In some classes I have earned a B... but I felt better about that B in microbiology than any course where I ended up with an A...
Why is that....? Why did I feel better about a B than an A in a class?
Here's what I have concluded.....
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In some classes you could get a B... but that B could feel better than some classes where you get an A...
Why is that....? Why would someone feel better about a B than an A in a class?
REPLY
Without a doubt, an A is more preferred among students. However, when I compare a B in microbiology to how I felt when I got an A in any other course, I have to say that the B was the highlight so far from my experience as a college student. The B made me very happy in microbiology due to the fact that the class was extremely hard. In order for me to absorb the depth of the material, I had no choice, but I had to wake up at 5:30 am to study. Every day, six days a week. I took one day off so my brain could defrost and recover. I had to become an expert in microbiology overnight, in 30 days at Keiser University. I was bombarded with new material that I had to become familiar with. At the end of the semester, my final grade was a B and I was ecstatic: all my hard work paid off. In contrast, a few of my friends did not have the same result. I remember talking to this girl specifically. She said she failed. To go over that same hill twice does not sound like something that I wanted to do. I feel that I don’t care that an A exists because “I got a B!” I survived. I did not have to repeat that class. Of course I would have been a lot happier if I had received an A. The fact that I got a B tells me that I made it.
My conclusion is that a B in microbiology was better than an A in anatomy, psychology or ethics, because microbiology was by far the hardest course that I have ever taken. I know that by choosing to become a nurse, I have seen the uphill structure that I have to walk. It is like climbing Mount Everest. As high as the mountain is, I have to put the same size of effort when I’m studying for any class because, in my opinion, nothing good in life is easy. In that course, I had to learn about organisms that I didn’t even know existed on my skin. Microbiology is like marking a cow with a hot iron on its hide. It makes a permanent imprint on my brain. It is like a good trauma. A lot like what happened to my brain in this class. I have been reading things that I didn’t know existed. It was hard, tearful, but I’m glad that I went through this course and survived. It certainly helped to read when I had enough time to read.
Remedios and Lieberman (2008) point out that evaluations of a course often are affected by “how much students enjoyed or felt stimulated by the course content, which in turn depended on the perceived quality of teaching.” That might also be a factor in why a B in microbiology was more satisfying to me than an A in some other courses.
In my search for a scholarly article, I came across this paragraph:
When I was in high school, I took AP Chemistry II, a class I had no business taking because I was deeply unqualified and too immature to do so. I didn’t care about learning high-level chemistry, and I was not the kind of student who was ever motivated by grades….I failed the class, but I learned a valuable lesson. I stopped pushing myself to do things that I didn’t believe in, and I focused my energy instead on things I did. To this day, it is the only class I have ever failed, but I wear the grade as a badge of honor. That sense of authentic self-identity guided me through college, graduate school, student teaching, writing resumes, landing jobs I loved, and, yes, eventually achievements of which I am proud (Lamb-Sinclair, 2017, emphasis added).
In other words, that writer could have written that “an F felt better than an A” because the F reminded her that she changed as a student. For her, the lower grade showed that she had devoted herself to being authentic. I agree. The B that I got in microbiology showed me that I was indeed ready for the challenges ahead of me. The B in microbiology is like the F for Ashley. These grades are our badges.
Reference
Lamb-Sinclair, A. (2017, June 17). Why Grades Are Not Paramount to Achievement. The Atlantic Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/06/why-grades-are-not-the-key-to-achievement/530124/
Richard Remedios & David A. Lieberman (2008) I liked your course because you taught me well: the influence of grades, workload, expectations and goals on students' evaluations of teaching, British Educational Research Journal, 34:1, 91-115, DOI: 10.1080/01411920701492043
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I have looked for research about expectations and letter grades in education.
https://qz.com/1038258/one-schools-strategy-to-raise-empathetic-and-self-motivated-citizens-ditch-grades/ .By Jenny Anderson
Letter Grades Deserve an 'F'
When I was in high school, I took AP Chemistry II, a class I had no business taking because I was deeply unqualified and too immature to do so. I didn’t care about learning high-level chemistry, and I was not the kind of student who was ever motivated by grades. So pretty early into the school year, I knew I was going to fail. The teacher was challenging, but caring and compassionate. I showed up to his class every day, tried to distract my friends—who did care about chemistry and grades—and when that didn’t work, proceeded to put my head down and sleep. I failed the class, but I learned a valuable lesson. I stopped pushing myself to do things that I didn’t believe in, and I focused my energy instead on things I did. To this day, it is the only class I have ever failed, but I wear the grade as a badge of honor. That sense of authentic self-identity guided me through college, graduate school, student teaching, writing resumes, landing jobs I loved, and, yes, eventually achievements of which I am proud. LINK
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