How to Deal With A Difficult Professor

BY Jilian Woods

 

Like it or not, college is nothing like high school. The demands placed on you as a college student are far greater. You need to know how to finesse a tough prof to get extensions, better grades, and more.

The better the quality of your work, the more apt a professor is to take you seriously. Sometimes you just need a little help getting all your work done. Things like the best paper writing service coupled with a few learned skills involving people and time-management can come in handy. With that in mind, here are a few tips on how to deal with difficult professors because if you haven’t encountered one yet, believe us, you will.

 

#1 – Show up for class (and show up on time).

Showing your face in class and getting there on time is the “ounce of prevention” that might just help you get on profzilla’s good side. Many professors actively weed out the not-so-serious students early in the game. If you walk into a prof’s office begging for an extension and he or she can’t place your face, you probably won’t get through to them.

By the way, many college professors will lock you out if you’re late. Attracting attention to yourself by being the one who’s always interrupting class knocking on the door is not the way you want a difficult professor to recognize you.

#2 – Participate in class discussions.

The more you participate, the more you and the professor will interact. This is another way you can soften up a difficult professor. Keeping the conversation going in class will help him or her see you more as a person, not just another student.

 

#3 – Review your syllabus early and plan your work.

If there is something in the syllabus you don’t understand, bring it up to the professor early. Procrastination leads to emotional scenes during office hours and any prof can tire of that pretty quickly. The difficult ones learned to deflect undergrad drama years before you showed up on campus.

Tearful excuses will get you nowhere. You need to learn to manage your time so all your work gets handed in when it should, especially papers and essays. If you plan to work with a professional essay writing service, the time to coordinate with your writer comes when you get your syllabus, not the day before your deadline.

 

#4 – Be rational and mature if the answer is “no.”

Reacting like a five-year-old because the prof won’t bend on a grade or deadline will only do you harm. Accept the decision and walk away. If you really think your prof is being unreasonable, you can take your situation up with the department’s dean. Before you do that, though, you had better have a stellar explanation on deck for why you’ve fallen behind.

As a final note, it is important to realize that if you want the more difficult profs to work with you, it is important to make it clear early on that you want to succeed. You communicate that by being responsible and visible from day one. You also want to “impress as you go” with good-quality original work. Great essays and papers help you boost your reputation and get in good with even the most rigid professors.

Jilian Woods is a freelance writer and blogger. Her main spheres of interest are e-learning, blogging, IT and STEM education.

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