<p>Before college, my son attended schools that never graded. In college, of course, he's getting those grades for the first time.</p>
<p>He's maintaining reasonably well at his LAC (a solid B-average), but is confused as to what it takes to get an A or what the difference is between an A- and a B+. He's also learning, for the first time, about the subjective nature of grades (one professor will say that you can only earn an A if you write a paper better than he can; one will dole them out). He's getting scared because other students are telling him that if you don't get all As, you won't get a good job. (!?#X!)</p>
<p>We told him to take his papers to his professors and just ask them what the difference is--what did he leave out, what should he have added, etc. Any other advice?</p>
<p>Most schools have some sort of writing or tutoring center that students can go to with specific questions or just general ones. His question is nothing new to them - he should try there.</p>
<p>And no, he doesn't need all A's to get into grad school or a good job, just like he didn't need grades to get into college. The Career Center may also be able to ease his mind on that score.</p>
<ol>
<li>Yes, go to the prof and ask what additional information or style would make a B paper an A paper.</li>
<li>Ask the prof. if there are previous tests from the course available to study and how to obtain them.</li>
<li>Go to the prof.'s office hours and get to know the prof. Ask questions about any material you do not fully understand.
4.Ask the prof. if there is any chance of extra credit in that class but only if you are willing to put in the time to do it. Extra credit can raise your grade.</li>
<li>Find/ or try to put together a study group of students in your class that you can go over material with. They may see something in the material you don't.</li>
<li>Go to the college counseling/writing center and get help. Often times they will have old tests, tutors, or people willing to go over a draft of your paper to help polish it up. This is very useful early on in college in case your writing is not exactly up to other students levels. Get a handle on this early and it will help you for all 4 yrs.</li>
</ol>
<p>Good luck. It is really all about each prof.s personal style and figuring it out as early as possible in the course.</p>
<p>Many colleges have guides to writing in different subjects, sometimes for specific courses.
These guides give tips for selecting topics, doing research, evaluating evidence, structuring the essay, presenting an argument, and so on.
Some guides I remember (they were linked to our hs's website) were from Purdue and Cornell.
If your son's college has a writing center, he should take one of his papers there and ask for an evaluation. What were the strengths? weaknesses? How well did he frame his thesis statement? Were his sources adequate? appropriate? Did he consider alternative or counter interpretations? Did he eschew colloquial language? Did he make other stytlistic mistakes? A good idea would be to try to rewrite the paper after getting feedback. It's time consuming, but it could be very worthwhile.</p>