D upset with first test grade

Parents Forum
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<p>I called my D tonight and found her crying. She had her 1st test this week in psych and got a 75. She is very frustrated because she put in a lot of hours studying the day before and thought she knew the material and thought she did better than that. She is also worried because psych was supposed to be one of her easier classes this semester and he only gives 4 exams during the whole semester. She took AP psych last year in hs but didn’t take exam. The teacher gives out assignments for extra credit so she is going to speak to him. She is also taking bio, chem and intro to exercise science. </p>

<p>I told her to go to speak to the teacher and explain to him that she put in a lot of hours studying and felt that she knew the material. Maybe he can give her some better ideas of how to study the material or explain what he is looking for. I tried to tell her it was only the first exam and now she has a better idea of how he phrases his questions. Hopefully, this will be a learning experience for her and she will do better next time. I told her not to get frustrated and not study as hard next time fearing that no matter how much she studies she won’t do well.</p>

<p>My heart is breaking for her and just wish she was here so I could give her a hug.</p>

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<p>Your D should ask what the curve of that test was in the class. In some schools, even intro psych courses could be weeder courses as their natural science/engineering counterparts.</p>

<p>She may end up doing a lot better than she thought. </p>

<p>Even if that’s not the case, it is her first test in college. After a short period to recover…she should go to her Prof/TA’s office hours to go over the test to see what she missed and to get pointers on how to study the material so she learns the material well and does better on future tests.</p>

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<p>I know it is hard to go through this as a parent. My son’s worst grade in college was in the intro psych class. Non-majors take it to fulfill a requirement and it turns out it is graded very hard. That may be the case for your D, too. Also, some of those classes are on a curve. My son got a 59 on one of his first college calc tests and it turned out to be a B+.</p>

<p>Also, college is a big adjustment. There are many threads on here about kids who really had rough first semesters or first years.</p>

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<p>Agree about the curve, that 75 might very likely be an A. Also this may be a bit extreme, I’ve had tests where a 50% was an A, and others where even a 40% is a B. I feel like a lot of times, people are still in the high-school mindset where an almost perfect score is necessary to get an A, and they have trouble realizing that curves do exists. There have been many times when my friends have come out of a test, complaining that it was really hard and being really worried, and it turns out they did just fine.</p>

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<p>If she were a student coming into my office to set up tutoring, I’d point to this statement as the crux of the problem. College courses cover quite a bit of material between exams, far more than can be covered in a day before the test study session. Marathon study sessions don’t always allow a student to retain as much as shorter sessions spread out over a longer period of time.</p>

<p>Next week, when my own d is likely to contact me about a test in a weeder class, I have no idea what I’ll say.</p>

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<p>Sorry she was so disappointed! As others have said, this is a very common freshman experience. She’s learning what is required in a college-level exam. Her professor (or TA, as the case may be) will probably be happy to talk to her during office hours and tell her what was lacking in her exam. He may even tell her that he considers a 75 a pretty good grade.</p>

<p>The first semester of freshman year is often the lowest point, GPA-wise, even though the material becomes more challenging as the student advances. It’s great that you’re there for her, and that you can be her sounding board. This will get better.</p>

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<p>As a recent grad, I have two thoughts here.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>This is probably one of those things where the kid is really upset for a half an hour, calls mom in hysterics, and then mostly gets over it while mom continues to worry. I would be wary of legitimizing her disappointment more than is required out of sensitivity-- it really isn’t that big of a deal and she will realize that soon when she gets the hang of being a college student. If you act like it is an earth-shattering disappointment, she might believe you. And it isn’t. So be nice, be loving, and then encourage moving forward and not dwelling on this.</p></li>
<li><p>As your D will realize, this just happens sometimes. In my last semester-- yes, as a senior-- I got D’s on two midterms in uncurved classes and thought I would actually die, and came back to get a B+ in both classes by acing everything else the rest of the term. There really is a point at the beginning of each class where you have to get to know your professors expectations-- what they look for, how they phrase questions, etc. I never had any idea what to expect from my first graded assignment with any professor no matter how long I’d been in college, they’re all so different. And not only do these things happen, it’s not the end of the world. I had a 2.7 after my first semester of college and had a 3.6 a year later. New college students tend to emphasize the stress of how big an impact bad grades have when you have so few assignments, and forget that it’s a two way street-- one or two really excellent grades can really level you back off to an acceptable level.</p></li>
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<p>Thanks for all the replies. Unfortunately when the professor sent out the grades, he also said that a 4 kids got 64/65. Not a very high percentage in a class of around 200 but seems like enough so that he is not curving the test at all. I am not sure if he said how the majority of kids did.</p>

