Moving beyond Midterms

You’ve finished Midterms. Maybe you got a mid-fall break from classes and took a short vacation. Now you’re back in the midst of studying again, surveying the feedback from midterm results. It’s time to assess your status. Based on your midterm performance, you will plot out your next moves.

We’ll assume that you did well. But what is “doing well?” Many of you will only accept one grade with pride: an A. However, those of you who earned A-, B+ and B grades don’t have anything to worry about.

Let’s take a moment to get some perspective.

You have started an academic program in a country that remains largely unfamiliar.  As a result, you’re worn down from doing basic things. The food isn’t as good as what you ate while living on The Mainland. You’re studying in a second or third language so reading takes a long time and writing takes a long time. The expectations on how to complete an exam or a paper remain somewhat obscure and often confusing. Given these conditions, earning a B, B+ or A- is fine. Really. Saying this does not mean that you have lowered your standards. You have not begun to accept mediocrity. Rather, this adjustment allows you to set realistic standards. This releases some of the pressure that you’ve put on yourself. This, in turn, helps you to avoid feelings of anxiety. It also helps you to cultivate a more open-minded approach to working with—and learning from—mistakes and difficulties.

Even though you care more about the grade than anything else, understanding the feedback will help to guide your path forward towards Final Exams. Read and reread comments. Understand what you did well, as well as where you can make improvements. Make sure that you fully understand comments, questions and suggestions provided by instructors. If you’re not sure about any of this feedback, set up a time to meet with an instructor during office hours. Come prepared with questions about the material. Identify specifics in the feedback that you would like to further clarify.

Based on the feedback provided, if you think the instructor misunderstood a point you made on an exam or in a paper, explain your point clearly, identifying the discrepancy between what you meant and how the instructor misinterpreted what you presented. Be clear that the professor can adjust your score based on this or not. Remember: it’s your responsibility to present answers in a clear, easily understood way. Furthermore, do not complain or whine about grades. Don’t wheedle and “negotiate” for a higher grade. Take what you get unless there’s a clearly identifiable error in how an instructor marked your reply to a prompt and/or tallying the score includes a calculation error. Don’t waste your energy on pushing for a higher grade. Don’t alienate a professor who may write a letter of recommendation at a later date by making a strong negative impression. Rather, listen, learn and direct your effort towards doing well on future assignments.

In reviewing exam materials, make sure to “anchor” important lessons, insights and information. Think of examples that differ from test questions and prompts, but that apply the basic lessons, insights and information presented in the various prompts and questions included in the examination. Furthermore, as you begin working on any term papers that an instructor has assigned, use lessons, insights and information from the exam to flesh out key points in the paper. This will connect your thoughts in the paper to the main ideas, concepts and frameworks presented in lectures and the various texts used in the course.

Here's another pro-tip about writing papers: start on them as soon as possible. Even if you’re not really sure how to begin, or you feel like you don’t have a firm enough grasp on the readings and lecture materials, start anyway. The writing will help to focus your thinking. It will help to identify what you know and what you don’t know. It will help you to read texts and listen to lectures with greater focus. You may think I’m crazy to suggest working this way—it runs completely counter to the way you’ve been taught to write in Mainland settings where working very, very hard BEFORE writing earns praise from instructors—but having done various papers both ways, I have to say that the “start now” approach works better in the long run. If nothing else, it saves you the stress and mess of trying to finish a paper in the last few days before a deadline. Not only does this eat up your energy and raise your stress level, it rushes the learning process, which undercuts the depth of learning.

I also urge you to take your very, very rough drafts to the “Writing Center” (or whatever the name is) at your university. Sit with a tutor for at least and hour and work slowly had thoroughly through what you have written. Pay attention to how this process works. By understanding the process of writing and editing, you learn how to write clearer, pithier first drafts.

To further refine your early drafts, make routine appointments at the “Writing Center.” Build this routine into your working process. I recommend weekly appointments. However, if your schedule is packed, fortnightly appointments will work well enough.

Once you have a readable outline and a rough, rough draft in hand, show this material to an instructor. Make sure that you are on the right track. If not, ask for clear directions on restructuring the paper so that it better fits the instructor’s guidelines. If you’re on the right track, ask for direction about how to connect the goals of the assignment with your personal learning goals.

Bending and adjusting papers to better fit your aims may seem unfamiliar, but I strongly recommend that you build this into your entire learning process. For instance, if you have enrolled in a Business Strategy for Social Media Platforms course, and the professor asks for a paper focused on, say, Twitter or Facebook, ask the professor if you can write a paper on Xiaohongxu or Weibo. This way you can use your expertise, experience and background. Furthermore, you better prepare yourself to find work on The Mainland (assuming that you will go back to The PRC for employment).

In general, tertiary level study requires you to take greater responsibility for your education. Lean into this. However, lean into this with guidance: clarify course and assignment aims with instructors, reach out to various sources of guidance on how to write more clearly and precisely, and learn how to read and interpret feedback, suggestions and criticism such that it puts you in a position to write better papers this term and in future terms.