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are not comfortable with that.

THE STRATOSPHERIC LECTURER
You're furious. You just sat through an hour-long Statistics lecture, and while your professor was definitely speaking English, you still didn't understand a word she said. You didn't even understand enough to ask a coherent question. Dr. Stratosphere believes that if she gives you the mathematical theory behind the statistics, you'll understand everything much better. You, on the other hand, aren't even sure what a t-test is, let alone what the theory is behind it.

The hazards: If you can't understand what is going on in class, how can you possibly pass?

How to cope: This would be a good time to make a pest of yourself. Find out when your professor's office hours are. After attempting the homework, bring it to Dr. Stratosphere's office and ask her to go over it with you. Visit at least once a week. By the end of the term, Dr. Stratosphere should know you by sight and recall the names of your family members. If there is a recitation or lab associated with the class, spend time with the instructor or Dr. Stratosphere's teaching assistant to get the help you need to complete the assignments and to ask for a "what do I really need to know" translation of the lecture. If your school has a tutoring center, this is the term to make full use of it. In addition, check the school bookstore for helpful supplementary texts to help you understand the subject, and look for tutorials on the web.

THE TERMINALLY LAID-BACK
Hey, it's okay, kids. If you want to read the text, that's cool, but mostly what you're doing in class is talking. Sometimes you even talk about the topics from the readings. More often, Dr. Laid-Back gets off on a tangent involving his travels, his last conference, or why things are so much cooler in Europe. Oh, and there's a paper due at the end of the term. You're not sure how long it should be or what the grading criteria are, but hey, Dr. Laid-Back will figure that out after he collects the papers.

The hazards: You have no idea what your grade will be based on, and you're thinking that you're not going to learn a whole lot in this class.

How to cope: If there's an opportunity to transfer into a different class, do it fast. If not, you'll want to keep up with the readings for your own sake. Keep pressing Dr. Laid-Back to talk about the projects that will count toward your grade. Ask in class, and be polite but persistent about the project criteria and how it will be graded. Request a grading rubric, and

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