Tips on How to Get Straight A’s in College

[natshar]

Don't leave "money on the table." It drives me crazy when my stepdaughter will post 1 or 2 discussion board posts instead of the mandatory 3 out of ....I dunno.... Laziness or apathy?
"You lost points there. The posts aren't graded for content, only quantity. Discussion board is 1/4 of your grade. That's an easy segment of the grade to get 100%. Why would you leave money on the table? Now you have to ace the exam to get an A."
"Iunno."
"Why would you not do one of the Ceregos? You can't not get 100% on those!"
"Iunno."
"Never give up 'free' points! Never leave money on the table!"
"I knooooowwwwwww. *eyeroll*"

I know agree. 

In high school I took summer school once. And at least my HS they make summer school almost impossible to fail because most of these kids already failed the first time. Anyways, they hand out so many extra credit points to make sure the kids pass. One of the last days we played math Bingo for a generous amount of extra credit. And this one girl slept the whole time and refused to participate (and since it was EC it was optional). And then I few days later she complained about her low grade and blamed on how she was "bad at tests." which I don't doubt. But I just kept thinking how many points she missed out on just because she didn't want to play bingo.

Also in middle school our daily math homework was worth 3 points. However, 1 of those points was earned simply by having your name and header on the paper. And you wouldn't believe how many times kids missed out and only got 2 out of 3 points for this one. Also, one time a student argued the teacher because he had a completly blank hw with only his name and she gave him a zero for but based on the grading scale he technically should get 1 point.

In college I had one class where there was a requirement to reply certain number of points to reply to discussion posts every week. And this was no word count, you could even just do a one word reply. I couldn't believe how many people didn't do this. It was beyond easy.

Another teacher gave an extra credit on the final exam. All you had to do was write a sentence or two about what you learned in his class. And he said half the class left it blank.
 And on a similar note, I never understood why people leave multiple choice questions blank it doesn't count again you for guessing and you have a 1 in 3/4/5/6 chance of getting it right. Even if you are a slow test taker in the final minutes just circle random answers for everything it's so much better than nothing.

So my tips:

• If you are offered bingo or some other easy extra credit do it every time.
  
• If it is worth points to put your name/heading on a paper double check and make sure you have one.
  
• If replying to discussion boards is worth points, do it because it's easy points.
  
• If you are taking a test always at least attempt the extra credit, it might be easier than you think.
  
• When taking a multiple choice test always answer every question even if's a completely random guess.