As a student for almost 17 years now, I can say there are several ways to understand a subject. Sometimes you go to tutoring for a one-on-one with the teacher. Other times you study on your own and use flashcards. Other times you study with a group. Or all of these options. SOMETHING has to work, right?

Wrong.

In grade school, sometimes, even if you fail all the tests in the class but you do all the homework, show up, and participate, you'll pass the class. Not so much in college, especially at a CUNY. I've experienced all types of classes. Specifically, in a science class, I found it very hard to digest information and understand the concepts enough to pass the class, even with maximum effort.

So what happens when you know for sure you will not pass the class?

Well, there is something called a Credit/No Credit form. It is basically a form that saves your GPA in case it is too late to drop the class. If by before the final exam, you know for sure that either you are going to get a super low grade or you'll fail, you have the option of filling out this form. If you do fail, it will come up as NC (No Credit) and it won't factor in your GPA.

The bad thing about the form is that if you use it and get a no credit, you still wasted an entire semester of your time and you still had to pay for the course. Also, there is a limit in Hunter College that you can only use it for 4 courses. This I find to be preposterous because you don't know how many classes you will take that put you in a predicament, when you have no choice but to decide to drop them in the middle of the semester or you get an F.

Now, what happens when you get an F? For the most obvious part, it brings your GPA down. I would advise, even though I didn't follow it myself, if you have time, to retake that course. Pick a different teacher. Because if you get an F, you get an option of retaking the course. Anything higher than an F, say a D, is your problem. But if you do retake the course and get a higher grade, your GPA will go up. It is worth it if you have the time to retake the course.

What I don't like about the system is that after you have finished with your Credit/No Credit forms, you have to drop the class and settle for a W (Withdraw) if you think you are failing. The W won't affect your GPA, but it also won't look good. I feel that we should have more Credit/No Credit forms because it does nothing to the school financially if we fail a class. We are still failing the course, we just don't have to spend the rest of our college career making up for one class by getting higher grades in other classes.

It just does not make sense why we have a limit. Even if this encourages us to try to do better, it still won't affect the result. If you are struggling in one area of the core requirement, no matter what class you take it won't look good on your grades. A possible suggestion would be to let us use however many Credit/No Credit forms we need or not requiring all areas of the core requirement. If it is a subject that is not in our career path and we are struggling to pass it, it really should not even be required. The CUNY system, or at least, Hunter College, needs to take a look at this policy again.