By Susan Smith Nash, Ph.D.
It's a let-down. It's also a blessing in disguise. The results of your placement test indicate you will be required to take and pass a developmental course before you can take the required general education courses you will need for your associate's degree.
What's so great about taking a course that does not count toward graduation? Isn't it a waste of time and money?
What more people are finding is that high school did not really prepare them to succeed in college. It's possible to graduate from high school with A's in math and English, but not really have the academic skills you need to write papers or take college math classes. Even worse, high school may not have given you the study skills you need to succeed.
On top of that, let's think about motivation and the desire to learn. You may have come out of your high school experience to suddenly realize that motivation and other important components to academic achievement were never quite presented in a way you could take to the bank. You never learned how to set up your life so that your school work became a series of rewards and achievable milestones that made you feel good about yourself and your abilities.
So, it's really good news. Your developmental courses can equip you to succeed. You'll get the knowledge base you need. You'll develop study skills. Best of all, you'll start to feel a confidence you never felt before when faced with new challenges.
Let's take a look at the most commonly prescribed developmental courses:
1. Developmental Reading.
If you're not reading with a high degree of comprehension, you're going to suffer in your courses. You really do need to be able to read and comprehend texts, and to develop your writing skills. People who do not read well, often do not write well. It's that simple. Fortunately, with time and effort, you can improve your skills. This is from Florida Community College Jacksonville http://www.fccj.edu :
This course is designed to enhance basic reading skills and to develop higher level vocabulary and comprehension skills, textbook reading techniques and learning strategies needed for success in college.
If English is a second language for you, your investment in developmental reading and writing will pay even higher dividends.
2. Developmental Writing.
Let's take a look at a typical course catalogue description of a developmental writing course. This is from Florida Community College Jacksonville http://www.fccj.edu :
This introductory course in composition provides students the necessary instruction to gain greater proficiency in basic writing skills. As a result of carefully planned learning experiences, students should be able to write clear, adequately-developed, logically-organized, sentences and brief paragraphs which employ standard American English.
If English is a second language for you, you may think that you won't need to develop writing skills. You may think that reading and vocabulary are enough. You will be making a big mistake. Let's take a step back and look at the world at large. How much time to you spend online? How many e-mails and instant messages do you write a day? If the answer is one or more, you need to have the best writing skills possible.
3. Developmental Math.
It is amazing how many people let themselves develop a phobia about math. In fact, some people actually work at fearing and loathing math. That is really tragic -- all you have to do is to take a look at a popular television series - Numb3rs (http://www.cbs.com/primetime/numb3rs/), Boneshttp://www.fox.com/bones/), or (NCIS (http://www.cbs.com/primetime/ncis/) -- to realize that the cool jobs involve math, usually applied math.
You may think that you won't need math if you take a professional certification course. Math, however, is the cornerstone and the foundation of almost all courses, particularly those that involve engineering, construction, finance, financial services, real estate, medicine, pharmaceuticals, and marketing.
The formula is simple: Get math skills, and get a great job.
After you complete a developmental course, do not succumb to the temptation to test out of the next levels. You may be able to take a CLEP or Dantes exam and to obtain college credit via a test. However, think of the consequences. True, you've managed to jump over a class and to save yourself time and money. However, you may have ended up in waters that are rough and over your head. You're better off taking all the time you need to build a solid foundation of basic skills and competencies. You'll be better off in the long run. Your grade point average will be better, you'll feel better about college, and you'll start to gain momentum, especially as you continue to practice your skills.
You may be looking at developmental courses now, but just a few years, you may be look at graduate school -- all attainable because you took the time you needed to take and succeed at developmental reading, writing, and math.
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http://www.beyondutopia.net/videos/developmental-courses.wmv