The Transitioning Student

By: Alexander Merriweather

When transitioning from high school to college, there are many differences. For example, students won’t be in classes with around 20-30 students. They will be in a classroom with around 100 students with only one teacher. The best way for those students to get an education in this classroom is to sit in the front so they can see the clearest. That way you can receive the best notes and the teacher can actually see your face.

Another difference between high school and college is that professors in college usually grade on a curve rather than leaving the grades be. This changes the students’ goal from “trying to get an ‘A’ in the class” to “I have to beat the curve for a good grade.” Also, this curve is not like the curves in high school, where the highest grade gets curved to 100 and the teacher add that many points to everybody’s grade. This is a bell curve, where the curve is based on the average of the grades. This way, the average is usually considered a ‘C’.

In high school, most students used to studying alone for graded assignments. But in college, they will be placed in dorms where they have people around them taking the same classes as them. So if there is a major test is coming up, they can form study groups to focus more and get the information faster than if they were in a room alone trying to study everything at once. Also, if one student understands one part of the class while the other one doesn’t, that student can go to the other one for help with just a little walking rather than driving and wasting gas.

Transitioning from high school to college can be easy or difficult depending on what the student does. He can slack off and make it difficult or focus and make it easy with the freedom that he has. But once that transition is complete, that’s when the student’s true potential comes out.