{"id":21937,"date":"2014-10-20T14:01:38","date_gmt":"2014-10-20T18:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=21937"},"modified":"2014-10-20T14:01:38","modified_gmt":"2014-10-20T18:01:38","slug":"total-test-result-turmoil-or-how-the-academic-success-center-can-save-your-neck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2014\/10\/20\/total-test-result-turmoil-or-how-the-academic-success-center-can-save-your-neck\/","title":{"rendered":"Total Test Result Turmoil \u2013 or how the Academic Success Center can save your neck"},"content":{"rendered":"It\u2019s that blessed time of year again \u2013 mid-terms. Or, for our friends in engineering or music, the time of year when students in every other Faculty get a small and terrifying glimpse into every week of their term, mid or otherwise.\r\n\r\nIn the whirl of essays, labs and tests, it is inevitable that one \u2013 or several \u2013 will not go as planned and you\u2019ll get a mark back that is much lower than you ever thought you\u2019d receive.\r\n\r\n
\"Take<\/a>
Take heart, young grasshopper, life will go on! Source: Aleksey Gnilenkov (CC BY 2.0).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nIt is important to ask yourself though, and answer honestly, \u201cwhat happened?\u201d\r\n\r\nObsessing over every question on a test, or inwardly ranting about how you \u201cshould have known that, dammit!\u201d is not a good use of your time or brain power, but asking yourself \u201cIn future, how could I handle that better?\u201d is certainly not.\r\n\r\nThis is not meant to shame you if you didn't do well, but there are ways to handle the fallout which will better ensure success next time round.\r\n\r\nConsider the following questions:\r\n
    \r\n\t
  1. What is your mark, actually? If you failed a test, that\u2019s different; but if you got a \u201cbad\u201d mark in your terms, where does that leave you? I came out of high school with the impression that an 84 was a disappointment. If you got a 75 and you\u2019ve never seen marks that low, recognize that standards in university are different. Some may compare themselves to the class average, but I prefer rather to discuss my concerns directly with an instructor or teaching assistant. Perhaps they\u2019re just tough markers. Maybe I didn\u2019t understand the type of answer they were looking for. Maybe (and this is unlikely but possible) they misgraded it and speaking to them would get that rectified.<\/li>\r\n\t
  2. How did you study? Consider making a trip to the Academic Success Center <\/a>(ASC) if information isn\u2019t sinking in, or you\u2019re having trouble with motivation, memory or concentration. You can make One-on-one appointments <\/a>with a learning strategist, but they have fantastic handouts <\/a>and articles <\/a>to help you with everything from motivation to time management while you wait for your appointment.<\/li>\r\n\t
  3. If you didn\u2019t understand the material at all, where can you fill in the gaps? Your Teaching Assistant and instructor are the first resources to try, but there is always University of Toronto Peer Tutoring<\/a>, your College's or faculty's writing center (a directory is here), <\/a>or YouTube.<\/li>\r\n\t
  4. What stopped you from \u201cgetting it\u201d in the first place? No one will be perfect in every subject, but if you can pinpoint the fact you find lectures hard to follow or don\u2019t understand the problem sets or readings you\u2019ve been given, that will help to isolate your particular challenges. Again, the academic Success Center is a great resource here.<\/li>\r\n\t
  5. Was it an issue of running out of time during the test? Were you incredibly anxious and forgot things? Consider talking to someone at the ASC for support in managing your test-taking challenges.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\nAt the end of the day though, the important thing to remember is that this is but one evaluation of several. It\u2019s as much about your self-awareness as it is your ability to recall information. It feels bad when you get a bad mark, but it does not mean that you won\u2019t pass the course, and it certainly doesn\u2019t mean that your grades won\u2019t improve ever or that you\u2019ll be unceremoniously chucked from the University of Toronto with no friends or future prospects to speak of. It is but one bump in the academic road, and the only thing to do now is to keep on truckin\u2019.\r\n\r\nStay strong, U of T, we will get through this.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
    \n
    \nIt\u2019s that blessed time of year again \u2013 mid-terms. Or, for our friends in engineering or music, the time of year when students in every other Faculty get a small and terrifying glimpse into every week of their term, mid…\n<\/div>
    Continue reading “Total Test Result Turmoil \u2013 or how the Academic Success Center can save your neck”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>
    Continue reading “Total Test Result Turmoil \u2013 or how the Academic Success Center can save your neck”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6669,1,6480,67,68],"tags":[9412,89,48],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21937"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/248"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21937"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21958,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21937\/revisions\/21958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}