How come my sims keep failing university classes

"Mizzila1297;c-17984806" wrote:

"Minai;c-17984791" wrote:
Yes. I put the option for "take notes" and my sim still does not do well. I get that notification after her class

Does she only fail class when she takes notes, or regardless what setting it's on? I usually just have my sims set to whatever the default is and they manage 4.0 GPAs after doing the presentations, term papers and homework

I'll try that :)

I'd also ask if you are arriving on time and in a good mood. 4's classes can be quite fickle and with larger households I have had Sims be randomly late and thusly underperform.

"Calico45;c-17984825" wrote:
I'd also ask if you are arriving on time and in a good mood. 4's classes can be quite fickle and with larger households I have had Sims be randomly late and thusly underperform.

I honestly completely forgot about mood, too! That could do it.

"Mizzila1297;c-17984827" wrote:

"Calico45;c-17984825" wrote:
I'd also ask if you are arriving on time and in a good mood. 4's classes can be quite fickle and with larger households I have had Sims be randomly late and thusly underperform.

I honestly completely forgot about mood, too! That could do it.

Oh wow I didnt think of that either!

Mood matters? Oh, heck, that might be the reason I've had several sims fail or barely scrape by. I will have to remember that! I've found it's easier to send them to Uni if they don't live in a dorm. They get to class on time and don't wander off and miss their finals that way. :D But it is more satisfying to have them live in a dorm.

Useful tips here. Thank you.

"Isharell;c-17985110" wrote:
Mood matters? Oh, heck, that might be the reason I've had several sims fail or barely scrape by. I will have to remember that! I've found it's easier to send them to Uni if they don't live in a dorm. They get to class on time and don't wander off and miss their finals that way. :D But it is more satisfying to have them live in a dorm.

Yes, mood also makes a different in careers! I don't think it's quite as drastic, though haha

> @Isharell said:
> Mood matters? Oh, heck, that might be the reason I've had several sims fail or barely scrape by. I will have to remember that! I've found it's easier to send them to Uni if they don't live in a dorm. They get to class on time and don't wander off and miss their finals that way. :D But it is more satisfying to have them live in a dorm.

Whenever my sims live in a dorm they always arrive late at lesson and miss their finals.
Even though I lose part of the experience offered by the expansion, I prefer keeping my sims at home. This way, they are able to be nearly always on time, they get perfect scores and they even manage to have part-time jobs and build a family while studying.

After pushing a huge numer of Sims thru Uni there is one major thing I recommend.
Even if you play on short lifespan, or feel it's "cheating" in general to turn off aging... do it.
Just stop aging until you get thru Uni.

The main reason for this? It is simply much much easier to do a maximum of 3 classes a "year". Also, never do more than 4 total "activities" (including classes) per "year".
With that I mean that the maximum workload that is doable, really consistently, is 3 classes and one student organization OR extra activity such as soccer, e-sports, babysitting, what have you. Also keep in mind that grinding thru 4 sets of homework is much much worse than 3 sets. And not doing your homework will always make your grades suffer badly.

Also when picking your student organization: to maximize grades and make life easier I strongly recommend the Braniacs or the Debate Team depending on what school you go to. Third choice is the Robotics people. The rest are Flavor Only so to speak and I would not pick them unless you go down to two classes per "year", meaning you can join both the debate team AND the spirit squad.

Personally I tend to spend 5 years at Uni, something not unheard of IRL anyway ;). My preference is a 3 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 3 plan, class wise since especially Scholarly Ambition is very grindy in the middle if you want to pick that one (I always do). To fulfill the 3rd step that involves tutoring 5 classes, usually takes 2 "years" to complete while the 1st and last steps in the Ambition are very easy to fulfill so 3 classes is easy.

Also, keep in mind that Elective classes can screw up your schedule by being on the other end of campus right after or before a regular class. This will mean your grades will suffer since you will be late for those classes every time unless you can teleport thru Yoga or is a vampire or Wizard.
Regular classes are never scheduled that way, even if they are directly after each other they are always in the same building then.

Two final tips:
1. Never ever ever push thru more than one Sim thru Uni at the same time unless both live in the same household and it is off campus.
2. The last bit above is important. It is much easier to study off campus since the Sim is never late for classes then, since they teleport away to class like any other job. On the other hand you miss 50% of the experience with going to Uni, not living in a dorm. Up to you.

Since we are talking about it, I put a seven Sims household through uni in the dorms. So I have experienced these issues, which I solved by going into super micromanage mode. I was so busy that I didn't even have time to pause.

I had two in soccer. A few in the brainiacs, but couldn't bother to keep up with those activities. Majority were mermaids so they were constantly trying to swim at the very end of the campus. Originally I had them all at different credit loads, but I quickly burnt out and made them all take the highest class loads to graduate quickly.

I was successful, and they all did well, so it is definitely possible if you are willing to put the effort in. However, I wouldn't exactly call it that fun of an experience.