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Are you a freshman heading off to college in the fall? Are you even thinking about getting good grades?
You are probably thinking about your future roommate at college, buying books at the university bookstore, and college parties. Maybe, you have checked out the social scene at your new college or university by making new friends on MySpace and FaceBook. There is one person on campus that is not on your mind. You may have briefly thought about the professor, but what about the teacher’s assistant. You will come to know this often awkward and nerdy individual as your TA. You should probably consider your TA’s grading gods.
The reality is that many college freshmen the TA will be their main contact in the classroom. More importantly, TA’s often decide your grade in college. They will often read your first college paper. At some universities, they may run labs or discussion groups. TA’s are notorious for giving lower grades than established professors. How can you get good grades in college courses?
There are many common rules to follow to get good college grades. Attend class. Turn in your assignments. Read the syllabus. Ask if you need help. Set your alarm to wake up and take the exam. This is all common sense.
Your college grades will improve if you get to know your TA and/or professor. If you are in a lab or small group, you will find out the name of your TA in class. Your goal is to remember it, and write down the contact information they supply. One cannot just email [email protected] In other cases, the TA might be more of a secret spy responsible to keeping track of grading or attendance. In this case, you should check out the back or front rows and find an individual with glasses in the front or back rows. How will you separate the freshman overachiever from the TA? You should look to find someone who is slightly older individual in frayed clothing or a personal style that looks stuck in time. Are you still unsure? You should notice who walks away with the professor or does not get the first assignment back in class.
Once you have identified your new college TAs, here are a few tips to keep in mind when dealing with the grading gods that determine college grades:
Insight for College Freshman from the Grading Gods
Use Their Names
Write down the name and contact information of your TA and professor. You need this to contact them during the semester. Use their name during conversations. Everyone in the world likes hearing his or her name. Your TA will remember this when he figures out your grades.
Visit During Office Hours
This is a guaranteed grade booster. Your TA does not want to be the bad guy. He wants you to succeed. Anytime a grade is on the line, the fact that they know you in a personal way or something about you always works in your favor. Your college grades are bound to go up at least one notch if you follow this advice.
TAs Can Be Your Editor and Encyclopedia
If you show them a draft of paper, TAs will happily give you comments on ways to improve. If TAs correct something, make the change in your document or do something different. Remember, your professor and TA are looking at the paper from the vantage point of knowing the criteria by which assignments will be graded. If your final document is unchanged, your professor and TA feel disappointed. If you are working on a research project, you can ask your professor or TA what books or subjects they might recommend. This is their living. Your professor and TA can steer you away from projects that are impossible to finish or materials that are a joke.
Do Not Copy Plagiarize
Your TA is not stupid. If it is from Wikipedia, the paragraph is going to read like it is from some online source. If they doubt it, your TA or professor has access to software programs and Google, of course, to check to indicate plagiarism. If things are bad, you should email to get an extension. Your grade may be slightly lower, but nothing hurts your college grades more than stealing someone else’s hard work.
The Danger of Studying As A Group for the Final Exam
It is fine to study together as a group. You might even decided to separate out the questions on the study guide to save time. Remember when you are taking the exam to personalize your own answers. Use the group research as a base to complete your own answer. The grader is not going to think much of an answer he has read almost verbatim six times. If it is a good answer, he will not give out the highest grades. Instead, he will save the best grades with unique answers.
Proofread Your Papers
Graders use grammatical and spelling mistakes as an easy way to knock down your grade. Your college grades are bound to rise a bit if you take five minutes to re-read your short paper. This is guaranteed to raise your grade point average (GPA).
Don’t Email After the Final
One way to gain the eye of your TA or professor is to email immediately after the exam asking to get your final grade and how you did on the written file. Remember, the person grading your email probably did not grow up in the age of text messaging. In terms of correspondence, they probably think days over minutes. If they have not graded your exam, you do not want your email fresh in their mind as they read you b.s. answers.
Accept the B+
College grades are not arbitrary or lightly given. If your teacher gave you the B+, they probably thought long and hard on whether you deserved an A. TA’s know they are not infallible. If you really want, you could approach them with the question what should I have done to make an A. This opens the door to changing the grade without putting their guard up. The worst thing you should do is send your TA a plea about how this B+ your freshman year is the one thing stopping you from attending Harvard medical school. Your graders have little sympathy with the imagined GPA that you dream you will have in four years. If you are failing, you should definitely talk to them.
These tips if followed will result in your continued success in college. If you follow these tips, your GPA will rise. Your college grades will thrill your parents. Your high GPA will open doors in lucrative business careers in finance and consulting.