Are college classes “easier” in Community Colleges?
You won’t believe how many times I’ve heard this LIE before; back in high school I even thought it was true. Of course, I learned the hard way. Last Semester, I took CHM 111 since it was Chemistry I didn’t expected to be an easy class. After all, I am in college and higher education is not supposed to be easy, but challenging. I won’t lie, chemistry is interesting but there were several components to succeed in this class in particular; the memorization and understanding of formulas, exams and laboratories. I know, that to earn good grades; enough time to study and homework are important key points. This class had quite a few awesome labs, still hard work and long time of study hours were required (couldn’t help it, I wanted a good grade).
Later on that semester, I met with a friend that is currently attending Mason as Biochemistry major. He made the comment that another friend of us attending NOVA and taking a CHM class mentioned to him that laboratories were not required in his class and if for some reason he did them, it was usually a half page.
Of course, at this time many students are wondering-where can they sign up for this science class that has no science lab and sounds like an “easy A” type of class. Let me tell you that professors are given a curriculum for each class with the topics that they are supposed to tech to students, how professors tech students the material is up to them. Professors often use lectures, videos, exams, and writing assignments, yet they decided to use as many methods as they want.
So, I doubt that there is a science class (4 credits) with half-page labs in any NOVA campus, classes are supposed to be challenging BUT not impossible puzzles. I have taken 5 science classes (BIO, CHM) and each class had a manual and labs were mandatory and required to pass the class. For those students that are planing to take a science class or any class, don’t listen to rumors. Instead, talk to people that have taken the class before and have succeed, you’ll be avoiding dropping the class in the middle of the semester and jeopardizing your Grade Point Average (GPA).