Things I learned During My Undergraduate Degree & Tips to Do Well in University Part 2 (Professor’s and GA’s)

Note: As I am writing this post, I just wanted to mention that I have recently been offered a Graduate Assistant-ship position (which I have accepted) while doing my Master’s degree. (Side Note: If your someone is doing their Master’s Degree or is considering doing it, then you may want to check this post out. Why Did I Decide To Come Back and Do My Master’s?). The Assistant-ship position requires me to work so many hours per semester, and some of the things I will be doing is marking papers, offering advice to students, and preparing students for exams, etc. However, the biggest thing with this position is that it ultimately helps pay for my Master’s degree and I will be making some good money on the side 😉

Now that I have mentioned my Graduate Assistant-ship position, today’s post is going to be all about Professor’s and Graduate Assistant’s and how they can make the difference between an A- student and an A student! If you haven’t already checked out Part 1 of our series on the Things, I Learned During My Undergraduate Degree & Tips to Do Well in University, then be sure to get caught up before you start on this post!

Professor’s and Graduate Assistant’s have many roles when it comes to a student’s education and performance. Professor’s and Graduate Assistant’s are responsible for lecturing, marking papers, holding office hours, providing students with support, and ultimately interacting with students. As an undergraduate student, I learned that seeking out professor’s and GA’s is one of the most important things in determining if your going to perform better as a student (e.g., getting better grades). A lot of the times professor’s and GA’s can provide you with substantial amount of help for assignments, exams and studying techniques. I know for myself… especially this past year, I would consistently seek out professor’s and GA’s for help. The reason being is because their were a lot of assignments that were worth a big portion of my grade and I wanted to perform very well on them. Some of these assignments, I had “no clue” how to do or some of them I just wanted to make sure I was doing things the right way (as in how the professor wanted it). Now, it’s important to keep in mind, things weren’t always this way. I know for my first year and maybe my second year as well, I rarely ever seek out professor’s or GA’s for any sorta help. And ultimately that was a bit of a mistake, as it hindered my overall performance as a student. However, my tip to you here is you should always seek out help from a professor or a GA when you are in doubt about something or don’t understand something. The reason being is because you don’t want to fail or do bad on an assignment or exam that may be worth 25% of your total grade. So, don’t ever be afraid of approaching a GA or even a professor with a question because they are usually always willing to offer you help! However, do keep in mind, please be respectful of their time and don’t annoy them to much because they could begin to dislike you. What I mean by annoy them is don’t seek help out from them when they are busy in their office. Rather, set-up an appointment through email or attend their office hours.

Moving on, another thing about professor’s and graduate assistants is that they are usually responsible for marking your exams, assignments, quizzes, etc., and sometimes these professor’s and GA’s will make mistakes. They may make a marking error, or they may mark a question wrong when it is right, or they may just not add up the total marks properly. It’s unfortunate, but mistakes do happen like this from time to time. We all do it, and you can’t blame the GA or even the professor for this. The problem is though, a lot of students never go into office hours to check their exams or assignments. Once, they get their grades back, they usually just accept them and move on. However, they don’t realize that their mark may be off or it may be incorrect. For instance, this past semester, I went in to see my professor so that I could go over my exam. After, going over the exam, I noticed that two multiple choice questions were marked wrong when they were right. Keep in mind this class had about 100 people in it. So, after showing the professor this mistake, he changed my mark, as well as the rest of the class. I ended up going up 7%(from an 83 to a 90) on a 25% midterm. That’s not too bad, I must say ;). However, if I never went in to see my exam, then I would have never gotten that extra 7% on the exam, and my overall total grade wouldn’t be as good. Now, these are some of the things you’re going to have to do if you want to get an A instead of an A-. It makes a difference to go into office hours and see your exams because you never know when a mistake can be made and will go unnoticed.

Another thing with office hours is that when you approach a GA or professor about a question on your exam, there are times where you can debate with them if you put the right answer or wrong. Sometimes answers to questions are on the “fence”(meaning they could be right or wrong depending on how you look at it) and these questions often get marked wrong. However, if you are very good at framing answers a certain way, you could potentially convince the professors or GA to give you the mark. This is another way students will try to upgrade, and it’s smart because I have seen many of my friends do this and for the most party they will usually walk out with a few extra marks. If not, well, then you may have wasted about 5 minutes of yours and their time, but hey, you got nothing to lose by trying to talk a professor or GA into giving you a mark that may be right? Just keep in mind that you want to be very respectful of the professor or GA, but you also need to be good at “framing” as well.

Lastly, the biggest thing with students though is that they need to be motivated to do well and they can’t be afraid of approaching a professor or GA about an exam, assignment or a specific question. The reason being is because if they are afraid of asking a question or they just aren’t motivated, then these students will be the one’s ending up with maybe an A- instead of A or a B instead of a B+.

So, my last bit of advice to you is to seek out professors, GA’s or even any sort of external help as much as you can, especially if you are unsure or are struggling with something! I can tell you that, it will make a difference and unfortunately for myself… I didn’t realize this until about 2nd and 3rd year.

All the best to your learning and education!

Remi