University of Oklahoma campus
Once upon a time there was a student, who went to the University of Oklahoma. His name was Adam and he wanted to get good grades no matter what. He was taking organic chemistry with Mr. Roxin. It was one of his hardest class this semester, but he was so made up on getting an A. He was a straight 4.0 student and did not want this class to bring it down. On his first test, he got a C and he was stressed out as he has never gotten a C in his life before. He studied hard for it as well, yet he was not able to pull off a good grade for this class. Then one day as he was leaving his class, he overheard a one of the frat guy talking about having a study guide to the next test, which had some of the similar questions as the test. He never cheated on the test, but this time was considering it as grades mattered to him a lot. He wanted to get into Ivy league medical school so he overlooked the morals he was taught as a kid. The next lecture, Adam went up to the guy:Adam: Hey, I am in this class and really struggling. I heard you have some study resources and was wondering if you can give them to me.
Frat guy: How do you know? Who told you?
Adam: I overheard you guys talking the other day
Frat guy: I can give it to you, but be aware that this is just a study guide. Do not solely rely on it for the exam. Also do not tell anyone where you got it from.
Adam: I won't, thank you so much!
Adam went to his apartment and knew that he heard them say it is similar to the exam. He had exam next week so he decided to just study the study guide and not even open the book. He was so set on just studying the study guide that he barley glanced at the lecture slides. Time flew by and it was time for the test. As he got to the test, he saw there was just one question that was from the study guide and nothing else was the same. He was mad as this was his chance for redemption to get the grades up. He walked out of the test feeling miserable.
Few days later as he got the grade back, he failed the test. He never saw this coming and his overall grade went down a whole letter grade to a D. The other guys knew not to just study guide and study the lecture material as well. The test was similar to lecture slides and everyone did well on this test. Adam was foolish and greedy for the letter grade A so he was bound to do anything, but he did not do as instructed and lost his 4.0 GPA. He felt guilty as he could have just studied the lecture slides and could have pulled of a B or even an A on this test. However, his greed and foolishness got to him.
Bibliography: The Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt
Author's note:
This story resembles one of the story from Jataka Tales, The Merchant of Seri. The original story was of a greedy merchant who tried to fool a lady by buying her gold pot for cheap. However, the second merchant came and bought it by telling the lady truth on her pot being gold, and the merchant traded all his pots for one gold pot and lived happily after. Meanwhile, when the greedy merchant came back it was gone. I tried to create a similar concept on greed, but I used used grades and our campus for the context. Adam's greed of getting an A to keep his 4.0 GPA got to him and he lost it by just studying one material. I created a moral of not to be greedy or foolish.
This is a really creative story! I understand the feeling of wanting to do anything you can to get a good grade and I could really relate to the story. Letter grades are so important to some people and I like how you compared that to greed. Also, I like that you explained the original story in your note. This is not a story that I have read so that really helped me understand your story!
ReplyDeleteWow, I love how you changed the original into a scenario at our University, especially since it's oh so true what some people will do for a letter grade. If Adam had just focused on himself instead of using others and material that he shouldn't even have he probably would've been much more successful. It seems that greed never has a happy ending!
ReplyDeleteGreat story!
Hey Urvi! Incorporating the original story into one on our campus, with the names of actual professors and everything was a great idea! I feel like this is an actual problem for students sometimes because of the immense pressure to do well in school, so your story was very relatable as well :)
ReplyDeleteHey Urvi,
ReplyDeleteI really love the 21st century version of this Jataka that you provided. It is such a crucial lesson for any college student to learn either before they start college, or at the beginning of their college experience. I have watched too many people fail by depending on those study guides, and I've also seen people get sent to academic misconduct when they laid their morals to the side by cheating to try to ensure a great grade. Grade stress gets the best of students sometimes! Great job.