teacher to:

In college credit courses, it is NOT the role of a teacher to merely

In college credit courses, it is not the role of the teacher to

In remedial courses, it is appropriate for the teacher to

    An "Introduction" or "Survey" college course is an entry level course to a field of knowledge, not a remedial course.  These courses should make demands on you to work at learning, just as you should work in other courses.  The purpose of such a course is to introduce you to a broad area of study, and to give you the tools to think within the context of that discipline.  Such courses often require absorbing a large new vocabulary as part of exploring the foundational concepts.  Introductory courses build a broad base of horizontal knowledge.  Later courses may build vertical knowledge.  The type of study habits and ability to learn the discipline at a more advanced level may be very different from what is needed to succeed in a survey course. 

    In undergraduate junior level and honors level sophomore courses, professors will prescribe a few selected readings from academic journals to supplement text readings.

    In graduate courses, students are expected to read academic journals related to the subject without being directed to do so by professors.  The professor will frequently refer to these journals and other literature, as well as research projects.

    The scope and nature of the material will determine how the class is structured and how material is selected and presented in class.  A survey course of a field of study requiring introduction to a broad range of concepts of approximately equal importance is, and should be, taught differently than a course in mathematics, a foreign language, or political science.  Depending on the course, assigned readings...

Teacher Mistakes

    Listen actively in class, with the intent to learn, and with an analytical mind.

    When you spot a mistake, raise your hand and point it out.  Most teachers will appreciate this, and most students will benefit from this.

    Teachers make mistakes.  In an ideal world, this would not happen.  However, the ideal world is yet to come.  One of the internationally most respected professors in the world purposefully points out mistakes he made in the past, and delights when students discover additional mistakes.

    Mistakes by teachers should be safe, legal, and (usually) rare.  If they are frequent and within the prescribed scope of the course material, you need to make an appointment with the teacher and discuss it.

    If mistakes are conceptual and often made after discussing this with the teacher,  and it is not part of the teaching technique, you need to make and appointment with the academic department head to discuss the problem. 

So, What if you are smarter than the teacher?

"So, What" is different that "So What".  Commas are important.  (When Bill Clinton took his oath of office, he said, "So, help me, God" rather than "So help me God".)

Personal Responsibility

    College is for adults, and an adult sense of personal responsibility is expected.  This includes exercising personal responsibility to determine what is expected of you during a course, and tracking your own performance.  Some pieces of data you should track, and not have to ask your professor about.  In particular, you should keep track of your own

    It is your personal responsibility to be in class on time, and not leave until the class period is over.  The fact that you have a family or a job is not relevant to the proper expectations of achievement in a course by the instructor.  It is your responsibility to adjust the amount of work you take on so that you can accomplish it within the resources you have.  It is your responsibility to do all required work, and to take the initiative to seek help on assignments you do not understand after you have given it an honest effort.

Attendance: Be There

    Your decision to attend class is your responsibility.  Do not hide from the teacher if you miss a class.  At the least, send an email to the teacher to report your absence and to find out what you missed.  If you know in advance that you must miss class, let the teacher know so you can schedule to make up exams and other work.  The goal is to do what is necessary to keep you on track so that you can complete the course successfully.

    At the college level, attendance is rarely a factor in course grades.  Most professors at respectable colleges do not take attendance.  Sometimes, an institution will require it to comply with external funding and student aid requirements.  Excuses for absences are rarely needed or desired for lectures.  They can be critical for exams, and may require certification by a medical doctor or officer of the court.  It is rare that makeup exams are given, and it is rare that any exam grades are dropped.  Attendance at exams, in particular, is your responsibility.

Active Learning

* Fleet Training Center, San Diego, CA. [For vocational skills.]

    You will learn the most if you teach it to someone else.  You will learn some of the material if you do something with the knowledge, like homework and lab assignments.  You will learn the least if you only listen to a lecture.  Forming study groups has proven to be a very effective method for learning material.

    For college level courses, if you are brilliant, at the very best, you will retain only about 17% - 20% of what you hear in lecture, if you do nothing else.  If you teach the material to someone else, as in small study groups (3 - 4 people), your retention will go up to about 70%. [Strong hint for success in college: volunteer to tutor or grade.]

Certification for Knowledge Already Obtained

    If you are in a course to get credit for knowledge you already have, ask the academic department about taking a test to obtain credit for the course without having to take the course.  If you truly know and have the appropriate experience with the material, testing out of a course will obtain more time for you to concentrate on learning something new.

    If you are do not have the option of testing out of a course, be respectful of other students taking the course to obtain knowledge for the first time. Let the instructor know of areas you have special knowledge that is relevant to the course. Often, this can lead to being asked to talk briefly about a course topic. This helps other students to hear from someone other than the instructor.

