How Do You React...

[mamacatsbaby]

When you get a lower grade on an assignment than you thought you would? For example, I've been doing a lot of essays in my English class. The last essay I wrote, while it wasn't stellar (I found it kind of boring actually), I thought it met the requirements of the topic. I got a decent grade (highish B), but I thought it would be higher.

Now, I'm the first to admit, I'm a bit of a perfectionist at times, and I'm finding this unacceptable. I'm doing well in all of my classes but that's not the point. I have this, need/drive to prove to myself that I can do better. I want to always do excellent work, but sometimes, well, that just ain't gonna happen; I'm, I don't know, kind of frustrated with myself?

I love to write but I'm not a writer, KWIM? All professional and such. I suppose even if I was going to make writing my career, that's what I'd have proofreaders for, ha!

Anyway, how hard are you on yourself WRT school? Gotta go do some homework right now actually, but all I want to do is crochet .

[Carita]

I take it hard, but when i only take it hard, i don't do much better. I think what pays off more is talking to the prof and examining why you go the B. Some reasons may be obvious to you, but some things, you may never have realized you were doing (or weren't doing).

when I was an undergrad I had a class like that and i couldn't understand why my papers received only Bs and just chugged along and got a B in the class. Now I know better than that!

[mamacatsbaby]

Originally Posted by Carita

I take it hard, but when i only take it hard, i don't do much better. I think what pays off more is talking to the prof and examining why you go the B. Some reasons may be obvious to you, but some things, you may never have realized you were doing (or weren't doing).

when I was an undergrad I had a class like that and i couldn't understand why my papers received only Bs and just chugged along and got a B in the class. Now I know better than that!

Oh definitely! I'm always in contact with my professors about what I can do to constantly improve my grades. I'm really into constructive criticism, even if we may not see eye to eye sometimes! I'm wondering if I'm getting really sick and tired of essays and that's starting to show .

[meemee]

REALLY?!!! essay writing changed my life. its how i live my life. or rather that's how i prefer to live my life. always start with a topic statement.

i am a writer and i have been told i am good. however i dont get to do it. i was the stream of conciousness writer.

till i discovered essays.

i loved, loved, loved the structure. i love how you have to organise your thoughts to spend a paragraph writing about different pieces of it. a different opinion.

i love telling people what to do. in other words - teaching. it is second nature to me. i love it. that is what i love about essays. how much of myself i can put into it, instead of just stating something - just writing a narative without having a place anywhere to express my opinion.

i had a GREAT english class. i loved my proff. i LOVED the essays she chose. she gave us freedom for topics. a fascinating class. i usually ended up writing two essays. first i would just sit and write stream of consciousness style. just write. without stopping. then i took the whole thing and wrote it into an essay. i loved every topic i wrote on. or they moved me in some way - good or bad.

i am the type of person who needs a lot of words to express something that could have used just a few words. so i have found if i express my topic sentence first people pay attention to me more (it is more helpful for them to listen rather than figure out what i am trying to say) and i get heard better.

same here. i try to write my replies in the essay style.

yeah i am a nerd

[Gimme Pineapple]

I am awful about this. I feel like I put tons of work into school and I get very discouraged when I make less than perfect grades. As far as my science classes, that is pretty cut and dry. You either get the right answer or you don't. BUT- I felt I received an unfair grade on a 6 week group project in an English class. I set up a meeting with my professor to talk about it. In the end, I explained that I thought my work was A quality. She bumped my grade up the two points to an A, but we talked about why I received the grade I did. When I explained my case, she sympathized and helped me out. Maybe just meeting with your professor and asking what you can do to improve would help. Good luck!

[Drummer's Wife]

The only time I am hard on myself is when I know I didn't give it my all (like a math test without adequate studying.) If I got a lower grade than I thought I should have, I'd probably wonder what I could have done better and contacted my instructor. But more often than not, I do much better than I thought I would. I guess I surprise myself.

[lolar2]

My grades rarely match how I think I did, and they rarely have since middle school. So I usually don't think much of it.

[mamacatsbaby]

Yeah, big time nerd here too . I've got to figure out how to continuously push myself to do better without being too hard on myself. Easier said!

[StephandOwen]

Well, the first essay I did (ever for college) I received a grade I thought was unfair. He marked me 1 down on "organization" but I couldn't find anything wrong with my organization. If I hadn't gotten marked down on that, I would have gotten an A on that paper. So I went in and talked to the teacher and he explained that there was nothing wrong with the organization, nothing I could have done better on the organization for the next essay. He just didn't think it was an A paper so he marked it down. Ummm... okay. I was pissed off and stressed about that one. I'm still upset about it. But I'll pull up my big girl panties and get over it

[plunky]

I didn't avail myself of this enough in school, but find out if your teacher has office hours and go to them! If you're unsatisfied with your grades, go talk to your teacher about how to improve your papers. Don't go with a "I deserve a better score" mentality, but to learn what they want and what you're doing wrong. Sometimes teachers are great about letting you rewrite the papers for a better grade, and even if they don't do that, talking to them should help you perform better in that class.

[sparkygirl74]

Originally Posted by plunky

I didn't avail myself of this enough in school, but find out if your teacher has office hours and go to them! If you're unsatisfied with your grades, go talk to your teacher about how to improve your papers. Don't go with a "I deserve a better score" mentality, but to learn what they want and what you're doing wrong. Sometimes teachers are great about letting you rewrite the papers for a better grade, and even if they don't do that, talking to them should help you perform better in that class.

I agree with all of the pp's about talking to the teacher. It shows you care and you will learn what they are looking for and will be able to do that on the next paper. You might also be able to get your grade changed. I recently got a low score on an assignment that I thought I had done well on. I asked the teacher about it just to find out what I had done wrong and it turned out that I had done nothing wrong. He missed something and calculated wrong. His whole family was down with the flu and he was tired! He fixed my grade