Following assignment sheets

In high school, I distinctly remember never actually having reviewed a single project’s rubric. When teachers assigned projects and homework, I’d simply follow the instructions on an assignment sheet’s first side, while ignoring everything I needed to do to get an outstanding grade.
“Why bother looking over the distinction between a 70 and an 80,” I’d ask myself with no small amount of arrogance. “To do well, all I need to do is follow the instructions.”
Sadly, it took quite a bit of time for me to realize that recognizing the difference between adequate and outstanding work is also the difference between barely knowing something and completely understanding it.
It wasn’t until my second semester of university that I bothered to ask for help from a classmate who consistently scored higher than me on our assignments. In hindsight, his advice shouldn’t have rocked my world as much as it did. After all, his suggestion was quite basic:
“Follow the instructions on the assignment sheet, and then turn the sheet over to see what the professor recommends for a perfect score,” he said.
I was taken aback. It was so simple—how could it have taken me so long to figure out something so simple. I took my classmate’s advice. I did well on my next assignment. I did so well, in fact, that I achieved my highest grade in that class until that point.
Was it the highest score in class? Certainly not, but I was in no position to complain. I’d finally learned the secret to doing well, and it only took four painful years of high school and half a year of university to figure it out.
University—indeed, higher learning in general—is designed to stimulate free thought, freedom of expression, and nonconformity. More than just one more stepping stone before entering the real world, university is a place where creativity is encouraged, and it’s a place where students are theoretically able to discover themselves in a safe, secure environment. At least, that’s what higher learning’s extracurricular activities seem to suggest.
University classes, however, seem to suggest otherwise. Even the most creative, artistic, non-conformist classes require a stringent adherence to rules and regulation. For the longest time, I was averse to this model of education.
“I’m a free-spirit,” I’d whisper to myself in defiance. “My mind is a vault filled with treasures. How am I supposed to let my ideas break free if essay structure keeps on bringing me down—man?”
Today, however, I’m a changed English student. Instead of avoiding my professor’s suggestions—indeed, the precise suggestions required to understand how to write, what to write, and how to succeed—I follow rules and regulations to the letter.
Learning is a rigid and structured process. It’s rife with constant, mindless repetition—repeated indoctrination until students not only remember facts, but also understand them. As a result, many classes that deal with the application of knowledge—labs, studio classes, seminars, etc.—don’t teach students what to know so much as how to apply what they know.
Assignment sheets are therefore not rigid reminders that we live in a world of conformity, but a reminder of how to do things properly. For the longest time—indeed, for far too long—I was convinced that I understood all of the secrets of the universe. As my grades in high school—and my early grades in university—will attest, that was not quite the case.
To new students, to old students, to all students, I say this: follow the rubric, stick to the assignment sheet, and notice how much better your grades will be.