The Exams Offered a Glimmer of Hope.
Dylan’s attitude toward exams is not what I had hoped.
His grades tanked right before the Christmas break. His A’s became B’s and his B’s dropped to very, very low B’s. His Geometry and English grades hovered around 79.6% – on the precipice of a C. And his Biology grade was a low, low, low C – at 69.8%. Given the amount of missing and late assignments, he’s lucky he didn’t fail the class.
He’s done well this year, though, so I had hope that he would be inspired to pull his grades up. And, for one night, he did feel inspired. His Biology teacher offered 10 points for anyone who finished the Biology exam study packet overnight. Dylan worked for two hours for those 10 points.
But he won’t work for two minutes after class to be sure he gets his assignments turned in.
So the exams offered a glimmer of hope. Because they are worth as much as a full quarter grade, he could pull his grades out of the ditch with a great grade.
But Dylan – instead of seizing the opportunity for hope – is putting in bare minimum effort. He had four full days to study – no classes, no school, no other commitments except a two-hour stint at the church handing out flyers.
Instead of plotting a great study schedule, he decided he would study two hours a day. The first day, he barely studied for one hour. The second day, he went swimming after half an hour. His “plan” called for no studying for English, little studying for Geometry or History, and a little for Spanish.
For Biology, the class he is nearly failing, he blocked off two (total) hours of studying during his four-day weekend.
I hope he fails all of them, honestly. Because if he passes them with such minimal effort, he’ll think he can pass all exams in life with minimal effort.
College is going to be a real shock to his system.
If he gets accepted anywhere at all.