Grade Advice...

[sigalbatonrouge]

Hey,

What do other Sig Al chapters do to maintain a high GPA. I need some incentives or something for my girls. Any advice would be great! =O)


Thanks, Steph (Scholarship Chair)

[TigerGirl52]

Hey Steph!

Glad to see you posting on here! Encourage the other members of exec to use GreekChat because it's a great resource!

Allison

[BFulton]

Hope you get some good ideas here. In the meantime, wanted to be sure you knew about the list of scholarship-boosting ideas located in the National Chapter Guide that your chapter should have on hand. Those may help!

[sus]

Probably the most unpopular yet effective way to increase GPA is mandatory study hours. It's hard to make it fair for everyone because of work, family, etc. Some people with an already outstanding GPA will argue that they shouldn't be required to put in the mandatory time b/c they're obviously doing fine. If you can work it out though, it should help. Paired with this, I would suggest at least one grade report during the semester. Some folks just never realize where they stand until it's too late, so a grade report can get your attention quickly!

As a former instructor, you may be shocked that I'm suggesting this next item -- a notes/test bank. Many professors think such a thing is a horrible sin. I personally think if my students happened upon an old exam that I recycled, it was my own fault for being too lazy to make out a new exam. But, even if you don't have any exams in the bank, good sets of notes can help too. Some people just don't take good notes and being able to look over someone else's helps quite a bit. Just be sure to have a fair check out & return process for the items in the bank so it doesn't get depleted.

Also, as soon as the class schedules come out, consider getting together with your sisters and signing up for the same sections. That way, you can study together and help each other out.

Lastly, you should evaluate your chapter's activites. Take a step back and look at the number of hours a week your members are required to particpate in Sigma Alpha activities. Of those hours, how many are social, professional, and service related? How many are required by nationals, and how many are required by the chapter? It may be necessary to cut back a little in one area or allow those who are struggling with grades to miss an extra event.

[sigalbatonrouge]

Thanks for your help! I am currently trying to get a test/notes bank started. I really appreciate it! I never sat back and thought about your third comment...it's a good one. I'll definitely see if grades are given enough time and effort on the calendar.


Thanks, Steph


Have a great day!

[winneythepooh7]

Sorry to crash your board but I definately agree that mandatory study hours are effective. Also limiting the number of social events a sister in poor standing grade-wise can attend will probably work wonders. (Especially mixers where there are boys involved). Not being able to have a little sister sometimes is a good motivator. I remember back in my day we had a sister go inactive because of poor grades too. Good luck!

[agnerd]

We also had an award in our chapter for scholarship- Most improved GPA. The sister was given a little gift (candy, little stuffed animal, etc) and a certificate. If you can build it up and make it an honor the sisters could strive for it.

Shelley

[Buff]

at the gamma chapter we have a couple of incentives.
1. when i was a student, we had an incentive program where each rush class worked together to gather points for a night of pampering offered by the other classes. you could earn points by gpa, events attended, etc.
2. this sounds really cheesy, but it is a way to encourage sisters to go to class, which in turn will raise a gpa. when your name is called for roll, you may answer with your rush class letter only if you've attended ALL of your classes for the week, no excuses, not even school related or EA related excuses. our girls would get really competitive about who attended and who didn't

[Allie]

"Alpha Gamma!"

Buff and I were members of the same chapter and boy does it feel good to say that during roll compered to "here"

PS I can say Alpha Gamma since I went to work everyday last week

[Diamond Delta]

sorry to crash your board, but we used to get smarty-pants awards at each meeting. If you made an A on anything you got one. It was a totally random thing, but every few meetings or so the one with most of these (since the last meeting) would get a prize. Soemtimes the prizes were really weird-like a lint brush, sometimes they were cool-like candy, a stuffed beanie of our mascot, cute stickers, candle, etc. and one time it was a check for the up coming semesters dues! It was awesome!! Positive reinfocement is always a good thing.

[sigalbatonrouge]

Thank you all for your suggestions! I'll deifinitely try to get a lot of them going for next semester.