Midterms may be over, but Andrew Brewick, director of Academic Advising said the high stress week allows for reflection and evaluation on how students are doing.
“A lot of students have four or five exams spread across a 10 day period, which is pretty intense,” Brewick said. “What I would suggest to students is to be conscious of their midterm grades, to make sure that they are checking them.”
UI junior Chris Guarino said midterms are always stressful, but this term went well. Guarino said he is in the Integrated Business Curriculum program.
“This is definitely the toughest year that I’ve had school-wise. It’s a different program, very team oriented and they really stack the work on top of you,” Guarino said. “I withdrew from one class a few weeks ago because it was too much for my workload, English 215.”
Guarino said his advice for fellow students is to get a solid base in the beginning of the semester rather than trying to catch up later on.
Brewick spoke to Guarino’s performance concerns.
“There is this interesting tension, which is we hear from students that they want more feedback from faculty members and then we hear from faculty members that they do a great deal of work to post midterm grades and the students don’t look at them, so somewhere in the middle there is the sweet spot,” Brewick said.
Brewick said if students are not succeeding at midterm, they should work with their professors and, if appropriate, talk to academic and financial aid
advisers about withdrawing from any courses that cannot be salvaged.
“What we try to do is make sure that midterm grades are posted with ample time for the students to make a decision about whether or not they are capable of moving a grade from a D or an F to a B or a C, and if not they have until the withdrawal deadline to withdraw from that course and focus their energy on their remaining courses,” Brewick said. “Obviously a withdrawal credit is not as good as earning an A or a B or theoretically a C in a course, however the withdrawal activity allows the student to say ‘this was not the right term for me to take this course.'”
Brewick said there is a stigma surrounding withdrawal credits, but they are fairly standard and most undergraduates have them.
He said withdrawals only effect a student’s future if they have a pattern of withdrawing from classes, meaning one or two classes every semester. He said this sends a different message. “What we have found is that most students have between three and seven withdrawal credits when they graduate, which means that those are students which have used them precisely how we’d like them to use them,” Brewick said.
He said midterm grades are an integral part of advising and are a great motivator for students to study harder the rest of the semester.
“What we hope is that the midterm grade will be at least one letter grade lower than the final grade,” Brewick said. “However, in many cases the midterm grade is a perfect indication of what the final grade is supposed to be.”
Brewick said midterms align with the advising season, so when students see their advisers they can talk about the next semester, but also address any concerns with the ongoing term.
But, he said, there is a lot more advisers could do if they knew the opinions of students on their advising experience.
He said there is a survey available for students at www.uidaho.edu/advisingsurvey, which he will use to refine the advising approach to fit the needs of the students. “This is a tremendous opportunity for students to share their advising experiences in a confidential survey that will matter,” Brewick said.
Aaron Wolfe can be reached at [email protected]