I am looking forward to teaching first semester General
Chemistry this coming Fall semester. This is a class I teach almost every year,
and I still look forward to trying a few new things. I’d been thinking about
different ways to help my students succeed in this class, and one item I’ll be
adding to my class web page is a letter from a student in my class last Fall
addressed to my students this Fall. I’m sure I read this idea somewhere, but
doing something about it didn’t click until I passed this student in the
hallway last semester. I remembered her from my class because she was one of
the few students who clearly demonstrated the desire and will to improve. She
had started the class doing rather poorly, had a wake-up call, and
then improved incrementally with each successive exam, and ended up with
a high B in the class (putting her in the top 20%). She came to office hours,
asked good questions, and clearly put in the work needed to master the
material. It was impressive to see her improve. If only more students did this.
Anyway, I thought she would be the right person to write such a
letter, so here it is (redacted for identifying information) and with no guidance from me. I simply asked
her to write about what she did that helped her improve her learning in the
class. I did ask her permission first before posting.
===
Dear [G-Chem I] Student,
Let me start off by saying
congratulations and welcome to [name of institution]! As a past [G-Chem I] student of [Dr. H] I
have been in your exact place and I survived.
I’m sure many of you were like me, in the top of your class and sporting
an exhausting number of AP classes. Let
me tell you from experience that college is a completely new and exciting
challenge. When I first got to college I
was very arrogant thinking that I would continue to obtain easy A’s, but I was
wrong. After getting my first chemistry
test back I realized that college wasn’t going to be a breeze and that I was
going to have to really put in the time to change my study habits in order to
be more successful.
My number one suggestion is take
advantage of office hours! Everyone will
give you this piece of advice and I strongly encourage you to take it. Come prepared with lots of questions. Sometimes even coming and listening to
another student’s questions might make you realize something you missed or give
you a chance to explain the answer.
Being able to fully explain in detail a certain question shows a strong
knowledge of the material. If you aren’t able to teach the topic to someone
else then you should review it until you can.
Also, be sure to do the practice test that [Dr. H] provides as they will
allow you to test yourself and reveal any areas in need of improvement. Looking over notes before and after lecture
will help cement new and challenging material to memory. Take the pop quizzes at the beginning of
class as another way to find weaknesses that may require additional study
time. By studying over time, like this,
studying for an exam wouldn’t be an all-night process but instead it would only
take me an hour or less to quickly review the material. Although I found these strategies beneficial,
it is important to know that there is no definite recipe for a good grade, but
trying a variety of study strategies will help you find what’s best for you.
You all have the ability to be
successful and I hope that somehow you can learn from my failures as well as my
success. I strongly encourage you to explore
study strategies and not to be discouraged if the ones you used previously no
longer give a desirable outcome. Lastly,
don’t let a bad test score make you believe that you can’t be successful;
improvement is definitely possible, and trust me, you can recover.
===
My General Chemistry syllabus regularly includes a section
on “how to study for this course”. Although I point it out to students at least
2-4 times during the course of the semester, I wonder how often students
actually follow the “advice” coming from me. Maybe hearing advice from a fellow
student who was willing to put in the work will make an impact. We’ll see how it goes.
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