Exercise 17: What About 100%?

Today, I am mobile and using my cell phone to write my blog. Interesting experience.


Writing exercise 17: Why should students give 100%?


As a professor at a private college, I often hear students talking about aiming for a B grade or being happy with just a passing grade. And as a former full time night student who worked during the day and on weekends I very much can understand why they would choose to settle for a low grade. However, there is something special about the students who do make it their intention to get the highest grade possible by giving their 100%.


Students who put there best foot forward and challenge themselves not only do well in my classes, but tend to do well in all of their classes. And in my class, they tend to absorb more of the content, apply more of the learned concepts, and stress less about tests, quizzes and final examinations. This is not to say that they don't study. This just means that after they study, they tend to feel more confident walking into a test than their counter parts. And that confidence is carried into their workplace as well as in their homes.


Students who give 100% learn not only the content of the courses they are taking, but they learn the valuable skills it takes to achieve results they want. While learning about psychology, writing, and sociology in my classes, these students also learn strategies for accomplishing tasks individually as well as in group projects. They also acquire better foresight, time management and multi-tasking skills, and personal ecology.


Those who give their best in the classrooms make their courses more interesting, learn a set of valuable skills along with the course content and serve as a good role model for others as they tend to be the happiest students I know. After all, wouldn't you be happier if you knew you did your absolute best?


When I was a child, my dad used to tell me that if I wanted to shoot an arrow to the 21st floor that I should aim higher. He said that gravity and friction from the air would slow down my arrow and would make it hit a mark much lower than my original goal.


So for students who are not yet convinced that aiming for an A grade for all the reasons I listed above, consider my father's story. If you want a passing grade, you may want to aim for an A anyway as you just might then get exactly what you want!