Hello everyone,

Last month, I wrote about student workload differences from high school to college.  This month, I want to say a bit more about the expectations that your college instructors will have of you and how those are likely to be different than the expectations that your high school teachers had. 

In college, at the start of each semester, your college instructors will give you a syllabus, which is a kind of contract between you, the student, and the instructor of the course.  The syllabus will provide information such as which textbooks are required for the course, the instructor’s contact information and general information concerning the course content.  The syllabus will also provide information about the policies of the course, such as the attendance policy and how the final grade for the course will be determined.  One of the most important parts of the syllabus is the course schedule.  This is typically a day by day (or week by week) plan of what you will do in the course.  The schedule contains information about what students are supposed to read and when as well as information about when major assignments are due and when exams will be given. 

You may have been given a syllabus in some of your high school courses but a major difference is that, in college, your instructors will expect you to keep yourself informed (using the syllabus) about what you need to do in order to be prepared for a particular day in class.  For example, the instructor will probably not remind you of what you need to read for the next class meeting and may not even remind you that an exam will be given at the next class meeting.  In college, your instructors expect you to pay attention to this information on the syllabus.

The first step toward college success is to pay attention to each course syllabus and look at it often throughout the semester!  To see an example of a syllabus for one my classes, click here.  I hope this advice is helpful.

Cathie