It’s the night before your big paper is due. You’ve been working on the paper all week. Now you are finally putting the final touches on your masterpiece. Paper is perfect. Miss Ahmed is going to love this paper. She has to give it an A. The next day in class you turn in your paper. As you place your paper in the stack of papers satisfaction fills your body. You smile as you leave class because of the amount of hard work you put into this paper. This is a good start to college. I’m definitely getting into whatever great law school my parents talked about. Now they’ll shut up about me being a lazy good for nothing.
Fast forward to a week and a half later when Miss Ahmed hands out the graded papers. Right before she hands out the papers Miss Ahmed mentions how she went easy on the class. Whatever I don’t need her to go easy for me to get an A. You receive your paper. It’s a D minus. You’re in complete shock. You feel like Mike Tyson just punched you in the stomach. Everything you thought was great was mediocre or horrible. Forget law school. Can you even stay in college? You forgot everything she told you not to do. You screwed up the oxford comma, quoting, and how to use I feel. You walk back to your dorm in utter disappoint.
Everybody has felt disappointment in school. Although this story exaggerates our feelings I know everyone can relate to this story. I know I have been disappointed with the grade I have received after putting hard work into it. Which is why I always get nervous before conferences. I think I do a great job but then Miss Ahmed finds so many mistakes in it. Then I return to my dorm thinking of ways to reach her expectations. When was the last time you were really disappointed with a grade on an assignment? Describe the experience and how you respond to it. Or do you get nervous before a conference or maybe frustrated afterwords? Let everyone know! Share your experiences below.
I personally love the conferences and was a little disappointed we didn't get them on the last paper because if gives us a chance for her to read through our paper and point out small details that will fix or correct our paper. Every teacher is completely different on how they grade and that in its self is hard to succeed at until you know how the teacher wants your paper written. I think we all now have figured out that Mrs. Ahmed is more into informal, interesting and grammatically correct papers vs formal, boring, properly structured papers. This is easy to some, but for me it's kind of hard because all my life I've been taught the "correct" way to write a paper, jus to come to this class and be told it's wrong. It's definitely confusing but hopefully we all have learned our lessons and can now write beautifully composed essays that Mrs. Ahmed will love :)
ReplyDeleteWow.... I have felt the same way as you do exactly. I do not realize what I do wrong on my paper until she brings it up. Writing has been so troublesome for me. And I wasn't looking forward to this class. I do now because I feel I am part of new family that I call my English. Still, I think that I can't do well in this class. I wish I could. I find it hard to take the "extra step" in order to get an A in this class. All my other classes I currently (to my knowledge) have As. It's just English that has almost all the time been a road block to my "perfect" success as a student anywhere.
ReplyDeleteI personally love conferences. After getting a B- on my first paper I have been living in her office during office hours or after class. Even though it has become a lot of work to get an A it is worth it when I see how much my writing is improving. Going to her for advice on a paper not only helps me with that paper, but I am remembering the ideas when it comes to writing the next paper.
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way with a lot of my work. Maybe not just essays, with tests and other assignments as well. It totally sucks because while waiting for your grade you feel great, then you finally get it and you are totally let down. For my writing I already doubt myself a lot so when I receive the paper I am usually not surprised or the grade is mildly better than expected (very rare). Sometimes overconfidence can be bad though because in the end you will end up bring disappointed rather than satisfied. I am extremely nervous for my next conference because I know that my next paper is really awful and Miss Ahmed is most likely going to tear it to pieces. But I am going in expecting the worst, so maybe it will be okay.
ReplyDeleteYea sometimes I feel like that. I always put so much work into any essay that I've written because I strive for that amazing grade. Putting hours of work into one essay has to be enough, the world can't expect us to put more especially if you’re taking four other classes. Most of my time goes to this class even though all my other classes I need a B to stay in my major, I have no time to read for those classes because I have to re read my essay a thousand times to look for mistakes and make it flow better. All of this time that I put into it is ok, it is a college class and it is a writing class. Then I get my paper back and it has a B on it. I feel like everything I worked for is shot down and I have to put even more hours into my essays. Good thing the class is fun! :)
ReplyDeletei love conferences! not only do we get to miss class but we get the teacher's opinion on our paper. Its a relief knowing what exactly you're doing wrong and what you need to fix. There's nothing worse than feeling lost or clueless. I ve felt shocked like that before but i guess it happens to all of us at some point.
ReplyDeleteI don't get upset, disappointed, or beat myself up in English class. I used to in middle school but i came to terms with the fact that English is not my strong suit and I don't read or write well. So I always just expect the worst when it comes to English class and I am never disappointed. The last time i was really disappointed with a grade was this year in Chemistry. I got an F on the first test. And I got all of the stupid simple stuff wrong while the hard math problems i aced. So i beat myself up mentally for a few days thinking about that. Even though a long time ago i told myself i would never beat myself up mentally over a poor grade again. I beat myself up mentally because I felt like I had let my dad down as well as myself. But i've come to terms with it now. I love conferences and i don't get nervous before them. I go in with the attitude that Ms. Ahmed is going to tear my paper to pieces and mark up ever page from head to toe. Which is just fine by me. I have no problem with constructive criticism. Some people don't take kindly to it but in all reality the person giving you the constructive criticism is only trying to help. Just because your entire paper is marked with red ink from top to bottom doesn't mean you're dumb or anything like that, it just needs work.
