Truc Tran

06/01/2016
EN001

WAY TO SUCCESS
Dr. Stewart is the Vice President and Provost at Montgomery College. In his article
dubbed A Guaranteed Path to Academic Success", Dr. Stewart has highlighted six fundamental
rules in the students career. These six rules include going to class, doing an assignment on time,
talking to professors, reading everything, respecting learning and teaching environment and
using academic services and support centers as well as the library. I believe all these six rules
should be followed by any student who aspires to be successful in school since they all focus on
the idea that lead leading to success. These six rules proposed by Dr. Stewart form t cornerstone
of achieving the overall goal of Montgomery College of ensuring students academic success.
However, out of these six rules, I only apply two; handling assignment in time and talking to
professors since I consider them as the most critical rules for the success of my academic career.
Submitting assignments on time is very critical in my career since it relieves one from the
worry of losing grades and retaking assignments. My main motivation on the significance of
submitting assignment on time traces back to when I was in high school. For instance, there was
an English assignment which was due on a Monday, but I submitted it on a Tuesday. As a result,
I lost a letter grade despite the assignment being flawless. That is, instead of getting an A, I got a
B simply because of negative perception that the tutor developed toward my attitude towards
learning. For instance, the tutor perceived me to be a very careless student who did not care
about his or her education. In other instances, I would do assignments in a hurry when everyone
had completed their assignments. Occasionally, I would just pick anyones book and copy from

their work. As a consequence, my grade dropped significantly forcing me to repeat some classes,
and this strained my parents' resources. At one point, I was paraded in the school assembly
among other low achievers when we were breaking for holidays. The head teacher then told all
the teachers to cane us using sisal leaves upon cheers by the other students. It was after such
embarrassments that I realized the significance of submitting my assignment on work on time.
Talking to my professors is also another rule to me since it has helped me establish
mutual relationships with them. My main motivation for valuing talking to my professors traces
back to high school. During those periods, I was not perfect in the Spanish course. Therefore, I
made efforts of consulting my teachers for assistance during free times when people were on
lunch breaks or games breaks. For instance, I would miss lunch on several occasions to go and
consult with my Spanish teacher. One of the most memorable instance is when I missed my
favorite meals; chapatti for several weeks to consult my Spanish teacher. My main aim of doing
so was to catch-up with the rest of the students who had been attending lessons while I was away
because of illness. With such sacrifice, I was able to get clarification on what I did not
understand and correct mistakes and retake quizzes I had missed where necessary. The result of
this was a significant improvement in my grade from C to B at the end of the course. For this
reason, I do believe that professors are much knowledgeable and willing to assist any student
who shows willingness to learn by consulting them.
In conclusion, the two rules discussed above emerges as the most significant ones
towards the success of students in their career. Thus, these two rules will form my main focus as
a student because they have helped me pass my courses right from high school. I believe any of
the rules proposed by Dr. Stewart are useful but their degree of importance vary across each and
every student. However, because the two rules discussed in this essay enabled me to be

successful in my career should not be an implication that that the other four rules are not
important. Therefore, every student should set her career goal and follow either of the rules or
complement all the rules to succeed in their career.