    Do not dominate the class discussion with advanced topics or carry on a running commentary with other students during lecture. You do not need to demonstrate to the class how smart you are. Your exam performance will certify your knowledge. 

    Do help the class by being an active listener. Catching instructor errors is a valuable service to both the instructor and the class.

    If you are bored, ask the instructor to prescribe additional reading or projects. This will make good use of your time, and the extra work can be a spring board to new knowledge.

Lab Preparation

Lab Assignments

Course Summary Note Sheet

Class Preparation

During Class

Stupid Questions

There are two kinds of stupid questions in college.

    If you frequently ask questions about basic information in the text, you probably need to take the prerequisite for the course.

    If you frequently ask questions that go beyond the text, you belong in a more advanced course.  By the time you discover this state of affairs, it is probably too late in the semester to act on it.  

    If you are at a major university, graduate teaching assistants (TAs) will be teaching your freshman and sophomore courses, and grading your junior and senior courses.  These graduate students have their own courses to study for, homework to complete, and thesis research to do.  They usually like having their students to excel, and often wish they could spend more time in their service, but there is a limit to what they can do.  

Learn what tutorial services exist at your university.  

If you need to ask your teacher or TA for help, prepare and think through your question before you go ask.  Don't waste both your time and your teacher's time by not preparing before you ask.

After Class

Daily Review

Weekly Review

Class Assignments: Homework, Term Papers, Labs, Programming Assignments, etc.

Homework Corrections, Remarks, Etc

Purpose of Examinations

    Teachers use exams for a variety of purposes. This will depend upon the type and level of the course, the teacher's course load, and the mission of the school. It is useful to find out in advance how your teacher views the purpose of testing.

Non-college transfer vocational course testing is primarily for the purpose of assessment and certification. College credit course testing is an integral part of instruction. At the college level, assessment and certification are only a part of the goal of testing. Good creative use of testing helps extend knowledge, strengthen weaknesses, and build confidence in mastery of course content. Take-home exams and projects do this best, when students actively use these in a positive way.

Material You are Responsible for Learning, Exams, and Lectures

    It is not physically possible to say everything in a lecture that you need to know.  You will still be tested on readings and assignments, even if specific items are not said in class.

    You are responsible for material presented in class, even if it is not covered by the text.  It is rare for a text to be completely free of errors.  The instructor will point out errors s/he discovers and thinks important.  Sometimes an alternative explanation will be presented to illustrate a concept.

    It is not possible to test you on everything you should learn.  A test is a random sample to measure your understanding.  It is not a check list against which you determine if you have learned everything you should to know.

Truth and Knowledge

    Axioms of academic institutions:

Types of Inquiry

Intelligence Gathering for an Exam

Find out

    Be sure to use any study guide and sample previous exams your teacher provides you.  A teacher will not take the time to prepare these unless it is intended to help you focus your study efforts.  You should not look at these until after you have completed all assigned readings and homework.  Otherwise, you will be merely studying to the test rather than becoming educated.

Preparing for an Exam

Missing an Exam

    It is generally expected that a student will be present and take exams at the appointed scheduled time, date, and place.  It is the student's responsibility to be there and be prepared.

    It is common, but not universally mandatory, that presence at an exam may be excused for death in the immediate family or medically certified condition that prevents presence at the exam.

    Other family obligations are usually not considered as qualifying for missing an exam.  This includes inability to find a baby sitter, having to meet with a child's teacher on short notice, etc.  These responsibilities come with being a parent, and are a part of life.  Your own teacher does not have a responsibility for accommodating your private life.

    If you anticipate a problem, ask the teacher in advance, if possible.  Your teacher cannot even say "no" if you do not ask.  Do not get uncivil if you get "no" for an answer.  If you feel you have a legitimate case and are unsatisfied with your teacher's response, consult your school's guidelines for how to proceed.

Test Taking Strategies During the Exam

    Put your name at the top of every page of your test.  On the first page, also write the test date, course number, and teachers name.

    Leave 1.5 inch margins on the left and right edges of your paper for teacher comments, and for you to make last-minute additions near the end of the exam period.

    Read the directions for the test.

Before answering any questions, rapidly read through the test. 

On a scratch sheet of paper:

Multiple Choice and True/False Questions

Short Answer and Fill in the Blank Questions

Calculator Use

Computer Use

Short Answer Problems

Multiple Step Problems

Short Essay Questions (1 - 2 concept paragraphs)

Long Essay Questions (3 or more concept paragraphs)

Take-Home Exam for Undergraduates

Final Exam

A final exam is a comprehensive exam.  It usually covers all the material in the course.

