Many of my students were lamenting the state of their grades this term.
"During first semester I worked pretty hard, and I got A's and B's. But then I got lazy, and I'm worried that I might get some D's or F's this term," they said.
I chuckled. They are typical freshman at this university in Tokyo. However, I can't imagine that many of them are actually going to fail their classes. It takes a criminal amount of absences to fail a class here. The course that I teach has one of the most stringent attendance policies in the school. Students are required to come to 70% of the classes in order to pass.
My students are doing pretty well this semester, so I cautioned against getting overly pessimistic.
Hey, at least they show up for class.
