By: Jaclyn Jones
It’s halfway through the semester, your midterm grades are back and you’re not thrilled… but there is hope for bringing it up.
The most important thing is to go to office hours. Very few people actually do it but when you’re confused, who else is better to go to than your professor for help? There have been 3 classes where for which I have gone regularly. Nothing terrible has happened, my ego was not bruised and it took very little time to get the information cleared up. It is so much more efficient to go to office hours than try and figure it out on your own if you are getting frustrated. This is also a great way to build a relationship with your professor. If they see you are trying very hard, at the end of the semester, they will be more willing to help you with your final grade if you are right on a cutoff. Do not be afraid of emailing them about a different time to meet if it is scheduled when you cannot go.Via FastWeb
The second thing you could do is start a study group. The key here is that someone has to take the lead on it for the semester and make sure time is booked to meet and, of course, this needs to be a time for studying, not complaining about the class.
The last thing I would resort to is getting a tutor. This option can be expensive, so before paying for a tutor, see if the department provides tutors for free. Especially in the beginner courses, they are more likely to have extra helpers. (The math department also has a tutoring office in the JC if you need help with that specifically!) The best part is that they are free. Looking for a tutor outside of university provided ones will be slightly more work. The best place to look is online or on bulletin boards.
My last pro-tip is online help. If you have a Chegg account there are people on there that you can ask question too for free and even get a tutor for extra fees. You also cannot go wrong with other online resources like Khan Academy. These I would not say are the best because they are not one-on-one. I would only recommend these if a little bit of help is needed because it will still be heavily self -guided.
Good luck with the rest of the semester!