MaristOnline.com - Feature Articles

Ok... you've made it this far. You know how to go to class. This file is here just to give a few pointers on professors, classes in general, papers and the like.
1.Showing up on time is somewhat imperative. I've found that fifteen minutes gives you adequate time to stroll across campus and find a good seat.
2.At least make an effort to act interested in what's going on. A professor will find it hard to fail a student who asks questions, brings the book to class, asks about homework, and who can be identified by his first name.
3.Call the professor "Professor" It's a good ego trip for them, and makes you appear to be that much more into the whole "learning" thing.
4.Office hours are there for a reason. Lord knows they're just in there playing minesweeper. They'll do anything to show off their mad skillz, so they're especially inclined to answer homework questions, dish out dirt of other faculty, and generally help you out. Again, a professor will be a lot less inclined to fail you if he knows who you are and that you at least appear to care about what's going on.
5.Outlines help. Oddly enough, the papers where professors tell you "you need to hand in an outline" are usually the ones that don't warrant an outline at all. For long papers that span several subjects, it's probably a good idea to at least make a map-of-sorts of what you're going to cover. If you have a writing professor who is totally anal about sentence structure and paragraph flow, you will thank yourself down the line for making a detailed outline.
6.When term papers, midterms, and finals roll around, it pays to have your tests and quizzes handy. Unless they have an extraordinary amount of free time on their hands, they'll probably just be rehashed versions of old material. Hell, some professors don't even bother changing numbers.
7.Remember, professors are people too. They don't want to spend the weekend grading papers and writing up exams. They don't give out homework just so you have to miss Dawson's Creek. Just think of it this way... the more stuff you learn on your own, the more class time you can spend plotting your roommate's utter demise.
8.Adjunct professors can be fun. Most likely, they're still trying to work their way up the ranks of Marist College, so they'll want to make a fan base of students to give them a good review at the end of the semester. This means that they won't go out of their way to fail an entire class (or threaten to) like some tenured professors do.
9.If you're taking any sort of computer classes, you *might* have a professor who is... how shall we say... not accustomed to the English culture. It really pays to sit up close and listen with both ears. This can be especially hard at 8am classes, or when the lesson involves going over terms that you've never heard before in the English language, let alone whatever the hell they're speaking in. You bought the book for a reason, and most professors just read page for page from there anyway.
Hopefully, these hints will make class a little bit easier for you. Remember... you can be smart as hell, but that doesn't amount to anything if you never show up for class, piss off the professor, and don't start your work at a reasonable time.