The Daily Graduate #57

This may be the most important lesson in life, so you may see this one come back as a Daily Graduate from time to time. It’s (almost) never too late to get help. I add the “almost” because if you’re in the middle of a midterm or final exam, and you realize that you should have gotten a tutor or gone to the review session a couple of nights ago, then yeah, right then in that moment, it’s too late for this round. You’re going to have to deal with whatever grade you get. But still, you can get help. You can take the exam to a tutor, grad student, peer, TA, faculty member, or someone else who knows the material, and walk through your mistakes slowly so that you understand what went wrong. You may not see the point in this, especially if college is just about grades for you. But if you want to learn, then there’s always time, even if it’s after your exam has been turned in.

The B-side of this has to do with getting help before it really is too late. On Friday I pointed out that for most schools, the Fall semester will be coming to an end shortly. Maybe you haven’t gotten a tutor yet for a tough class, or formed a study group, or gone to office hours, or had anyone read any of your papers (that, coincidentally, you haven’t done so well on). You can fix that right now, for these last few weeks. You can decide to keep things as is, too shy/proud/lazy to make a move, or you can decide that you want to get the most out of the few months you’ve already put into this semester. All you have to do is take the first step and get the help you need. Even if it’s just one class, try it and see how it works. You’ll soon see that getting help isn’t as hard as you may have thought it was, and more rewarding that you imagined in your shy/proud/lazy state.

It’s not too late. Do it today.