Brittany Henry, associate producer of The Sims 3 University Life Expansion, has posted a new blog titled “A Guide to Making the Grade”.

The Sims 3 University Life is full of new options for hanging out and making friends. However, in between all of the parties, socializing, and fun activities, your Sim might want to attend a class or two. Whether your Sim is an A student, or only attends class to nap, I’m going to tell you all about how to get the best academic experience for your Sim in The Sims 3 University Life.

Preparation for university can start before your Sim ever leaves home. Before enrolling in university, your Sim can take an aptitude test. Your Sim’s traits, skills, work experience, and even high school grades will affect their test score. Scoring well on the aptitude test can result in credits toward a degree and scholarships to help pay tuition costs!

Once your Sims says goodbye to hometown family and friends and gets settled into their new living environment at university, they may be finding themselves asking, “Now what?” Well, now it’s time to take them to class, of course! Classes start Monday morning, and the university creates a schedule for every Sim based on the class load selected during enrollment. Use the academic panel in the UI to check your Sims’ class schedules and keep an eye on their academic progress during the term. There are tons of ways to affect academic performance, and performance is what will dictate your Sim’s final grades at the end of the term. So how do studious Sims finish the term with flying colors? Let me tell you a few ways…

Mondays and Wednesdays are devoted to seminar-style classes. These classes are held in one of the academic rabbit-hole buildings on campus, and can vary from Introduction to Dodging Questions to Methods and Practice of Tragic Clowns. While in seminar classes, you can choose from a variety of tones to set behavior of your Sims; tones will affect the amount of academic benefit your Sim gains from a class. Is your Sim feeling ahead of the curve? They can take it easy and chat with friends. Or maybe your Sim needs to suck up to the professor for a little extra academic boost since they forgot to study. Truly sneaky Sims can always ask another poor sucker (I mean Sim) to attend class for them; all the benefits of actually working hard in class but without the pesky use of your Sim’s valuable time! Be careful though, professors don’t look kindly on getting someone else to do your work. If caught, there are consequences…

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