In this week’s podcast, I suggested that grades aren’t all that important but, of course, this isn’t really true. I didn’t mean to suggest that you shouldn’t try to get A’s in every class, just that getting A’s in every class isn’t the true goal of education. Learning is the true goal and learning doesn’t always result in perfect grades.One of the easiest ways to learn is to challenge yourself and to fall short of your goal - of course, this means not getting a perfect grade or all of the possible points on an assignment. When this happens, don’t focus on the grade, focus on the feedback. It may surprise you to know that a faculty member might spend an hour reviewing and crafting feedback on your assignment. Their goal is to help you see where you fell short so that next time you can do better.
Sometimes students take feedback personally or feel that their instructor doesn’t like them because they made critical comments on a paper. Remember that being critical doesn’t equate with being negative. Pay attention to feedback and consider what you can learn from it. If your response to critical feedback is to spend time trying to get your instructor to justify why your excellence wasn’t rewarded with an A, then you’re missing out on a large part of your education. Even worse, by not honestly considering the feedback you’ve been given, you’re practically guaranteeing that you’ll have similar feedback on a future assignment.
So, go out there and do your best to get an A in every class, but don’t be so sure that a B is a bad grade – it isn’t. When you leave UIS, no more than a handful of people will ever care what grades you earned or whether you graduated with honors. On the other hand, a lot of people will notice how much you’ve learned and how you adapt to feedback in the real world.
3 comments:
Andy,
I really enjoyed this week's podcast. I used to worry about grades, but while being in LIS 301, I have been focusing on understanding the course. I have been getting more from the class and enjoy discussions with my classmates.
Lisa Daniels
It is difficult not to worry and focus on grades and GPA - especially when coming from strictly traditional educational environments. However, LIS 301 has helped to break me of that constant worry, which has allowed me to focus more on the importance of the learning experience(s) itself. It has been a very helpful class.
Al
I actually just had this happen to me where one of my professors critiqued my rather lengthy report by adding her feedback, which I ended up taking kind of personal. Although I learned a lot from that experience alone, I certainly can say that I was embarassed and ashamed for the work that I did, which I thought was very, very good. Well, she brought me back to reality and I had to humble myself until the semester was all said and done. Lucky for me, it was a credit/no credit class; however I do understand where you're coming from. What I wish is that many of the students who obtain all A's and B's throughout their educational career at UIS who do not have a high G.P.A. could have the ability to obtain 'honors' standing. That would be awesome!
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