High School is mandatory and free. |
College is voluntary and you pay
for it. |
Your time is structured by others. |
You manage your own time. |
You need permission to participate in
extracurricular activities. |
You decide whether to participate in extracurricular
activities. |
Each day you proceed from one class to another with
short breaks. You spend about 6 hours each day, or 30 hours a
week, in class. |
You often have hours between classes; class times
may be day, evening or online. You spend only 12 to 22 hours each week in
class. You will need to discipline yourself to study two hours for
every hour you're in class. |
High School teachers might be able to see
you before, during or after class. |
College instructors EXPECT AND WANT you to
visit during their scheduled office hours. |
Teachers present material to
supplement and help you understand what's in the textbook. |
Instructors don't always follow the
textbook. They lecture to provide background information or current
research. |
Teachers often write information on the
board to be copied in your notes. They will remind you about test dates. |
Instructors may lecture the entire
class and expect you to identify the important points in your
notes. Listening and note taking skills are a must!! |
Teachers impart knowledge and facts and
sometimes lead you through the thinking process. |
Instructors expect you to think on your own
and understand seemingly unrelated topics. |
In high school testing is frequent and covers
relatively small amounts of material. |
In college testing is infrequent and
may cover large amounts of material and use multiple test item formats. |
Makeup tests when you are absent
are often available. |
Makeup tests when absent are
seldom available and only at the instructor’s discretion. |
Teachers frequently rearrange test dates to
avoid conflict with school events. |
Instructors schedule tests according to
the course outline and not in coordination with other courses or
outside school activities. |
Teachers often conduct review sessions
pointing out important concepts that will be on the test. |
Instructors sometimes offer review
sessions. If they do, you must be an
active participant; come prepared with questions about the material. |
Extra credit projects are often
available to help raise your class grade. |
Extra credit is generally not available in
college classes. |
Consistently good homework grades may help
your overall grade when tests grades are low. |
Grades on tests and major papers provide
most, if not all, of the final grade for the course. |
Initial test grades, even when they are low,
might not have a negative effect on your final grade. |
Watch
out!! First tests are
usually a “wake up call” to let you know what is expected; they may account
for a part of your course grade. Many are shocked by their
first grades. |
You may graduate as long as you have passed
all your required courses with a grade of D or higher. |
You can graduate only if your final average
for all classes is at least a 2.0 or C. Next semester registration or
transferring to a university may be prevented if your grade point
average (GPA) is below a 2.0. Classes with a grade of D often won't
transfer. |