<p>My daughter is going through similar issues. She has never gotten a C on anything before in her life. Now, she is getting a lot of them. And they don’t curve the grades at all. She felt like maybe she didn’t belong there, but felt much better after a meeting with her advisor who is also her english teacher. </p>
<p>I know for my D, she is not getting enough sleep and is having issues with her suitemates, which adds to her stress. </p>
<p>I told her that I don’t care if she graduates number three in her class (as she was in hs) or number 403, as long as she graduates, and just calm down.</p>
<p>^^^ That! Reassure her that it doesn’t say on your diploma what your rank was She may just need to hear that, over and over. And you might make a Skype appointment, so in her head she can be thinking “just need to hang in until _________and I will see a sympathetic face again”</p>
<p>I struggled mightily at the beginning. October of Freshman year is really as bad as it gets, and she’s at the critical juncture. It’s when you begin to realize that this is much harder than high school, that everybody is great, and that you need help. In order to get help, you need humility. That’s the hardest thing. </p>
<p>She needs to
Calm down. She is capable of doing this, but she needs to improve her “game”.
I’m sure that she realizes that the classes are not going to slow down for her. She needs to get help ASAP to catch up enough so she can keep up with the new stuff.
She needs to get some tutoring to help her master the stuff that has already occurred. This won’t help previous grades, but it will help on the final.
She needs to critically read the material BEFORE lecture, sit near the front and RELEARN it better during lecture understanding what’s being emphasized. It was also useful to copy my lecture notes over neatly after lecture. The process of copying the lecture notes was surprisingly useful.
She needs to study with groups of supportive people who intend to succeed. Blind leading blind doesn’t work. Also, it’s not ok to divy up the work. Everybody must work on every problem and get together to go over it and master it. </p>
<p>This is tough because she needs self-confidence to know that she is capable of succeeding, but humility to know that she needs help in figuring out how to do it. Good luck.</p>
<p>How many credits is she enrolled in this semester? Would dropping one class be possible, so that she has more time to spend on the other classes? </p>
<p>First-semester freshmen have so much to adjust to, that taking a lighter than usual load the first semester can be helpful.</p>
<p>This is so importantly true! It seems to me that judging by both my freshman comp students, and the ones I was an academic counselor for, critical thinking gets short shrift in high schools, often. Students can memorize the textbook, and recite exactly what it says, but when asked to apply the knowledge in new configurations or contexts, they’re at a loss, which means they haven’t really learned the concept. I see that issue in the students I know in content-heavy courses like science or psych, and I also see many struggling, not always successfully, to demonstrate critical thinking rather than summarizing sources in my freshman comp essays. Not sure what the answer is, but recognizing the necessity, IF that’s the issue, is part of the battle. But definitely–tutoring! I think almost all colleges have free tutoring centers these days.</p>
<p>(Ordinarylives–I was also, until recently, an SSS counselor. It’s such a great program; I wish all students had that available to them!)</p>
<p>There is a lot of good advice posted above. </p>
<p>My d got to college as an Engineering major and academically had to make a big adjustment. The classes are hard. While she has always been studious, she found herself at study sessions on weekend evenings and making appointments with professors to discuss tests, etc. She’s called us in tears upon getting a 60 ot 70% in a math class, only to have the curve turn it into a B. She stuck it out and is very happy. The classes are still hard. BUT, we would have encouraged her to explore other majors if she was truly inclined to. We discussed it numerous times. The world is full of options.</p>
<p>Let your daughter know she has to study and prepare differently than she did in HS. It is not a matter of studying the same way for longer periods of time (this will just be frustrating). She should also get together with some students who scored well on those midterms and see how they are approaching the class. My first guess is that she is probably reading the book and not spending enough time on her notes. My professors have tended to test more on the notes and less on the book (kind of the opposite from hs). Also she should be discussing “concepts” with other classmates to make sure she really gets them.</p>
<p>Tell her not to give up, and to hang in there. She is soooo not alone. LOTS of kids struggle to get the hang of college…it’s not just about hours worked but how you work. It can be a steep learning curve to discover how to work smart and to know what is expected to succeed. </p>
<p>I teach a freshman class in a large public where every student had an equivalent 4.0 in highschool (its a very selective program). Average on the standardized midterm across all 15 sections of this course? 68%. But most will go on to do perfectly fine. </p>
<p>Continue to see the prof, TAs, get into tutoring (usually there is peer tutoring or more formalized tutoring around). Talk to classmates to find out how they are studying, find out real averages (and not just hearsay), and get into study groups. </p>
<p>Lots and lots of students find the first semester tough until they get the hang of it, and especially in some courses such as the ones she’s taking.</p>
<p>I cannot add more to the excellent advices from the above posting. But I want to emphasis the importance of office hours. If the professor has office hours go to each and every one of them. don’t be lazy.</p>
<p>The other advice for the first timers in college I want to give is that you should not take the full load and the hardest course in the first semester of the college. Once you messed up the first year GPA, its difficult to play catchup. We intentionally asked our d to take only 3 units in her first quarter, that is much less of a load than 4 to 5 units everyone else is doing. Here first quarter did not do well, a 3.2 ish, but she is doing well now with most A or A-. There is an adjustment period for HS kids who go to college.</p>
<p>It might be helpful to review her schedule for next semester and encourage her to take some different kinds of classes and perhaps fewer units. Freshman year is a huge adjustment and a little breathing room might help her to settle in and enjoy exploring other parts of college life.</p>
She may just need to hear that, over and over. And you might make a Skype appointment, so in her head she can be thinking “just need to hang in until _________and I will see a sympathetic face again”</p>