When going back to school, it’s a challenge just to get in, if a potential student doesn’t know what to do. It’s easy to be chased away by fear of rejection, too. But the persevering student that wants to learn will succeed.
Nearly all college courses have prerequisites; classes that have to be taken before the applicant can shoot for a degree. Many people take care of these in high school now, but people who graduated some time ago can still get them out of the way first.
Get Your Basic Education out of the Way First
Get the transcript from high school and see which classes were failed and which were successful. Were any of the failures math or English? Were any of the classes failed (or didn’t do well in) required courses for the college course wanted?
It’s a good idea to have this knowledge and take care of the prerequisites before even attempting the classes for a major. In fact, many 4-year students are on a 5-year plan because the first year was taking prerequisites. Basic math is one that people often fail in high school, and as adults they’re better equipped to seriously learn it. Don’t feel dumb, there will be lots of people in that class that are younger, older and even foreign.
Having to take basic English isn’t a crime, either. Lots of people failed it in high school; like math, grammar isn’t easy to everyone. Today there are so many dialects in the American version of the English language that it’s hard to keep up. It’s also hard to know what’s really proper when everyone’s talking in slang. Also easier to learn as an adult, an English class will help the person to sound educated when they speak proper English.
A first year of prerequisites can get a student back into the study habit and ease them in to what they’re in for as students.