Not Ready For Third Year

Carleton has this new policy where professors are supposed to have a small assignment due early in the year. That way students get early feedback on how they are doing and what is expected. They are usually really small assignments, for my English courses they are a page or a paragraph. I have started to get some back and I'm doing terribly. I used to be very flippant with my assignments and not put much care into my writing, usually doing it the night before. I would get great marks and think to myself, "Yea, I'm great, I pulled that out of nowhere." This year I'm not being nearly as cocky and have been trying to put thought and effort into my work. The marks coming back are telling me I have to put even more effort in. I don't like to improve or work towards good marks, I like to get good marks at the start and then just continue them.