<p>I just texted her a an hour ago and she was getting ready to go out. She said she is just trying to forget about it for tonight.</p>

<p>I will stress to her about studying the material a little at a time near the next test and not trying to cram it into one day. I know she plans on going to the professor’s office hours next week and I’m hoping he will be a little encouraging and help her.</p>

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<p>One other thing to think about: by definition, 49% of admitted Frosh will end up in the bottom half of their class. College is full of many very bright kids, even smarter/faster than your D. </p>

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<p>…is called cramming and while it works in HS, it won’t cut it in college, particularly for chem and bio (and other courses in which premeds roam).</p>

<p>Start studying earlier. Take it in smaller chunks. Someone who took AP Psych should have learned about how the brain learns and retains info. (Hint: cramming ain’t it.)</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

<p>edit after cross post: ALL large courses are curved somehow, someway. Ask your D for the mean and standard deviation.</p>

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<p>you did the right thing by suggesting she goes to office hours.</p>

<p>It’s probably just a matter of not knowing the material the teacher would test for. As my own daughter pointed out, it wasn’t until she got to college that she understood she had a tendency not to realize what she “didn’t” know and to kind of keep going over what she did know…</p>

<p>This was when she started to go to office hours for all of her classes, to get a sense of what the prof would test for…good luck. I’m just glad to hear she was going out. Sounds healthy.</p>

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<p>The same thing happened to my daughter, also in a psych class. My daughter had taken a semester of AP psych in high school and scored a 5 on the AP exam, so she was pretty confident in her abilities. So confident, in fact, that she enrolled in an advanced level psych class – she was the only freshman in the class and had needed the prof’s permission to enroll. The psych midterm was her first college exam… and she got a C.</p>

<p>My daughter KNEW the material. In fact she knew it so well that she had been quite confident after the exam that she would get an A. There wasn’t any question she didn’t “know” – and she had given the “right” answer for each essay question. </p>

<p>The problem was that she didn’t KNOW what was expected on a college level exam. I told her to try to find a student in the class who had receive an A and ask to look at that student’s paper so she could see what an A-quality exam looked like; and of course also to schedule a meeting with the prof. during office hours to get a better sense of where she had gone wrong. </p>

<p>I was right, and on the second midterm my daughter got a perfect score. She called me and read the essay she had written and it was phenomenal – I was amazed that anyone could manage to give such a thorough answer and analysis in an exam setting. </p>

<p>It wasn’t enough to bring her grade up to an A – she ended up with a B for a the course, which also ended up being the lowest grade she ever got in four years of college. So she was in fine shape by the time she graduated. </p>

<p>I think it was particularly hard because of course my daughter had all A’s in high school – I also told her that in college, a “B” is the equivalent of an “A” in high school, and C’s are like getting B’s. That seemed to reassure her at the time, whether or not it was true. </p>

<p>But the main point is that high school is mostly about memorizing material and then feeding it back to the teacher on exams … and in college having learned the material is only worth a C. The prof’s want to see the student doing something with the facts they have absorbed – thinking, analyzing, comparing, contrasting – not just repeating a set of definitions from a text book. </p>

<p>Anyway, the first semester is a learning process, and part of the process is learning how to produce college-level writing. In hindsight it was probably a good thing that my daughter took that class and got that message early on – I think it motivated her to step up her game early in the process. Maybe a “B” wouldn’t quite have gotten the message across.</p>

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<p>Studying just in time for each test or quiz may work in high school but will not in college. Frequent testing in high school requires that a student keep up with the material. College classes typically have fewer tests/quizes and it is up to the student to keep up with the material (as others have pointed out). </p>

<p>Also you are required to be able to process the material and derive thoughts and ideas from that. </p>

<p>I found that intensive studying the day before was counterproductive. Better to learn in small steps as you go and get as much rest the night before a test or quiz. Need to have that brain power available and the cobwebs gone for the test.</p>

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<p>I will talk to her over the weekend and suggest she try studying in small steps. I mentioned this yesterday but she was so upset I don’t think she really heard what I was saying.</p>

