Taking Every Course Seriously

When one of the authors was a freshman he witnessed an unbelievable event one of his high school classmates was flunked out at the end of the freshman year. The classmate was an excellent student in high school. At the time the university had a rule anyone who failed two-thirds of the courses taken was automatically dismissed. He virtually failed every course he had taken, not just math and science courses but also general education courses. What had happened Well he was observed to cruise around campus in his new scooter with a new friend every week riding on the back He hardly studied was too busy enjoying the newfound freedom as a college fteshman. 

What one learns ftom this story is one can fail any course in college. There is no easy course in college. A common fallacy for civil engineering students is to beheve only math, sciences, and engineering courses are hard and everything else is easy. The authors had studied freshman retention by examining the records student by student and found there are 

One should approach every course with the understanding that one can fail and should take it seriously. But how First of all, you should not fight the course. We often heard students complain oh, the course was boring, I am not interested. Well the course is put on your curriculum for a reason. Please do not second-guess the wisdom of your faculty who designed your curriculum every time you feel you are not interested in the subject matter of a course. Practically speaking, you just need to excel in the course, interested or not, and the first step in that direction is to know the requirements of the course. 

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