4. If you manage to read the message written counterclockwise, you will learn a witty definition.

G UORHTGNISSAPTUOHTIWSEMITEMOSTNEDUTSEHTFOSETONEHTEMOCEB

T R

H O

E MINDOFEITHERLECTUREISAPROCESSBYWHICHTHENOTESOFTHEPROFESS

Speak your mind

.

5 (A) What are the features you find significant in a lecturer? Share both positive and negative experiences you had.

(b) Try your hand at conducting a lecture. Chose any subject and any topic you like and prepare a three minutes long presentation.

Lecture Hall

Higher Education in the USA

UNIT 10

I. Before you read

Wise People Talk

Discuss the quotation. To what extent do you agree with the author?

• Instead of studying for finals, what about just going to the Bahamas and catching some rays? Maybe you'll flunk, but you might have flunked anyway; that's my point.

J ack Handey

Phrase Bank

• We have to look at it in the long-term context;

• To be clear about it...

• There are two ways of looking at this...

• But one mustn’t lose sight of the fact that…

• This means just what it says.

Higher education in the usa: assessment

II. Read the text with an eye for the vocabulary units in bold; come up with their explanations and translations.

measure progress

“pop” quiz

essay

final exam

homework assignment

course syllabus

grade

numerical system

GPA

cumulative GPA

academic probation

U.S. colleges measure student’s progress on a regular basis. Quizzes – short tests on an assigned material – and “pop” quizzes – unannounced tests – are used most frequently in mathematics and language courses.

Hourly or mid-term examinations may call for specific short replies or for longer responses in the form of essays. Almost every class will have a final exam to cover all the material in the course.

Homework assignments are usually given in a course syllabus as weekly reading or writing assignments; research papers are regular. In fact, the grades are based on these assignments, not just the final examination.

To evaluate, record and report student achievement teachers use grades, most of them are given in the form of a number or letter. The common numerical system uses percentages (with 100 as the highest and 65 or 70 as the lowest passing grade).

The four-point scale is most common:

Grade	Points	Undergraduate	Graduate
A	4.0	Excellent	Excellent
B	3.0	Good	Good/ Average
C	2.0	Average	Passing
D	1.0	Passing	Failing
F	0.0	Failing	Failing

Most colleges figure a GPA (grade point average) to determine students’ progress: the number of hours the course is worth is multiplied by the number of points for the letter grade, then totals for each course are added up and divided by the number of credit hours.

All colleges require students to maintain a minimum cumulative GPA to remain at school. A student not maintaining satisfactory progress (e.g. a minimum of 2.0 GPA while completing at least half of the attempted classes) will be placed on academic probation for a semester. If a student still fails to achieve the minimum GPA, he or she is placed on academic suspension and dismissed from a college for a specified time period. For GPA’s above certain specified levels students are placed on honor rolls.