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<p>abmnj1, my D has been doing her hw daily in small chunks, and is able to cook dinner for herself when she comes back to the suite in the late afternoon (her school puts a lot of the frosh in 4 & 6 person suites that have kitchens, and we spent the summer doing the basic-cooking-crash course). She gets hw done in one of the school’s bldgs because the suite is too noisy for it, and she has been having trouble getting to sleep at a reasonable hour (midnight) because of the racket too. </p>

<p>Most of her roomies otoh, have gotten behind on their hw due to late night “socializing” and are eating out every night because they “don’t have time to cook.” I don’t know whether anyone has had tests yet to act as a wake up call. </p>

<p>They’ve all got to learn that you do your hw & readings a little bit every day, not to wait till the day before a test to study for it, and (I am not saying anything about your D here!) there are also students who will have to learn the hard way that watching TV, gaming, partying, etc etc every night do not lead to good test scores later in the month. </p>

<p>I read on a post somewhere that you should treat your college work as a job–put in 8 hours a day (going to classes plus studying, reading, writing papers etc) and you will do just fine. You will still have 8 hr for sleeping & the other 8 for social life. </p>

<p>It was only the first test in the first semsester of the first year – she got her wake-up & since she was so upset, she will do her work in little chunks now.</p>

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<p>I’m sorry your D is upset. It happens to many kids and it’s an eye opener for them. Hopefully she can learn from this and adjust accordingly. I always breath a sigh of relief when the kids have an early test in a class. Some classes they don’t have anything to measure until mid-terms and they might “think” all is well but it’s harder to adjust between midterms and finals than a few weeks into the semester. I’m sure she’ll figure out what needs to change and she should certainly take advantage of any study groups or take time to talk to the prof about what she thinks she is retaining and understanding and what the prof is requiring.</p>

<p>I remember one paper my son turned in freshman year. He got a D on it and went to talk to the professor and the professor told him it was a well written paper but he had totally missed the point of the question. He totally learned that while in high school it is safe to take things at face value, or simply learn the powerpoint bullets in college many profs expect college students to look behind the obvious or to understand more than the powerpoint bullets.</p>

<p>I’m hope all works out for the OPs D. The fact that she cares and the fact that she’s asking what happened is actually the best thing you want to hear.</p>

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<p>She’s been keeping up with the day to day work but has never been a great test taker. I am happy that she cares enough about her grades and will speak to the professor next week. My DS on the other hand, does not care about grades as long as he passes. He just started high school and something tells me it is going to be a long 4 years. I hope I am wrong.</p>

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<p>Fortunately in most colleges there aren’t many tests like in high school which can “hurt” kids who did well in high school because of the weight given to homework, extra credit and “class participation” but being a good “test taker” is often more about understanding the depth of what the student should be learning, or understanding or writing about and the “bad” test taker is often just not learning, or understanding or writing what the particular teacher is looking for. If it was a written test have her look closely at the comments or if it was a multiple choice type test have her look at what she got wrong and compare it to what she studied…that will give her a clue if the prof is testing on what he lectures about or more on what he expects the student to be studying on their own. They (profs) are all different just like “bosses” so figuring out what is expected is half the battle. Best of luck to your D. Also tell her to look at her class syllabus, I know my kids both had/have many classes where the lowest grade is dropped at the end of the semester when the final grade is calculated. My kids call those mulligans.</p>

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<p>JRZmom, your daughter and mine are having very similar experiences…</p>

<p>My daughter had a paper assigned in a class. She also has a writing workshop, a one credit course. The prof from that class insisted she go over the paper that was assigned in the other class, and told my daughter she had to change several things. </p>

<p>D did not want to change the paper. But the writing prof (the only teacher she isn’t thrilled with) insisted on changes. (not only hers, most of the kids in the class). </p>

<p>The original assignment was to talk about one thing. The writing prof wanted her to bring up other things and compare/contrast. </p>

<p>She made the changes and ended up with a B on the paper. She feels pretty sure if she had just handed it in the way she originally wrote it, she would have done better. She also is was a straight A student in high school, so getting a B was upsetting. </p>

<p>Her roommate who hardly studies, drinks and is now taking Adderall just to help her study, got the highest grade in the class. Really ticked my kid off!!</p>

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<p>I would tell my kid to relax and not worry so much about grades. But that’s probably just me.</p>

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<p>DD is just worried because she needs a 3.0 to keep her scholarship. I told her not to worry, she’ll be fine. But her first grade, and it’s a B, and it freaked her out.</p>