New Classes: Keep or Sweep
11. Jan, 2010 
5 Comments
The Holidays are over so it is time to go back to school and back to the agony of the dreaded 7am wake-up alarms, the rush to get to the bus, the late nights, and once again the new classes.
But now you are wondering if the courses that sounded so good in the university catalogue are actually that great.
Here are a few tips that will help you decide whether to keep the classes or change them…. and as quickly as possible.
Check out the syllabus
- Checking out the syllabus is one of the most important things to do – there you will find many essential elements that should make it a deciding factor of whether or not to stay in the class.
- For instance, the assignments will be a distinguishing factor. Some classes are filled with way too much work and with other classes, can be overwhelming. Not only will that specific class be affected but your other classes will also be hurt as you won’t have enough time to focus on them either.
- The syllabus will also tell you the due dates of your midterms and assignments. Pay close attention to these dates as if there are a lot of midterms and assignments due around the same time you may want to switch into a different class or start working super early (which we know, even if we have high expectations of ourselves at the beginning of the school year…rarely becomes the case).
The Class itself
- It may be the case that in the summer when you chose your classes, a certain class sounded exciting and intriguing; however, now that time has passed and you have realized what other courses are out there, they may not have the same appeal to you. I would always recommend going to a few classes to check the class out, but if the information doesn’t excite you, getting through four months of the class will be nearly impossible if you aren’t motivated.
The Professor
- After five years of university, I have now realized that the professor is one of the biggest factors one should keep in mind when deciding whether to stay registered. I know we have all used the excuse “I didn’t do well because the teacher didn’t like me” but sometimes the excuse, “I didn’t do well because I didn’t like the teacher” makes complete sense. The professors that seem excited to be there and are not merely extremely intelligent will be the ones that have the best courses. If you find a professor you like, I would recommend taking as many courses with him/her that you can.
Textbooks
- There are many reasons regarding text books that should alter one’s decision of whether to stay registered for a class. Although the price of a book shouldn’t be the most important decisions it is definitely frustrating when all of your textbooks cost over $100.00.
- Textbooks are important because they give you concrete information to study. However, some people enjoy having the textbook to study while others feel they are simply objects that are too expensive and are not useful as one cannot read one page without falling asleep.
The Professor’s Teaching
- I walked into my first class today to a professor who in front of us and didn’t say a word for 20 minutes… and no I am not lying. This was an morning class so one can only imagine the class’ difficulty staying awake when, when he did talk it was in a slow and monotone voice. “Good…..Morning……Welcome…. To….My……Class.” I have since switched to another class.
- However, other factors such as the tools the teacher uses can make a big difference. I do find that professors that use a PowerPoint (or something similar) approach teach very effectively as the everyone is put on an equal playing field as all of the essential notes are given to everyone equally and not solely verbally.
The Class Size
- I’m going to be a little biased on this one as I have gone from Mount Allison University, which had an average of 25 people in a class, to Mount Saint Vincent University which has around 22. This being the case, I feel that the smaller the class, the better the class as the easier it will be to gain help and show the professor how determined you are. If a class disables you the chance to even speak with the professor I would recommend choosing another class. (However, I do realize how difficult that can be in many intro classes…but good luck!).
The Time of the Class
- Some prefer 8:30 classes, while others prefer night classes. Although a mixture can still be good, what I would recommend is avoiding a schedule where there are lots of gaps between your courses, in which the gaps don’t give you sufficient time to do anything. For that reason, try to arrange your classes where they are either consecutive, or there is enough time in between to read that chapter of your biology book or at least grab lunch.
Remember, you still have a little while to confirm all your courses, so test out as many that interest you, keep these rules in the back of your mind, and then get prepared to have a great semester!
Best of Luck!
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Nick – very true, when the professor is motivated it does appear that the students are too, so yes, this does emphasize why it is integral that they are happy to be where they are.
Richard – guess I never thought about the vitalness of having each teacher be different, but you couldn’t be more right, it’s just really hard when they are all completely opposite and you are trying to figure out how they mark/grade/teach all at the same time.
Eric – Yeah, also a great point. You’re right, MTA did, and MSVU does the same thing – teaches a set number of courses only once every 2/3 years so thanks for reminding me of that important notion! A very good one!
I’d also say pay attention to your degree requirements. Sometimes like at Mount Allison courses are offered every other year and it would suck when I really wanted to take a course but couldn’t because I had too many compulsory courses that I had procrastinated taking
think that professors are important, but it all depends on how you start your day off.The cost of books some times suck but hey thats life,different teaching styles is good cause if all your teachers had the same style it would be mega borin.But april hey great blog.keep up the great stuff
Interesting ideas to keep in mind. Most of my courses can’t be changed, but if I would the first thing I would do would be to change a professor in one class, the timing of another, and the class size of the third. All valid points, but I think it made me realize how poopy some of my courses are going to be. Great Blog though.
Very good post April, I do agree there are many factors to consider. As we put good money towards these classes I feel we should get what we pay for. The teacher is a huge factor I find, and when someone doesn’t care about what they teach why should the students? But yeah very good points here and great advice.