college student life

What Should You Do?: Missing an Exam Because You Overslept

Jonathan Golding What Should You Do, Working with Your Instructor , ,

The other day, I gave an exam to a large class. When it ended, I went back to my office to get the exam ready to be graded. After a few minutes, there was a knock at my door; I opened it and saw a young woman in tears. When I asked what was wrong, she told me that she had slept through her alarm and missed the exam.

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I’d like to offer some thoughts about situations like this. First, your syllabus likely doesn’t mention oversleeping. The syllabus probably only describes the times when you miss an exam because of an excused absence. Excused absences generally include documented illnesses, university-approved events, and death in one’s immediate family. Clearly, oversleeping is not an excused absence.

Second, faculty members are put in a very difficult position when a student oversleeps and misses an exam. On the one hand, the syllabus doesn’t call for a make-up, other students managed to get to the exam, and you have rested more than anyone else who took the exam. On the other hand, mistakes happen and having a little more sleep probably doesn’t amount to a significant advantage.

Third, you need to live with the consequences of your actions. You may think that sleeping through the exam isn’t such a big deal, but a faculty member may see it as a really big deal. They might give you a 0 on the exam or have you take the exam with a penalty (e.g., losing 10 points right off the top). Alternatively, they might simply have you take the exam right there on the spot and not penalize you at all.

I hope that you’ll never have to deal with this on exam day. Exams lead to enough stress on their own. You don’t need any more. If you think you might oversleep because the exam is in an early class, or because you stayed up studying longer than normal, then set more than one alarm or have a friend either call you or knock on your door so you don’t stay asleep.

By the way, in case you were wondering, I let the woman at the beginning of my blog take the exam with no penalty.

 

Jobs and College

Jonathan Golding Jobs and College , ,

Consider this question: should you get a job while you’re at college? Some of you don’t even have to worry about earning extra money because you’re lucky enough to have your parents pay all your expenses. Some of you need money to pay for school and housing and therefore definitely have to work.

For the rest of you, the question is a bit tougher. For example, some students’ parents will pay for some things, like tuition, but leave the cost of other important things for the student to deal with. These costs might include rent, food, gas, entertainment, etc. These students often feel forced to get a job because living at the standards they’re used to without a steady stream of income would be difficult or impossible. There are also those students who, though their parents pay for most things, feel they want to take greater responsibility for their life, gain work experience, and have extra spending money.

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If you’re thinking about getting a job, it’s important to make a plan before you go out looking for them. Don’t just take the first job you see. Remember that you’re a student first and that whatever job you take must truly take a back seat to your primary responsibilities as a student.

Keep the following guidelines in mind. First: make sure that the number of hours that you work allows you to go to class, study, and have a normal life. I’ve talked to many students who committed to too many hours and ended up falling far behind in their schoolwork. Related to this, I should add that faculty members are usually not moved by students who use a job as an excuse for not completing schoolwork. Second: consider the location of the job. You should favor a job either on or close to campus. If you get a job far off campus, you’re going to be saddled with transportation costs and the time it takes to get to and from work. Third: be sure the job is worth it, both financially and as a way to gain experience. I worked through all my years of college, and I can say that all those hours in the places I worked would have made no sense if I wasn’t paid fairly well and if I didn’t learn a lot about myself and how to deal with other people.

Please note that the comments of Dr. Golding and the others who post on this blog express their own opinion and not that of the University of Kentucky.

The Importance of Attending Class

Jonathan Golding Attending Class , ,

Now that you’ve been in college for a short time, you might be asking whether you should attend class or not. It’s an interesting question, especially given that almost all colleges don’t have a universal attendance policy. Moreover, if you’re taking a large class you might reason that no one would even know if you were missing. As a faculty member, and one who teaches large classes at that, I’m going to argue that you should definitely attend class. It’s your individual responsibility; no one’s going to make you go. But if you don’t go, you need to be prepared for any negative consequences.

As far as specific reasons to attend class, here are 6 quick points:

1) Class time should be interesting and fun. You’ll also learn while you’re in class. This is easy for me to say, but any instructor worth your time should be working to make you never even want to miss class. Your instructor should motivate you to show up focused and ready to learn. Although this isn’t always true, most faculty are prepared to work hard to make your class experience something to look forward to.

2) Based on my 27 years of teaching all sizes of classes, I can confidently say that attending class makes you learn more and increases your grade. I’ve found a high positive correlation between attendance and grades—the more students attend class the better their grade.

3) In many classes, like my own, reading your textbook is no substitute for hearing the lecture. Exams are often directly from the lecture and not from the textbook. Therefore, not being in class could significantly impact your grade.

4) Getting notes from your classmates isn’t a good substitute for attending lecture either. The friend you get notes from might take those notes much differently than you, and that might require your classmate to take a long time explaining what they mean.

5) More and more classes are instituting an attendance policy, in-class work (even in large classes), a participation requirement, or all three of these. Every day you might miss means a loss in grade points.

6) When you attend class you are able to interact with others. You get to talk to other students and hopefully make new friends that can last a lifetime. Also, you can talk to your Instructor, finding out more things about the class and what that Instructor is investigating in his or her research.