I’m a freshman at UCI, taking Math 2D (multivariable calc), Physics 7C (classical physics), Physics 7LC (the lab for physics), and a religion GE class. I was worried about math and physics before classes started but figured my GE class would be fine because I read and heard that it was an easy A. I was so wrong. So far, my math and physics classes have been totally fine. I’m finding the quizzes/labs easy, and I just got a 95% on my physics midterm (I haven’t gotten back my math midterm yet, but I think I did well).
Anyways, I took a religion test the other week that I thought I did really well on. I studied a lot for that test, making sure to memorize all of my lecture notes. We don’t use a textbook. I told the story of Abraham for the test. Today I found out I got a B- which became a B after extra credit. I have no idea what I did wrong. I thought I said everything. There are no notes on the paper. Now I’m concerned that I’m not capable of getting As in ‘easy A’ classes. My GPAs going to end up being a mess. I know that getting Bs is normal in college, but I thought I would be getting Bs in advanced math and physics classes, not this supposedly easy GE. Now I’m wondering, should I take GEs in community college over the summer rather than UCI? Is it normal for someone’s hardest class to be an ‘easy A’ class? Do you think my math/physics classes aren’t that bad because they consist of freshman for the most part, so the professors are going easy on us? What do you recommend I do to improve my religion grade? Talk to the TA maybe about how to improve? Thank you for giving your advice
When one is a math and science person, often the social science/humanity classes are harder. I have one math and science kid, and she struggled with the required humanities classes. Opposite for my other kid who just took the evil, required math class this summer. She did well in both science classes and the evil math, but put in a lot more work than the ‘easy A’ some others claimed.
What should you do? Go see the prof (without mentioning the easy A thing) and explain that you want to know what made the paper a B, and what you can do to get an A. Maybe you made ‘fact’ errors, or the order of the paragraphs didn’t make sense. Maybe your paper just wasn’t as good as all the others (also looking for an easy A). Maybe he has some suggestions for outside reading material since there is no book.
Talk to the TA, and maybe also go to the college writing center. It’s probably about your essay writing skills and not understanding the expectations of the discipline. And, please, don’t mention to the prof. or the TA that you thought this class was supposed to be “easy.” Students say that all the time, and it doesn’t exactly feel great to hear.
Start with the TA during office hours, and whatever you do, don’t mention specific grades. (No one likes a gunner,) Just say that you were disappointed in your work product and ask for suggestions on how you can improve.
Maybe s/he was looking for more analysis and less recitation? Perhaps your sentences needed improvement. Could be all kinds of things.
My kid went through a similar thing this semester. He has 3 technicals and a Philosophy GE/breadth that was supposed to be easy, but it was/is a ton of reading (7 200+ page paperback books!) and weekly papers plus 2 big papers. He got a B+ on his first big paper. He decided last week to end his misery and take the class P/NP. Why he didnt wait until he got his midterm grade back, I don’t know. Just his luck, he got an A on his midterm. Oh well.
I remember taking what I thought would be an easy class I think my last semester senior year which I thought was primarily a class to get certified in first aid and cpr. I was doing a 20 hour a week internship, work study, a senior capstone class and one other class I can’t recall and a once a week intership class. It turned out the class expected me to go to some sports library I had never heard of that was only open certain hours that I was off campus and read some things only available there and write papers etc. Than there were observation hours with the sports trainer and a journal to write etc. I wasn’t even sure if taking it pass/fail would work because there wasn’t a single hour that the library was open that I was on campus. I was glad I had 15 credits so I could drop to twelve. I could easily handle everything else and found it easier to wait and take first aid and cpr with the red cross on my own.
Thanks everyone! I’ll go see the TA as soon as possible and ask about how I can improve. I definitely won’t say anything about me thinking the class would be easy.
My dd run into the same issues with her GE courses. Many were tougher in same aspects then her higher level degree courses. She often find them more time consuming than her 400-500 level courses. Our theory was that the lower level GE courses were not meant to be an easy “A”. Rather it was meant to give students a real taste for what it took to study and suceed in the major. I suspect that the school wanted the student to find out eariler than later the demands of the major. Unfortunately this doesn’t help the student who just is trying to satify a GE requirement.
FYI, she had one or two professors who clearly stated from day one that the course was not an easy “A” course on day one.
As other said, talk with the TA/professor about how to improve. It might be they were looking for more analysis than pure facts.
As a techy type, I know how you feel. But what you can do is go to the professor and talk to them to figure out what they are looking for. Maybe it isn’t just telling the story of Abraham, but relating historical context of the time to his story, or comparing him to other people, or adding info about his son Ishmael and how Islam started.
Ask if they can show you an exampe of an A graded test vs a B test…
It might be that math/physics is “easier” for you as the way to get the right answer is more straightfoward.
Not at all unusual. Both of my kids had some lower level core/distribution classes that they found more difficult than upper level classes in their majors. This should not be unexpected – you are taking college level classes that are outside of your strengths as a student. My S the accounting major had to work very hard in core classes such as philosophy and history and my D the science person had a hard time in her religion class (later finding out she was the only freshman in a class full of seniors finishing up their distribution requirements).
The idea of these requirements is to force students to stretch themselves by taking classes they otherwise would not take. Do your best, seek out help from the TA or professor to improve where you can, and keep moving forward.
I’ve noticed this issue. In a group project for my software development class, I was the immediate choice to take on the role of software documentation. My major combined courses from linguistics and from computer science, so the pure CS students in my group thought the linguistics major should be in charge of the writing (I guess they thought linguistics = English major). One of the guys in my group literally said “I hate writing. That’s why I’m a CS major” It might be the case that some STEM students simply aren’t used to the type of writing required of certain GE courses. Also, I think the concept of an “easy A” course is silly. I took a GE that many people said to avoid as it was impossible to get an A. Guess what grade I got? An A. No two students will have the same experience. What’s easy for one student won’t necessarily be easy for another.
Anyway, I agree with other advice suggesting you talk with the TA. I’m sure they would be happy to help.