Usually, final exams at a university are more difficult than mid-term exams because the purpose is to get the student to integrate knowledge from the whole course.

    Guidelines for political correctness in the United States varies greatly.  There is a huge tension between academic freedom and civility.  Consult your own college guidelines regarding actions, speech, and appearance.  The legal effectiveness of such guidelines are still being tested in courts.  If you find something particularly offensive, or oppressive, or disciplinary action is being taken against you for transgressing a political correctness issue, get competent legal advice.  Here are some starting points.

    American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)  http://www.aclu.org  (liberal)
    American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ)  http://www.aclj.org  (conservative)

    With respect to course work, most (but not all) professors will accept (and often rejoice at receiving) opposing points of view that are well reasoned, tightly argued, adequately documented by citing of scholarly references, and presented without angry or profane language.  There are some notable exceptions.  If you are timid or primarily worried about grades, think first.  Some professors do not tolerate political incorrectness.

    An honored technique of teaching is for a professor to make an outrageous offensive statement with the purpose of drawing opposition from students who are thinking and paying attention.  This is common in philosophy, religion, history, and English.  If the purpose of an outrageous offensive statement does not become clear by the end of the class, ask the teacher about the point of it after class is over.  If it is repeated in class, then it is reasonable to assume the teacher is expecting a response.  Under that circumstance, it is appropriate to ask the teacher about the purpose, if the purpose is not obvious.  Sometimes the teacher will have a legitimate purpose; sometimes the teacher is a jerk.  Find out by asking directly.

    On campuses today, legislating civility has become contentious because we do not share common values on some issues that are very important.  In particular, there is conflict when one group obtains politically correct protection from adverse speech which another group is obligated to oppose.  We are clearly in a culture war today.  This is particularly true when religious values are being challenged.  

    Civilization requires self-restraint.  Not everything that is legal should be practiced by civil people.  Public speech and behavior in a civilized society should bring out the best in people, not display the worst.  

    College is for adults, not children.  Adults are presumed to have reached the age of reason, and do not need government protection from speech that is offensive or false.  Freedom requires that we do not sacrifice core values and that we do not permit government to dictate what constitutes correct or permissible thought.  Academic freedom demands that a university be a free market place of ideas in which truth is sought.

    Dishonest and unethical behavior by a student hurts other students materially because dealing with those cases takes an inordinate amount of time (3 to 30 hours per incident by the instructor) which significantly takes away from class preparation and grading time.   This means the quality of instruction and evaluation you receive is directly affected, even if you do not see the effect taking place during the lecture.  It also takes time by other officials, which increases the cost of running the school, which increases your tuition.  

    Imagine having to defend yourself in civil court in a class action suit by your fellow students to recover damages suffered by them because of your behavior.

    A key responsibility of an educational institution is to enforce standards of academic honesty and achievement.

    Educators fear assigning derogatory labels to students because the educators fear being sued for libel in court.  Contrary to politically correct pop psychology, it is appropriate to be known by the acts you perform.  Assuming you have reached the age of reason and are not mentally retarded, if you murder, you are a murderer.  If you steal, you are a thief.  If you lie, you are a liar.  If you cheat, you are a cheater.  The label is not libel if it is a statement of fact.  If you do not want to be known by a particular label, do not perform the act.

    Some states have laws that make some types of cheating a criminal offense.  For example, in North Carolina, it is a crime for an organization to sell term papers for students to submit as their own work.  Some schools subscribe to a service to detect plagiarism by comparing a student paper against other samples of work on the same subject, and computing a similarity measure.  This is especially true for freshman English courses.

a. GRADE CHANGING AND NEGOTIATION

Grades are not given. You earn them.  Again, see Performance Standards.

Do not bother trying to negotiate grades based upon:

It is appropriate to ask for regrading if there is a mistake by the grader.  Mistakes do happen.  It is to the teacher's advantage to correct grading mistakes, as well as to your advantage.

Grades established by comparing papers to each other are harder to negotiate changes for.  Once papers are returned, the teacher does not have other papers available for relative comparison.  It is often very easy to categorize the quality of essays, and other work not highly structured by the teacher, into 3 to 5 quality groups.  It may be difficult to articulate the differences after papers have been returned.

Grades established by objective criteria are easy to reconsider.  Not every subject, or abstract level of consideration, lends itself easily to quantifiable objective criteria.

