<p>My freshman D just got her first test result from her business and religion class. Despite of her hard work, she only managed to get a B on business and D from religion.</p>
<p>This is definitely a blow to her confidence. She's frustrated and doesn't really know what to do to imporve. Like I said, she's been working pretty hard on her academics. She spends a lot of time on homework, studying/researching, does not party and has a full schedule with some club activities.</p>
<p>According to her, some questions on the business test had multiple correct answers that need to be checked if they apply which caused her to be a little confused. The test on religion was a group project/test and according to her, every group got a D except one with a B. The professor said that group got a B because "they answered the questions better" but nobody seemed to be able to understand why and how.</p>
<p>I encourage her to talk to the professor to get some help but I don't know how much help she'll actually get. I guess she was expecting to get good grades with her hard work but now she's a little discouraged.</p>
<p>Every. Professor. Is. Different.
Most students experience a variety of teaching styles, test formats, and group project results. That’s a big difference between high school and college. Most HS teachers, especially teaching the same class, will use the same exact text, have the same tests, and need to focus their material to specific results.</p>
<p>College professors have a little more freedom in how they run their class and recieve sometimes ambiguous learning objectives.</p>
<p>Sometimes, professors just take that first couple weeks or that first test to get used to their specific style. For example, in a college writing class we had “peer-reviews” of our essays right before we turned them in. This particlular college professor did the peer-review process a little differently than I had ever done. He used a different form, asked to critique different material or asked different specific questions about the writing that pertained to what we were supposed to be focusing on in his class. The result: I gave terrible peer-reviews for that first essay. But sure as heck, come the second time around I knew what to expect and felt I gave excellent feedback on the reviews. This is typical. She shouldn’t fret, but instead focus on the next opportunity while knowing what to expect.</p>
<p>Same with the group project: different professors look for different types of answers (comprehension - or understanding the significance of the material vs analyzing - or being able to applying that significance to something else vs sythesizing - or being able to relate that significance to another significance vs evaluation - finding the logic, logos, or fallacy in the significance). I can assume that Religion may be more of the analyzing-/sythesizing-/evaluation-type, but your D may have focused answers on a comprehension basis. She could ask her professor which type the professor is looking for, but she may still receive general answers. In which case she can talk to the group who got the B and see how they did some things (compare notes). Again, looking into the course objectives from the ‘green sheet’ may be a helpful guide when determining specifics the professor may be looking for.</p>