The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 67, No. 11, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 18, 1979 Page: 4 of 20
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Frosh brace for test results
by Sarah Herbert
Every year it happens: hundreds
of young, hopeful students go
through a crushing schedule of
midterm tests. Most survive the
baptism of fire unscathed, but the
experience is always sobering.
Freshmen have just undergone
or are about to face their first Rice
exams, and many students who
have been in the top ten percent in
high school now have to face being
in the middle or even near the
bottom of some classes. Of course,
most freshmen know before they
came to Rice that they could no
longer be first in every class. But,
as one student put it,"You know
it's hard in words, but when the
actual work hits you...Oh, no!"
Freshman midterm depression
comes in different forms. Some
people develop an inferiority
complex. "You look at other
people and they seem to know so
much more, and then you get
paranoid when you go to the test,"
exclaims one student. "I don't feel
as smart here as 1 did in high
school," says another.
After experiencing the first tests
in their chosen fields, freshmen can
begin to feel very uncertain about
the future. "I'm not sure 1 really
want to be a ChemE major, but I
can't think of anything else." Many
people discover that their
distribution courses are actually
much more interesting than the
ones they have to take for their
majors. Others learn, sadly and
quickly, their intended major was
not meant for them.
UI think I'll have to drop
physics," commented a pros-
pective engineering student after a
midterm shocker. Maybe she will
take it again next year; if not, she is
another casualty of the first-year
sausage grinder.
Uncertainty about one's
interests and abilities is only
compounded by it being too early
to tell for most. Take two years, the
counselors say, before committing
yourself: but all too often that is
impractical. For the uncertain
student, four years suddenly seems
like a very short time to pick a
lifetime career.
One answer is to experiment, to
take strange, unusual courses. As
one upperclassman advised an
unsure freshman: "Take a course
off the wall." College is a time to
explore options as well as a time to
prepare for a career. If a
freshman's uncertainty causes
him to explore what Rice offers,
then the uncertainty is actually
constructive.
Grades: they are always a
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problem for mortal freshmen,
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who know that a 2 could spell ruin
for their dreams. Parental pressure
is a very important factor in
freshman depression. Many
parents do not realize how difficult
Rice is, and expect too much of
their little Einsteins.
"My parents are expecting l's,
and anything less than a 2..." She
need say no more. "Parents don't
realize how much you are
working," complains one hen-
pecked freshman.
On the other hand, some high
school wieners accustomed to
constant parental pressure go wild
once that pressure is miles away.
Sheltered kids often overdo the
Rice social life once they are on
their own. As Dr. Daniel Brener,
head of the Rice Psychiatric
Service, says, "Gradually it will
dawn on you that you're on your
way, that you're calling the shots."
But dealing with parental pressure,
or lack of it, is hard at first.
One of the keys to solving
freshman depression is the
realization that it is a common
problem." It's a real crunch," says
Dr. Paul Pfeiffer, a freshman
calculus teacher. "It takes the
arrogance out of most everybody."
But, he adds, "If you're in the
middle of people who are all
front runners, you're doing pretty
well."
There is nothing wrong with
hitting the mean at Rice—most
people do.
Managing time effectively is
another key to facing college
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pressure. "It's not the difficulty of
the material as much as it is the
speed," notes one freshman. "I
work and I work, but nothing ever
seems to get done!"
Just keeping up at Rice can be a
major problem. Dr. Stephen
Baker, physics professor, describes
it as a "60-hour-a-week job."
Students need to budget that large
amount of study time carefully.
Using a written schedule can help.
Besides attending classes and
hitting the books, students can use
their free time to attend study
groups and tutorials.
But "you've got to budget rest,"
counsels Pfeiffer. "People tend to
work sort of compulsively, and
never learn how to play." The key
is to make time taken off from
study count by not thinking of
work at all while playing. Constant
worry during "recreation" is no
break from study.
Another key to handling
freshman depression is learning
how to take exams. "Test-taking is
a skill; it can be practiced, and you
will get better at it," says
Psychiatric Services' Brener. "Try
to concentrate on not pushing the
panic button."
Panic during a test is probably a
Rice student's worst enemy. "I
knew it, but I couldn't put it down
on paper," is a common complaint.
Panic on an exam can lead to
pulling a blank on a question, or to
making careless mistakes.
Some useful advice in defusing
panic during a test is: 1) Read the
instructions carefully. Be sure you
understand exactly what the
teacher wants before answering.
2)Stay cool. Watch the time and
pace yourself accordingly. 3) If
some questions are too hard, do
the easiest ones first; come back to
the puzzlers when and if you have
time. 4) Be sure to be rested before
a test. Don't pull an all-nighter,
vainly hoping to cram entire
books. 5)After the test, relax and
forget about it. Worry never
helped anybody.
Above all, freshmen need to
realize that help is available and
that there is no shame in asking^or
it."If you didn't need help, it'd be a
heck of a lot cheaper to take
college by correspondence," says
Brener."That is really the reason
you go to a university."
Individual tutoring help is
available in all departments.
Special physics and chemistry
tutorials, as well as college math
reviews, can be attended.
Students who nevertheless feel
the pressures rising are encouraged
to visit the campus Psychiatric
Service, whose staff can listen and
help to resolve problems.
But the greatest freshman
consolation is the upperclassmen.
Freshmen should look around
them and realize that there are, as
one student put it, "three classes
ahead of me who had these same
anxieties and who" made it."
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The Rice Thresher, Optober 18, 1979, page 4
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Muller, Matthew. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 67, No. 11, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 18, 1979, newspaper, October 18, 1979; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245417/m1/4/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.