Reasons students fail

Parent Cafe
1

<p>There are a number of possible reasons you may get failing grades in school. I've combined them into classifications, for better analysis:</p>

<p>Subject matter:-
Subject material was too difficult
Did not learn required material in previous classes
Pace was too fast</p>

<p>Teacher:-
Couldn't understand the teacher's explanations
Teacher had a heavy foreign accent
Didn't like the teacher
Teacher didn't like the student</p>

<p>School skills:-
Have trouble doing homework
Froze up in tests
Goofed off</p>

<p>Skipped class:-
Didn't do homework
Didn't pay attention in class</p>

<p>Have champion attitudes:-
Wanted to punish parents
Fear of success
Don't like the subject
Don't like school
Bored</p>

2

<p>Oh there are so many others. How about:</p>

<p>*<em>classes didn’t cover what was on the tests
*</em>TA: tough, tough, tough grader
** TA didn’t help/confusing
**Didn’t work hard “enough”</p>

3

<p>Bite off more than you could chew. Took more credits than you could handle.
Often done because it might save money.
Not so much.</p>

4

<p>Grading and test policies - if Prof. A is 90% tests and 10% homeworks, while Prof. B. is 60% tests, 20% project, and 20% homework, it’s a lot easier to fail in a winner-take-all midterm or final than to fail when multiple tests are required and non-test assignments make up a good part of the final grade.</p>

5

<p>Or the other way around – a smart but lazy student may do fine on tests, but may procrastinate too much on term projects.</p>

<p>Another reason that students do poorly in college is that their high school preparation is inadequate (high school did not have very high standards and student was not motivated in high school to learn material in greater depth and/or breadth than what the high school required for A grades).</p>

6

<p>Poor choice of a textbook, or no textbook at all.</p>

7

<p>Other common reasons:
Mental illness
Physical illness (think mono)
Drinking/partying
Staying up all night and not getting up for morning classes</p>

8

<p>^Staying up all night with bf/gf and not getting up for morning classes ;)</p>

9

<p>My mother was discouraged from fields she liked and was good at in the 1940’s- ie math and engineering. She spent her time socializing instead of studying evenings and had to drop out- was tops in a good WI HS. Lack of motivation is a major problem leading to many of the above bad habits. I noticed many of the reasons listed are actually excuses for the student to not have done the job. A lot of blame on outside forces when it is the student’s own fault.</p>

10

<p>Just plain skipped classes. (Too much partying the night before, feeling unprepared, too involved in ECs, etc.). Classes too early for late nights.</p>

<p>And then: skipped the final. (Yikes! Why bother?)</p>

<p>Too much time on a video gaming console and not in front of the books.</p>

11

<p>Very bright but chronically disorganized, so no longer able to skate by when the workload intensifies.</p>

12

<p>Doesn’t understand a concept in class or on a hw assignment but is too proud/embarrassed to ask for help so they just fall further behind.</p>

<p>Doesn’t seek out help from available sources on campus (writing center, etc.)</p>

13

<p>

</p>

<p>Or not reading the textbook(s)…</p>

<p>I remember that getting to the campus bookstore early before classes started meant being able to buy the used textbooks that were barely opened. (Of course, now students may want to comparison shop on web bookstores because they may have the same book new cheaper than the campus bookstore offers it used.)</p>

14

<p>TA is an idiot</p>

15

<p>Student simply not capable of college level work.</p>

16

<p>Students fail for ONE reason: they do not work hard enough. There is no difficult classes in American HS, none, zero. Actually many fail or do not do up to their potential because they are bored with all the useless paper work that has no purpose whatsoever.
Moving to college. There are 2 reasons: not prepared enough in HS and do not work hard enough.</p>

17

<p>Poor time management</p>

18

<p>Inability or not disciplined to focus for long periods of time to do the hundreds of pages of required reading with comprehension.
Many students cannot sit and read long, dense, complex passages.
They get frustrated, give up, and try to find an explanation of what they are reading online.
High schools are not preparing students how to do complex analysis of academic texts.</p>

<p>Thinking they will make good grades with what worked in high school, mainly plug and chug for math and science classes and b-s-ing their way through essays.</p>

<p>Magical thinking that they can study and do homework on Sundays while they are sobering up.
The best way to sober up is to sleep.
Plan accordingly and do homework/study before you start your weekend drinking.</p>

19

<p>Student is an idiot.</p>

20

<p>College definitely needs adjustment even for very top caliber students. But UG is not extremely complex, maybe a bit closer to being complex in engineering majors. UG is not HS, but it is also not Grad. School material either. Hard working person can do it, even if HS does not prepare sufficiently. Hard working person will realize the gaps and will fill them with tutoring, profs office hours, studying in groups…etc. There is a lot of help abvailable at no additional cost at every college, for those who are willing to seek help.</p>