That’s how I get students’ attention. How about a half-letter grade on your next exam? All you have to do… is get a good night’s sleep.
Here’s the link to the NY Times article on the importance of sleep.
Why bright students get humbled by the AMC
Contest math has a special talent for humbling brilliant students. A student who flies through school, earns top grades, and handles advanced coursework without much trouble can still completely stall out on an AMC problem about handshakes, symmetry, or counting. In...
When I was getting ready to go off to college, I was one of several hundred prospective freshmen selected to compete for 10 (almost) full scholarships at RIT. It was about a 5-hour deal, much of which was essay-writing, and it started pretty early, like 8am. They put the visiting competitors up in the student dormitories the night before.
Well, the dorm residents thought it was their obligation to show these kids a good college time, so there was much drinking and partying that night. That’s not really my scene at the best of times, and I just thought it was crazy to be staying up late drinking on that particular night, so I retreated to a relatively quiet room and went to sleep at a relatively reasonable hour.
And to that I still attribute, at least in part, winning an RIT scholarship.