Thursday, September 13, 2007

Eight legs? Keep your hopes up!

The spiders struggle to sustain their resistance to my swatter. I may have to bring in the chemical weapons soon enough.


I wanted to opine about something often commented on and rumored here at Ross. There's rampant speculation as to the attrition/failure rate here in DA. But I've seen very few people point out all the resources available to students at this school, or the persistence with which certain offices peddle their services, all of which are aimed at the success of students.

There are free peer tutoring sessions, guided small-group study, one-on-one study & test-taking help, computer-based test skills practice, and counseling services, etc. There's also a plethora of student and service organizations that share experiences, knowledge, and tips as they further students both socially and professionally. And all of this is on top of the generally open attitude of the students of previous semesters, as well as teachers and TAs, on how best to succeed on exams, and life here on the island in general.

As with everything in life, if you don't, first, search it out, and second, do the work, you won't get the benefits. But like I said, they do a good job here of actually reaching out to students and introducing all the available services.

Don't get me wrong, it's tough. There's an amazing amount of material that's covered in a relatively short amount of time. And sometimes I still feel like I don't know what I'm doing. But the more I learn about how to study, how to learn better, the more effective and comfortable I feel. But I guess we'll see what it's all about at the end of the first Mini. If nothing else, I've learned that spiders are pretty darned fast.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Spiders might be fast, but how do they compare with the proliferation of mealy bugs? Weeks later, I am still finding the (thakfully dead) in the most unlikely places(jacuzzi and Mac computer).