by Anthoniette Teschemaker
Many parents encourage their students to do better when they encounter academic difficulties. However, they might need more from you than encouragement to overcome their struggles.
Have a frank conversation with your student. You might find it easy to pinpoint where the student erred, but you might need to be patient as you help your student reach the same conclusion. Remember, your child does not have the benefit of the experience that you do. Help your student identify and analyze the root cause of the problem. Once you’ve accomplished this, help your student come up with ways to address and resolve the situation. Eight ways to accomplish this include:
1. Accepting the Responsibility for the Problem
When they encounter difficulties, students invariably make themselves the victims of the situation. An old proverb declares that a bad workman blames his tools. Similarly, your student would probably find fault with everyone around. This includes the faculty, the subjects, the roommates, the classmates etc. Therefore, your student needs to accept that the problem exists. Then, your student needs to take the ownership of the problem too. This would be the first step toward remedying the situation. It would also ensure that your student avoids the passive approach of waiting for things to get better (they seldom do!).
2. Avoiding the Herd Mentality
Many students heed the advice of their friends and peers. Thus, they end up taking certain subjects or classes because their friends are taking them. These students forget that they have their own interest areas, skills, and strengths. As a result, they struggle to fare well in subjects they have no aptitude for. Therefore, help your students decide on the subjects they need to opt for. Their decisions must be based entirely on their aptitudes, skills, and areas of interest.
3. Planning a Realistic Timetable
Students who fail courses or withdraw from several classes could fall behind in their attempts to earn credits. To compensate, they end up enrolling for extra credits in the coming semester. Get your students to assess the number of credits they could successfully carry during one semester. Also, get them to assess whether they are taking on a heavier load than they can possibly manage. Make them focus on faring well on the few credits they have. This would boost their morale when it comes to taking summer classes or completing an additional semester. In addition, faring well on fewer credits would affect their GPA positively too.
4. Cutting their Losses on Irredeemable Courses
Many students would invariably have one subject on their schedule that makes them sweat. The wiser students would withdraw from the subject if they find that the cons outweigh the pros. Others would adopt the passive approach and wait for their luck to turn. This might make it too late for them to withdraw from the class. Therefore, help your students identify troublesome subjects. Highlight that they could fare better on the new subject with lesser efforts.
5. Checking for the Availability of the Pass/Fail Option
Some colleges enable students to take a certain number of courses on a Pass or Fail basis. This means that students could opt for not receiving a grade on a specific course. However, they would still end up getting the credit for the course, as it would appear as a ‘P’ or an ‘F’ on their transcript. Thus, it would not affect their Grade Point Average (GPA). Encourage your students to capitalize on this option, if available.
6. Converting Incomplete Grades into Quality Grades
Occasionally, students could receive an "Incomplete" grade for a course at the end of a semester. This indicates that they would need to complete the course for getting their final grades. By the time the next semester commences, many students conveniently forget about their "Incomplete" grade. They forget that, after a certain period, the institute would convert the "Incomplete" grade into an ‘F’ grade. This would have a negative impact on the students’ GPA. Therefore, ascertain whether your students have any "Incomplete" grades. If yes, urge them to complete all the pending coursework.
7. Repeating Failed Courses
No one likes failure—including college students. Therefore, if they fail a course, they would hardly want to revisit it. However, some colleges replace (even if partially) the old score with the new one. Having studied for the course earlier, the students would usually be able to fare better in their second attempt. An improved score could well result in an improved GPA.
8. Seeking Help When Needed
Most colleges offer various kinds of support to struggling students, such as tutoring services etc. Students encountering academic difficulties often end up rejecting avenues of help. Help your students overcome their apprehensions and avail of these services. Seeking help is a more meaningful solution than waiting for things to resolve themselves. Also, encourage your students to meet their professors, advisors and academic support personnel regularly. These professionals have the best interests of your students at heart and would want to help them succeed.
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