41 Rubrics Alleviate Students’ Stress

As a student, when it comes to writing a paper for one of my professors, it feels like weights are being put on my shoulders. There are professors that want certain things but never notify their students or there are professors that never explain the assignment but they are more than proud to hand their students F’s. Rubrics helps students determine what are the basic needs their papers must have for each professor as well as assignment. Rubrics are created for students to understand the assignment, they have categories for what type of grade students will expect for their assignments, and what students must do in order to achieve their particular grade goal. Rubrics are helpful for students to alleviate their stress, understand the task at hand, and feel well prepared for when they hand in their assignments.

A writing instructor at Walden University and Southern New Hemisphere University, Crystal Sands, mentions that students started to understand the assignment more when they were given a rubric and that rubric was further explained. A plethora of my fellow peers argue that they need a professor to specify what the professor wants from their paper. For example, the amount of words needed, how many pages, what style of writing, etc. This is where rubrics come in handy, they explain the assignment, what is expected of them to write and how long, as well as what it should look like. When the rubric is further discussed in class, this allows students to ask further questions about the assignment. As a result, the students will become confident because they start having ideas of what their assignment will look like and what information they will put on the paper.

To further explain the stress when it comes to doing assignments. As a student in college, it is extremely stressful when we are assigned assignments. The reason being is that we have to figure out how this assignment is going to be done, the way we need to execute it, and how we are going to perfect it before handing in the assignment. A plethora of students think about what they are going to write for their assignment before doing it because it allows them to figure out what they are going to write. This process could take a couple of hours to a couple of days. We need to wait till something clicks in our brain in order for us to comprehend the assignment or come up with ideas on what to write about. Once that process is completed, the writing process starts which takes hours or a couple of days to perfect the draft that needs to be completed. When it comes to having rubrics it can make the process go by quicker for the students because they do not need days to figure out what the assignment is. Rubrics allow students to comprehend the task at hand and let them complete the task with confidence because they did it correctly.

When it comes to being a student, we have a ton of stress that is pushed upon us. Some students work, some students have children or siblings that they have to take care of, some students are working hard to have a high GPA to get scholarships because they cannot afford college, and some students have strict parents that do not allow them to have a certain grade. When it comes to an assignment they do not understand it can cause more stress on them and sometimes leading to a panic or anxiety attack. Having a rubric that explains the assignments and presents to the students what the professor is expecting from this assignment. It helps relieve the students stress because they will have one less thing to worry about. As a student, there have been numerous times where I had extremely bad panic attacks because of assignments. I did not understand what the professor wanted from me because there was no rubric or explanation. I would ask around and look up the meaning of the assignment online but none of them had one clear solution. Giving out assignments that have rubrics is extremely helpful because it will explain and show to the students what is expected of them for this assignment.

Rubrics are a must for a course. In the beginning of the semester college students are given syllabus that list the work that is going to be done throughout the semester. Giving students a rubric for every assignment is something that would be needed for students. For example, students go to a class once a week and throughout the entire class the professor just reviews what was in the readings. But when an assignment needs to be done the professor expects the students to know what to do. The problem with that is most of the time students are going with the flow during that class because something isn’t clicking for them. Usually assignments help students understand their work because they are being forced to analyze everything. Creating a rubrics leads the students towards the correct direction by explaining what the students need to analyze and how they should go about their explanation. Professors should create rubrics for every assignment in class because that is how students are forced to learn and memorize their work.

In conclusion, rubrics are helpful to students because it relieves their stress, helps students understand the task they need to complete, and feel well prepared for when they need to hand in their assignments. A writing instructor at Walden University and Southern New Hemisphere University, Crystal Sands, mentions that the rubrics helps students understand the assignment that they are given because it gives a clear description of the assignment and grading points of what the students will get. When the rubric is explained for further questions from the students, it helps the students have an idea of what they need to write for that particular assignment, as well as helps the students understand what grade they will get if they missed a particular point. When the students hand in their assignments they will feel confident about their work because they know they answered all the questions that need to be explained in their assignment.