A survey of recent Brandywine graduates shows students felt best prepared for college science courses, but that they were not well prepared for writing papers or the amount of work in college.

Supt. John Jarpe surveyed 26 Brandywine graduates from the class of 2011 in early January. He said he attempted to contact all 100 or so in the graduating class.

“That’s not a bad return on a (phone) survey,” said Jarpe, who performed the survey for the second straight year.

Students were asked questions pertaining to how well Brandywine Community Schools prepared them for college or the workplace.

Of the 26 surveyed, 23 said they were attending college and three said they were working.

More than a third of students said Brandywine best prepared them for college-level science courses. Six indicated Chemistry, while four said science classes. English and social skills each had four votes.

On the other hand, more than half the students surveyed said they were not well prepared in writing papers (9) and math (9). English received six votes.

“It reinforced what we learned last year — that students aren’t going away with the writing skills we want them to have,” Jarpe said. “It’s something we need to improve.”

About half the students said they were prepared for the amount of work required in college with some surveyed saying: “Tons more work in college,” “Not enough long-term assignments, like research papers,” and “I do less work in college than I did in high school.”

The majority of students (11) said they “would have studied more” when asked what they would have done differently. Other popular answers included “taking more early college courses” (5) and would “not change anything.”

When asked what advice they would give current Brandywine students, surveyed students said: “Study harder” (5), “Take school seriously” (5) and “Get involved, participate,” (5).

Twenty-one students said they were sophomores in college, while two said they were freshmen.