Week 5 News

Hello!

Phew, Week 4 was quite a week. I know many of you were juggling multiple exams in addition to the POLS exam–and that is no easy task.

The semester is definitely in full swing, and you may be feeling the stress. A professor once told me, “If you feeling overwhelmed, that means you’re actually learning and advancing your skills.” That applies not only to your course content but also to your time management skills, study habits, and “adulting” abilities.

If you have time, I suggest rewatching the 2-minute video we watched on the first day of class about how our brains rewire themselves. It can be encouraging to know that something that was once very difficult becomes, over time and with practice, second nature.

COMM

We will be doing a review for your COMM Writing Response–Unit II on Tuesday. (The writing responses are on Thursday.) I will email you the review packet, and I encourage you to look it over this weekend.

POLS

Quick reminder: Mindtap is due by 8 AM (Chapter 4).

The exams. Dr. Huerta has posted exam grades and a few important announcements:

• Students are encouraged to view their exam results with Seminar Professors. A schedule of dates and times will be posted.
• Students need to visit with Dr. Huerta IF
  • they took the exam, and their grade is not posted. This happens when students forget to bubble in their name on the scantron.
  • a student has a grade of 26 or below, it could mean the exam was placed in the incorrect version stack.
• We will post the dates for Make-Up and Re-Take Exams on Blackboard. Typically, they are scheduled for a Friday afternoon.

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I was able view the scores myself. I realize that some of you may be disappointed or surprised by your score. I am sincerely sorry if you are in that boat. (**hugs**) If you scored below a 65, please consider taking a re-take and reviewing Dr. Huerta’s re-take policy on his syllabus.

Additionally, let’s spend some class time over the next few weeks and talk about how we can adapt to his tests moving forward. I imagine that in many cases, the issue is not of intelligence but in note-taking, test-prep, and test-taking methods/skills.

Now we know what these exams look like, so let’s work from that and not just learn the material but also learn the test. Finally, we can spend time during class to do quick reviews of any examples Dr. Huerta mentioned in lectures since we now know that examples, large and small, appear on the tests.

With this test, or any test, it’s important to keep the big picture in mind, too. This is one of many, many tests/essays/presentations you will have in your college career, meaning you will get more opportunities to earn the grades you desire, and I have total faith that you will do just that.

If you are pleased with your score, congratulations! Regardless of how you performed on the test, however, I’m proud of all of you for making it through the week and putting in so much effort.

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Photo Dominik Rešek on Unsplash; @drjennhardy via Instagram