ReplyDeleteYeah I can totally relate to that story...I absolutely can't stand it when you turn something in and think you've done A work but then get it back and you got a C or a D. It sucks...But I think life is all just trial and error. And that brings me to writing. I don't think I'm a great writer by any means and going to the conference actually excites me because I know I'll get help and be able to make my paper better. I want to get all the information I can when I go in!
ReplyDeleteYeah I can second that. I hate that feeling where you genuinely believe you have written your best work and a true master piece only to be shown otherwise by your grade. I thought my first paper was the best paper I've ever written, but i ended up with a b- :( I've always gotten an A in english so this is disappointing. As far as conferences go, I do not mind them. True they can be nerve racking but at least it gives us a chance to hear her input.
ReplyDeleteYou are definitely not alone. I am nervous before conferences and am disappointed because I see just how much more work i have to do onto of all the work I have already done. However, they are super helpful and really take my paper to the next level. I have not yet turned in a paper that i am 100% happy with. I feel like my papers always have room for improvement, but I just have to get to a point where I am satisfied with it. So I do not necessarily feel like I have turned in a masterpiece, but rather a piece that I am proud to call my own. And while the disappointment that you wrote of and what we have all surely felt at one point or another can be very beneficial. You feel like you were just stampeded over, but because of it you try so much harder to avoid that feeling, that by the second go-around you feel overjoyed.
ReplyDeleteCollege is hard because there are no longer the dumb kids like in high school that help the curve. I have never had to work so hard to get decent grades. It does suck when I turn in an essay in this class that I have been working on for weeks and get a lower grade then the essay that I wrote last minute for another class. College is hard and it has taken me a while to really understand that. I can no longer get away with not doing homework or studying. It sucks.
ReplyDeleteI personally love the conferences. When I went into my last conference, I had writers block and I had no idea where to go. After the conference, I came out completely enlightened. Ms. Ahmed gave me a direction to go in and I went with it! I do know how you feel though, my last economics test I went in a bit shaky on things. I submitted the test thinking that I would get a C...but it didn't quite turn out that way. I cried my whole way home from the stadium to my mom saying how awful it was. As freshman, we are still learning from our mistakes. Hopefully you will do great on this next paper and I will get a good grade on my next economics test.
ReplyDeleteEvery time I think I fail something, I passed, and everytime I think I passed, I fail. I dont know how it happens it just does. I think its more that I convince myself that I did better or worse than I really did. With this paper especially, I'm putting in so much time into writing this essay, but every time I reread it, it looks like crap. Maybe I'm just used to thinking its worse than it really is because it always is worse than I thought. Yay for disappointment.
ReplyDeleteI don’t want to sound like a slacker but I’m never too worried about it. I do the best I can do on my papers and hope that they get a good grade. The paper before last (position shift essay) was an eye opening experience for me. I decided to take a risk and format my paper in an odd way. I wrote as if I was writing in my journal over a few years. I wasn’t sure if she would like this but I decided I thought this was the way I could convey my point the best. I really just wanted to write the best paper I could write. I’m not sure what she thought about this paper but the funny thing is I’m really not too worried about it. I obviously want to make a good grade; however I know I wrote the best paper I could write even though I did take quite a big risk. Hopefully it will work out towards helping me earn an A in this class but if not, no worries. I’m happy with my work.
ReplyDeleteI love the conferences because they do help. I do get a little disappointed on assignments i don't do as good as i thought i should have, but not too bad. I tried my best and if someone doesn't think it was good enough, it wasn't to them. I'll take advice from them but i won't get worked up because what's done is done. I'll try again and hopefully do better. That is all i can ask in myself or else i would freak out from stress. Doing poorly sucks but mistakes make you better in the end and are stepping stone to achieving a great work.
ReplyDeleteThe last time I felt an utter disappointment in my grade was last night. I received a 64 on my family relations exam. I was in a state of shock to say the least. I thought was going to get at least an A, if not a 100. I went in to the exam getting A's on every single one of my practice quizzes, feeling very confident going in to the exam. I thought the exam was very similar to the practice quizzes. I left the exam feeling that I could get no better than an A. Then BOOM! I check my grade yesterday I get a 60 fucking 4! I am lost on how I am going to get my grade up but I am confident I will put in the time and effort to do so.
ReplyDeleteI personally love the conferences. I dont get too nervous before them. I know that they are meant to help me so why get nervous? I was a little disappointed after getting my first paper back though. I dont know, I thought that I did pretty good and I was really proud of my paper. But when I got it back I was like "oh maybe I didnt do as good as I thought I did." I know that my grade was still pretty good. I just thought I did better. Because of the first paper I have been trying a lot harder with my other papers. Hopefully they are better than the first.
ReplyDeleteI'm always disappointed with my grades for my computer class. The graders take off points for the stupidest things. You have to follow directions off a word document which aren't always clear. I usually go to a conference feeling good and then leave disappointed. I think my second paper was a lot better than my first paper though. This third paper I'm not so sure, it could go either way. I beat myself up over every subject because I'm really hard on myself. I compare myself to my friends that do really well in school. And if I don't do as good as them, I feel like a failure. I also constantly have the pressure of my parents to do well. Success is the only way to go!
ReplyDeleteI know the feeling all too well. In high school I always put my best foor forward and sometimes it was just never enough. The thing is that life is all about second chance. It's not how many blows you take that defines you. But rather, its how you still manage to stand up afterwards. Although my grades steadily fluctuate and I don't make the best grades, I try my hardest to always do better the next time.
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