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Meeting regularly with each student who does poorly on the midterm.
One professor of forestry gives the first of two midterms early enough in the course to allow him to identify any students who may be having difficulty. After the first midterm, he asks each student who did not pass to talk with him about the exam results. In these meetings he tries to discover each individual student's problem. "I ask questions such as `Did I misread anything you gave as an answer?' or `What problems did you have in taking the exam?'"
He concludes each meeting by telling students that he is certain that they can do better and striking a bargain with them. "Usually, I tell them that I'll forgive the first midterm and let their grade be determined solely on the second midterm and final," he says, "on the condition that they agree to meet with me weekly to go over homework assignments and to get additional help.
"About nine or ten students take advantage of this help each term," he explains. "As a result of this technique, in the ten years I have been teaching I have not had to flunk a single student in a course. Giving students a second chance, I find, is a powerful motivator."
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