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| picture by Tomwsulcer |
I spent last summer doing an orientation or two every
day. I noticed that I hit on certain
things regularly, even though they weren’t in the presentation. Call them lessons learned; call them nuggets
of wisdom. Here are the things I’ve noticed students need to know to be
successful.
The big question I get asked over and over again by
first-time students is “What do I take?” The answer is almost always, “It depends.” But here’s my formula: in an ideal world (a world where you can get
any class you actually want to take), you should take one or more English
classes and/or Math, plus at least one course you want to show up for. Why?
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| pic by carmichaellibrary |
English is the basis for every other
class. The better you read, the easier
it is for you to get information via the written word, the easier every other
class will be. This is key if you’re not
yet eligible for college-level reading. It’s
not impossible to do well without the appropriate English level, but it’s difficult. Instructors assume a certain
level of reading competence and measure the amount of reading based on
that. If you’re not there yet, you’ll be
spending more time reading than the other students who have better skills. Chances are, if you’re not reading at college level, reading probably
isn’t your favorite thing, anyway – do you really want to do any more of it
than you have to?
If you’re ready for college reading, but you still need another class or two
for writing, I’d suggest getting started. It’s not as imperative, but you will be writing papers and the more
practice you have, the easier it will be – and the less time you’ll have to
spend doing it.
If
you tested at college level English (Both R5 and W5 on the assessment), it
would still be worthwhile to get that first composition course out of the way.
To be continued in a future post ...
