Your instructor handed back the test you took last week and
you were shocked by your poor score. If you are emotionally overwhelmed, you
are having a completely normal reaction. But suddenly you realize – you were a
decent student and now your instructor has seen you fail! You are mortified!
The truth is that you shouldn’t be. Instructors who have
been teaching a while know that lots of grades come and go throughout the class
session and one grade isn’t much to be worried about – almost any problem grade
can “go away” in the law of averages (average test scores, average quiz scores,
etc.). Almost every student in every session, no matter how good a student, has
one big stinker of a test or quiz score. In my classes, this is why I allow
students to drop their lowest quiz score (because one bad apple really
shouldn’t spoil the barrel). Typically every teacher has something built-in to
help cover students for a bombed quiz or test: dropping the lowest score,
averaging tests/quizzes, or extra credit to fill in the points you may have
lost.
Are instructors disappointed in you when you score poorly on
a test or quiz? Not at all! If anything, we’re sympathetic to what you must be
feeling. We were all students once and most of us keenly remember the stress of
taking tests as well as getting feedback from those tests.
Instructors also use class-wide quiz and test scores to
assess their own work. For example, if one-third of the class earned an “A” on
the quiz, clearly the test wasn’t the problem. However, if there were no “A”s,
one “B”, and the rest “C” or below, the problem is either the test or the
method of teaching. In this case, the instructor will go back and revisit how
that section of the course was taught and what could be done differently. The
instructor will also likely continue to review that section of material with
the class so you can all master it for the final exam.
Often students think that instructors enjoy seeing students
fail tests and I am here to tell you that is absolutely not the case. Recall
that your teacher is most likely a teacher because they love to teach and share
what they know. Whole classes of students failing tests or quizzes only means that
the teacher hasn’t done a good job of teaching the material and/or preparing
students for what will be on the test. Remember that a test is simply a review
of what you learned and your ability to apply that knowledge.
In the end, a poor grade only means what you make it mean. I
encourage you to make it mean that you will gather data to find out why your
score was low and then find a means to learn what you didn’t know previously
(especially so you can do your best work on the cumulative final exam). If you
choose to make one poor test grade mean that you are a failure as a student or
that you have a terrible teacher, you are only punishing yourself and holding
yourself back from success. So get out there, do your best work, be your best
student, and get the most out of your college experience!
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