Final Exam Essay

As 10 points on your final exam, you will be asked to write an essay in response to ONE of the following students.Your essay should be written before the exam and turned in when you come in to take the exam.Essays should be typed and double-spaced.
If you do not turn in your essay as you come in to take your exam, you may write it during the exam time, but there will be a five-point deduction.

Below is a description of several students at Wattsammatta U. None of the students has taken a learning strategies course, and each of the students is struggling in at least one class. You have the advantage of having completed a learning strategies course. Your assignment is to choose one student and to give specific advice so that he/she can improve his/her chances of being a successful student.You are not limited to giving advice about obvious problems the student has.Your job is to teach him/her at least three strategies to improve his chances,

Mathis Hale

Mathis Hale and his friend Polly Nomial are enrolled in Dr. Will Adsum’s Intermediate Algebra class. Polly has passed every test. Mathis has yet to pass a test. Mathis missed several classes at the beginning of the semester. He used Polly’s homework to catch up.Most of the time Mathis understands what Dr. Adsum says in class, but when he gets his homework right before the next class period, he has trouble getting the right answers.He spends at least 30 minutes a week working the homework problems he can figure out. He has missed only four more classes since the beginning, and he had good excuses for those. What advice do you have for Mathis? Write an essay in which you teach at least three things you have learned in your learning strategies class that will improve his chances for passing math, if not this semester, next semester.

 

Justin Time

Justin Time has just begun his second semester at Watts ammata U. Justin plans to major in corporate finance so that he can become the next Donald Trump.Yet Justin has always been disorganized. He is always late for class, has trouble finding his materials, and at times has even forgotten to attend his classes. Justin rarely studies for an exam until the night before a test. He finishes English compositions, but ”just in time”(about an hour before it is due.)He knows how important it is to work and study regularly, but he has trouble getting started. His social life interferes quite frequently with his study time. When he does start to study, he is often distracted and turns on the TV after the first half hour or so. Until now, last minute cramming has enabled him to earn low, but passing grades. This semester, however, his grades have fallen steadily, and next month he faces five exams within a three-day period. At this point, his chances of becoming the next Donald Trump are looking slim. Write an essay in which you teach Justin at least three things you have learned in your learning strategies class that will improve his chances of reaching his goals. 

 
 

Skip Class

This is Skip’s first semester at Watts Ammatta U. His least favorite class is History 1020 which meets Monday /Wednesday Friday at 10 o’clock. Skipis on the traveling squad for the football team, a real honor for a freshman.Skip is not sure what he wants out of college other than to play football and possibly make the pros.The coach assures Skip that football trips are excused absences, so when the squad leaves before 9a.m. on Fridays, he doesn’t bother to let his history professor, Dr.Olden Days, know he will not be there, nor does he ask about make up work.He vaguely remembers something in the syllabus about the possibility of going to an 8 o’clock class and the policy for work missed in an “official” capacity.On three separate occasions, the bus leaves at noon on Friday, but Skip misses class because his name in on the official list, and he can count it as an official absence.Skip is injured in one game and misses class on the following Monday and Wednesday because he really doesn’t feel like going to class.After all, everyone knows that professors give athletes special consideration. Skip is behind in his work. He is too tired after practice to do much studying, but does go to required “study hall” an hour four times a week. Write an essay in which you teach Skip at least three strategies to improve his chances of being successful not only in his history class, but at Watts Ammatta U.

 

Shirley Fraggled

Shirley is a single mother with two small children. She wants to become a teacher. After several years of believing that she couldn’t attend college, she obtained financial aid, and her sister has agreed to watch the children while Shirley is in class.One of her first classes is Dr. Kind's Foundations in Education class. Things go well until one Monday morning her sister calls and says she is sick and tells Shirley not to bring the children. Shirley stays home with her children.The following week her youngest child is sick, and she misses class to take her to the doctor.The following week,  Shirley misses class for a doctor’s appointment of her own. And the following week she misses in order to go to court-- a dispute with her ex-boyfriend over custody of the children. When Shirley misses classes, she reads her textbook assignments, but she has trouble remembering what she reads. And although she listens in class, she has trouble with Dr. Kind’s test and is really behind. Dr. Kind is a very nice person, and Shirley thinks even though she hasn’t made up all the work, she will understand and pass her anyway. Write an essay in which you teach Shirley at least three strategies that you learned in Learning Strategies that will enable her to do better even when Dr. Kind doesn’t give her a passing grade.


  Candice Waite


Candice Waite is a sophomore at Wattsammata U. Candice was not really proud of her grades from her first two semesters. She had to work so many hours that she didn’t always make time for the studying as much as she should. She thought a possible solution would be to take some of her classes on campus and two of them on line. Six weeks into the semester, she is up to date with the work required in the courses on campus. However, she has completed only one module of the ten required or the on line history course and has not started the on-line psychology course. Write an essay in which you teach Candice at least three strategies to improve her chances of being successful not only in her online, but at Wattsammatta U.
 

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