B. CHEATING: DON'T.

Cheating, lying, deception, misrepresentation.  It is a fact of life that academic cheating occurs.  In freshman and sophomore courses, it occurs so often that instructors may suspect cheating on occasions when it really did not.  In such courses, you should avoid behaviors that are often correctly associated with cheating.  Following a few guidelines will greatly reduce your chance of being falsely accused.

    Yale College, Appendix F, Cheating, Plagiarism, and Documentation,  http://www.yale.edu/ycpo/undregs/pages/appendF.html has a good discussion of what constitutes cheating.

    During in-class exams, keep your eyes on only your own paper. Use only materials, references, and tools explicitly announced as permitted.

    Do not talk to yourself or any other student during an in-class exam. If a test question is unclear or ambiguous, the time to bring it to the instructor's attention is preferably during or immediately after the test.  Give the instructor the opportunity to clarify questions for the benefit of the whole class.

    Only claim credit for work you have done. Do not submit copies of someone else's work or files as being your own work. Give credit for thoughts and words of others that you use.

    If you know you are tempted to cheat, sit in the front row with no one sitting next to you. Do all you can to remove the ability to act upon that temptation.

    If you have personal mannerisms that other students or teachers are likely to misinterpret as cheating, sit in the front row with no one sitting next to you.   

Tips to avoid suspicion during exams, particularly in a classroom with closely spaced rows of seats:

Tips to reduce suspicion of cheating for computer lab work:

    The consequences of cheating can include being expelled from school with a note placed in your academic file.  A lesser consequence is receiving an F in the course or on the test or assignment.  Some schools rescind degrees after being awarded if cheating on an exam or major assignment is discovered to have occurred.  It is not worth the risk.

    If you do poor on an exam, take the initiative to talk with the teacher about it to plan how to overcome the deficiency.

    If you are sure someone is cheating or stealing, report it with specific details that can be verified by the witness of another student or by physical evidence.  Your signed personal statement to an administration official will be necessary to take disciplinary action.  Verbal statements are insufficient as a basis of action.

    It is not generally unethical for students to discuss an exam with other students who have already taken that exam after the exam is over.   There is a natural curiosity and community bond formed from a sense of shared trials.  However, on multiple section courses with exams spread out over time, it is unethical (though usually not illegal) to interview students about an exam you have not yet taken.  Further, it is unethical to interview students about such an exam and then tell other students who have yet to take the exam.  This directly compromises the integrity of the examination process.  There are only a finite number of topics in a course that are "most important".  This means that question topics must get reused in courses with a large number of sections.  The alternative for preserving the integrity of the examination process is to construct exams that do not have the same content.  This places everyone at a disadvantage.  Questions become more complicated, detailed, or abstract.  Everyone loses.

Course-wide consequences from students cheating in multi-section courses:

    Dishonest behavior invalidates the social contract between student and teacher.  A teacher's review of work by a student for the purpose of helping the student assumes that the work was done by the student.  If the work was not done by the student, that effort by the teacher was wasted time that should have been spent on another student.  

    A school which permits dishonest behavior devalues the degrees earned by honest students.  Public perception of widespread dishonest behavior by students at a particular school measurably reduces the willingness of employers to hire graduates from that school.  A nation with a culture of dishonest behavior by its citizens loses a public basis of truth upon which to make decisions, loses a public basis of trust which permits resources and policies to be focused on positive good rather than protection against evil, and that nation will eventually fail.  Dishonesty is an offence against fellow classmates, the teacher, the school, and the nation.

    Claiming or submitting someone else's work as being your own is the essence of plagiarism.  While there may be some gray areas regarding authorized group assignments, some forms of cheating are so blatant that you should understand them to be dishonest without being told.  Copying someone else's files and submitting them as your own is well beyond what could possibly be defended.  Hand copying someone else's homework or exams and submitting them as your own is definitely cheating.  You should not have to be told this.  

    The honesty and integrity of a person is to be judged by the content of their character, and does not depend upon  personal background, circumstances of life, dislike for the subject or teacher, or inability to easily learn the material. These do not change the conclusion that cheating is not permitted.  The mere fact that dishonesty is common in high schools does not justify it in college (or in high schools).

C. STEALING: DON'T.

    Ask and receive permission before borrowing something.  If you borrow something, return it.

    If there are restrictions on borrowing something (books, calculators, equipment, etc.), honor them.

D. FALSE ACCUSATION: DON'T.

    Do not use false accusation of unethical conduct to harm, or retaliate against, a fellow student.  Liars are as bad as cheaters.

Editorial: Apostrophes indicating possessive case and in contractions were deleted because Front Page caused the HTML code to appear blue, and also prevents printing by Netscape. My apologies to the grammar lawyers.

Modified 19 Oct 04 1507 hrs.