Welcome to my blog! I’m “Professor Paul,” creator of this site. For five years I taught math and computer science courses at a major public university in the central United States. Although I had over 2,500 students, I got to know many of them personally, and I watched many of them struggle to improve their grades. Over the years, I shared advice to do just that with many students, and I hope to do the same for you, here in this blog.

A major point I want to make is that grading is more subjective than most students realize. Maybe it shouldn’t be; maybe a student’s final grade for the term should be based solely on their performance and their mastery of the course material. But the fact is, if you manage your professors’ impressions of you, you’ll do better over the long term. I hope to show you some tips and tricks to help you convey a more positive impression to your teachers.

For most of the courses I taught, there was a set grading scale - if you made 90% or above, you got an A, 80 for a B, 70 for a C, 60 for a D, and… well, let’s not think about the other alternative. And this was a set scale - if a student finished the term with an average of 90.0%, he/she was guaranteed an A, regardless of what I thought of him/her personally.

However…I frequently had students finish with an 88 or 89… not technically an A but very close. Then I started looking for reasons to give them the extra point or two. What kind of reasons? Well, I’ll go into examples in future blog posts, but for starters let’s just say it helped if I knew their name, if I perceived them to be interested in the course material, and if I perceived them to have put considerable effort into the course.

I have a reading assignment for you. (What? The first day of the class and already there’s homework?) This is a book everyone should read - in fact, it’s one of the all-time classics that should be re-read once a year. It’s called How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie. It teaches you how to manage personal relationships by learning how to communicate in terms of what the other person wants. Master what this book teaches and you will have an advantage not only in college, but in life.

In future blog posts I will show you ways to apply what this book teaches to improve your relationships with your professors. I’ll also share secrets that will help you improve your grades in particular subjects. And sometimes, I’ll just break away and rant about a topic in college or education. Hey, that’s what blogs are for, after all.

If you have feedback or have ideas for what you’d like to see on this site, leave me a comment or e-mail me at ProfPaul@ConquerCollege.com. One of the best parts of being a teacher was learning from my students, so I look forward to hearing from you.