Around my office I see lots of parents and all I ever hear this how their child needs to be getting A’s. A’s are important, you know! They will get you a scholarship to college. I heard the other day one, unfortunate, child is grounded all weekend for getting a B on a math test. Really? For a B? Unfortunately, the people providing this advice rarely have college degrees themselves.

In high school I spent a lot of additional study time in advance placement (AP) classes. Do you know how much that mattered to a Public University? Not One Bit! My SAT score was far above the required level for acceptance.

I’ll give a few concessions here, perhaps none of this applies if you are aiming for an elite private college, and perhaps the AP classes expanded my vocabulary such that I got a better SAT score. What I can tell you is you are soon to be the judge of my vocabulary and my lack of spelling ability. I mean seriously, growing up with computers I cannot spell without spell check.

To quote Neil deGrasse Tyson’s commencement address at the University of Massachusetts Amherst “…in life, they aren’t going to ask you your GPA. …If a GPA means anything, it’s what you were in that moment — and it so does not define you for the rest of your life.”

Back to personal experience, high school was relatively easy for me. I could attend the class do the homework during the next class and move on. This left me ill-prepared for college. All of the sudden I was 20 years old and had to learn to study. I had never “college studied” in my life.

The saving grace to all this is I received broad exposure to daily life, DIY projects, and generally learned to think from my father’s teaching and a lifelong pursuit of reading. (More on this in a future article : Pursuit of Reading). While these two items made me intellectually smart I was burned out at the end of High School. My solution (because college is necessary) was to join the Army Reserves. This provided a socially acceptable way to delay college. What I did not expect was the word of knowledge I was soon to learn dealing with other people. This knowledge of dealing with people is a particular skill I see lacking in today’s work place.

Here are a few steps that allow C+ students to be better people than A+ students.

Step C1: C+ students spend less time reading McBeth and more time reading Car Craft, Money Magazine, Fortune, and of course ThinkingBigDaily.com. Shameless Plug 🙂 Note the important key reading is knowledge. Like the hokey slogan “Knowledge Is Power”. So you can not be the C student who eats pizza and plays video games … which would probably make you a D or F student. You must be the C student who learns skills, exercises, and sleeps right.
Step C2: C+ students know how to struggle. Again take me in high school I just took exams, in college I learned what it was to struggle. I studied a lot and still was not always ready hints a C in Calculus 1, and a D in Calculus 2, followed by passing Calculus 2 with a B. My brother who struggled in high school reading learned how to study in a Saturday morning Power/Reading retention class, while I played video games. It is not coincident he passed both Calculus classes with a B his first attempt. He learned both to study and to struggle long before I did. By life experience I was a quick study and soon learned how to study as well. Then I flipped the scrip on other students. Mostly those not trying, I studied when I needed to study and took the exams. Before every exam I’ve always taken I see students sitting on the floor outside the classroom door furiously discussing topics and studying their notes. I too arrived early on exam days but when I did I took the time to lean against the wall, tilt my head back, close my eyes, and clear my mind. Try this! It really freaks out your peers. When I got to the exam I knew what I knew and stressing at final minutes are not going to benefit me.

Step C3: C+ students challenge the status-quo. Think of the C students in your past. Did they blindly follow every detail of every assignment? A+ students probably read every page of Alias Grace, C+ students probably read the cliff notes. I recently completed a Master’s level class in which we were assigned to write a ten page paper. The grading scheme made the paper worth about 5% of your total grade. Everyone in the class wrote the paper, except for one. Ironically, this student who skipped the paper was at least a B+ student, but she none the less utilized C student thinking. Stating the amount of time it would be to write a ten page paper was simply not worth 5% of one’s grade. She of course was correct, but since I was not as confident in the final exam as she was I felt the need for the 5% safety margin. C+ students question why.

Step C4: C+ students know who to work with others. I like the famous story of an interview with Henry Ford (The founder of Ford Motor Company). Mr. Ford was not known as a particularly intelligent man, but obviously was very successful and influential. A+ students learn a lot of facts, C+ students learn how to use knowledge.
“Let me remind you that I have a row of electric push-buttons on my desk, and by pushing the right button, I can summon to my aid men who can answer any question I desire to ask concerning the business to which I am devoting most of my efforts. Now, will you kindly tell me, why I should clutter up my mind with general knowledge, for the purpose of being able to answer questions, when I have men around me who can supply any knowledge I require?”

Step C5: C+ students are not perfectionists. There exists value in results. If you struggle for perfection you may never complete a task. This is a very delicate balance in the real word. In accounting less than perfection is often unacceptable, think of year end financials and budget documents. However, in life often time completion is more important than perfection. At one point I wanted to build-in the stereo received, center channel speak, and PlayStation into the Living-room wall. I had never cut into and boxed a wall before, some reading made it sound easy others more than a DIY’r should attempt. Insisting on perfection would have led to procrastination, rather I made the measurement cut the wall and in three days it looked great. Tack action, C+ students excel at this.

At this point I hope you see it’s not that you must be an C+ student to succeed, personally my goal is always a B+ but A+’s have occurred. In fact at this point in life I seem unable to help but get an A+. I’m currently working towards my Masters of Accountancy.

This concerns me, it seems as though college work is being dumbed down in order to pass more students. It of course is not in the work per se, but rather a grading scheme that makes it impossible to fail. I’ve had some on-line classes recently where the quiz was open book and the quiz progressed in order of the chapter. If that were not enough you then had three attempts to get the question correct. Admittedly the question changed slightly but if you looked at the answer to the one you got wrong you could, or certainly should, be able to plug and play the correct answer in the 2nd attempt question.

What I’m observing is that students are becoming better and better at question answering while lacking in understanding and reasoning. This is not just a college basis at work I see people who: 1) Perform tasks without understanding their meaning. 2) Make a mistake and then want to correct their notes so it does not occur again. They have no interest in understanding the problem, so long as I can fix it they can move on.

In closing, go to college! While I discount the value of its education somewhat. You could do just as well and perhaps better on your own; you need entry into the club. The club of success. And why shouldn’t it be. It clearly shows you have gone beyond the minimum requirement of high school graduation.

I did not want to admit this even with my undergrad degree but a few years into working I see the club pass. I went to college why shouldn’t another hard working person get the better job. I also see a distinction between the person who finished required school and the person who took the imitative to continue when it was no longer required.

Mr. Big