How Did I Not Ace Undergrad?

I don’t know if I’ve complained about this before, and I really don’t care if I have, but given the stories I hear from professor friends of mine I really have to wonder how I didn’t end up acing my entire undergraduate career.

Being involved in writing, I know a lot of professors and teachers. Undergraduate, graduate, high school, and so on. Being friends with such people on Facebook, I hear a lot of stories when they get frustrated with students. Rampant plagiarism, extreme apathy, downright inexplicable behavior (such as asking how to get an A in the course in the final weeks after not having turned in the majority of the assignments), and so on. Based on the complaints I’ve seen, this sort of thing must happen a lot.

So how did I not end up totally acing all my undergrad courses? I went to class. I paid attention. I did my assignments and actually turned in my own work. I read assigned readings. Even if I didn’t care for the subject, I did my best to engage. Granted, I’m sure I mucked up a thing or two and must have forgotten a deadline or some such thing, but still. Given how bad many students seem to be and how many of them end up getting by in college, how did I not have straight 100%’s across the board?

It baffles me sometimes.

Then I remember, the majority can’t be like this. The stories I hear are from frustrated professors, not pleased ones. Pleased ones don’t rant on Facebook. I have to keep that in mind.

Still, there are way more students pulling a lot more crap in some undergrad institutions than I can really believe. I just can’t believe it’s true sometimes.