extra courses are more trouble than they’re worth tbh

To AskA,
I’m a “first-year” student that took MAT133 the year previous and I am currently taking MAT135. Problem is, MAT135 is an exclusion to 133 and thus it is designated as an “Extra” course. I’m doing well in the course but no so well in other courses. Should I just not try to do well in MAT135 and put all my focus in my other courses? I’m just worried about the MAT135 being looked over in my final academic transcript and me not being able to find a job because of it. What should I do?!

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hey there,

alright, before we dive into this question, let’s just clear up some things about extra courses, because no one ever seems quite sure what they mean: 1. they do not count towards your 20.0 FCE’s for your degree and 2. they do not count towards your cumulative GPA.

HOWEVER. they do appear on your transcript, and a good mark is a good mark, extra or not. obviously, i would suggest that you work as hard as you can on getting your mark in those other classes up, since they do impact your GPA, but an extra course is not a useless course. don’t “not try to do well” in it – if it comes more easily to you than other courses, then by all means focus more of your energy on them, but don’t completely abandon MAT135 because it’s been made extra.

if you’re doing significantly better in MAT135 than all your other courses, then maybe you should look at structuring your next year around courses that build on that, like MAT235 and MAT244. playing to your strengths next year will also probably make your GPA go up, mitigating the effects of this year.

but yeah, don’t worry about not being able to find a job or whatever because of this. the good mark will appear on your transcript, and you can and should play it up as much as possible. and like i said, consider taking similar courses you’re likely to do well in, and then the ones that aren’t going too hot this year won’t be as big of a deal. capice?

xoxo,

aska