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Fuck professors

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user098123
Posts: 6072 - Karma: 18
Why do you get profs that feel like they have to fail their students? I just don't understand it. I just got out of a Calc 3 exam, I knew how to do every problem int he book pretty much. Get to the exam, there isn't a single question like what we did in class or in the book, at all. Totally fucked, I figured out 1 problem out of 5.

In my other classes I have a prof that aims for the class to hit a 60% average on his exams, and he doesn't curve the exams. What the fuck.

End rant. I just hate how much control one professor can have over your GPA.
Nov 8 2007 11:43AM
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-Otto-
Posts: 456 - Karma: 40

Totally true... in your case it's a professor, in mine case it's just a normal teacher. But this guy ruins my Biology, I hate the control they have over you...

Nov 8 2007 11:47AM
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Maximumsushi
Posts: 7837 - Karma: 3,351
60% Average sounds about fair in exams, especially in non-core classes. If you don't know the material, you shouldn't pass the class. I wish professors were a little bit more stringent in some classes. The quality of university graduates in Canada is dropping all the time. I'd imagine its the same thing in the United States, but I don't know so much about their secondary education systems.
Nov 8 2007 12:09PM
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user098123
Posts: 6072 - Karma: 18
A 60% average is very near a failing grade. The university requires that professors aim for a 2.0 average, which ranges from a 70%-75%, which is widely accepted as an 'average' grade. I do agree that not many people should pass with flying colors, but in a core class (Calculus 3) which is 4 credits and has a large impact on GPA, a 60% average for your students is pitiful. If the majority of your students is failing, and not because they don't understand the coursework, that is your fault as a prof. Unfortunately, there is nothing the students can really do about it. Especially not at this point in time.
Nov 8 2007 12:17PM
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J.D.
Posts: 21362 - Karma: 5,143
I agree completely. The idea of clustering people around a passing average is completely unfair to those who know the material better. If you don't now what you need to know, and relatively well at that, you should absolutely fail the class. It seems as though all one needs to do to pass in undergrad is hand everything in and show up to the exam.
Nov 8 2007 12:23PM
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freezed
Posts: 12973 - Karma: 500
You're concerned about a 60% average? I wish I could get 60% on some of my midterms.
Nov 8 2007 12:56PM
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JockinJLoads
Posts: 3480 - Karma: 6
lol same here, some of my neuroscience courses pwn me so hard
Nov 8 2007 1:02PM
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mski
Posts: 4791 - Karma: 3,803
Yah that grading in college seems so rediulous to me. I have only recieved like 2 or 3 grades so Far in my first semester. And when you ask they going to how the dean and the departments would rather not disclose grades till the end of the semester....seriously, my midterms grades only said if i was failing or if I had a C- or better...What gives? I personally think my school, champlain college, is having serious issue with there grading policy because of there new structure for core classes. Do other people find this in there classes too?
Nov 8 2007 1:28PM
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beer.
Posts: 3096 - Karma: 44
I am planning on grad school, so I need a very good GPA.  here is what you do if you have a teacher like that...

withdraw

my school lets you withdraw pretty late into the semester.  fuck teachers like that.  if I attend class and work a reasonable amount, I deserve a B, if not an A.  I decided I wouldnt get professor-fucked a while back in high school bc I had a teacher exactly like the one you described for physics, he only gave pop quizzes that were 2 questions long and if you got any part of it wrong you got an F.  I would come in knowing all the material and still get an F.

its bullshit, there is no reason to make things unreasonably hard.  the goal of a teacher is to teach, to get you to learn the material.  how exactly does giving a test that is unneccessarily hard or on completely different material get you to learn anything?
Nov 8 2007 1:39PM
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Sknsnw9
Posts: 957 - Karma: 10
thats dumb...pop quiz in college?  was it listed in the syllabus? or just show up to class then bam pop quiz?  they just cnat do that if it wasn't in the syllabus because the proff have to tell everyone the assign. quizes and tests.  I mean what if you weren't there to take the pop quiz becasue you are allowed to have 2 or 3 unexcused absent correct?


Nov 8 2007 2:44PM
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DANETRON
Posts: 6671 - Karma: 137

I get attendance quizes and shit liike that. If your there you get a 100% if not 0% and they are always ramdom.

Nov 8 2007 2:48PM
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user098123
Posts: 6072 - Karma: 18
That's exact it right there. What some other people said is true, yes, that you should at least know the material and if you don't you should fail. However, I think you guys are missing my point.

It's not the average student doesn't know their material, and the classes are curved to make up for them. With that, you could have 75% of the students know hardly anything at all, walk in and get a decent grade cause they all nearly fail. The classes I'm taking are all fairly advanced for my year, and are not curved. The exception is organic chemistry has a slight curve to it, but not by how the average is. The prof just throws out your lowest score.

The point of an exam is to put out challenging material related to the topics covered in the books and class. In my most recent exam, it was literally designed for us to fail. i believe it was because the average was so good on the first one, I received a 95%. This one I know for sure that I failed it, the stuff on the exam was way above and beyond what we had covered thus far.

Teachers should be strict, yes, and the idea of a curve is idiotic, if you don't know the material, you should fail. At the same time, however, you should not aim to fail the majority of your students, that is just absurd, and you could potentially wreak quite a large bit of damage upon a students GPA.
Nov 8 2007 4:43PM
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user098123
Posts: 6072 - Karma: 18
Basically what I'm getting at...is that there is a big difference between making the material hard enough for your students to have to work at it, and designing it hard to the point that it's designed to fail. Quite a few professors don't know exactly where that line is.
Nov 8 2007 4:58PM
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back_woods
Posts: 1579 - Karma: 10
Yeah I just got back two middies where I pulled 70s, class average was 60s. In my mind it was bullshit- I knew the material really, really well, but the exams were just pitched in a retarded fashion - we were being quizzed on the stuff we hadnt payed attention to in class- there was no reason why we'd focus on those fringe areas, and then to focus all the marks on those areas is pretty cheap- its not testing you on what youd learned in class, it was testing you on trivia for no apparent reason. IT really got on my nerves, because im also heading to grad school and 70 doesnt cut it. 
Nov 8 2007 5:05PM
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freestyler540
Posts: 13106 - Karma: 18,906
In my program, I have one instructor that lets his class have a less and 50 average. For once, I have a 20 % higher than the average


Nov 8 2007 6:31PM
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[tightpants]
Posts: 1529 - Karma: 17
so true. I wish i could drop some of my classes like that but if I do then I wouldnt graduate in 4 years.  But my GPA is getting killed by dumb-ass professors that try to fail everyone. Its not cool.
Nov 9 2007 11:32AM
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Itsbackfliptime
Posts: 18901 - Karma: 75
Calc 3 at Michigan State can't be that hard. I mean come on, its Michigan State.
Just kidding.

I know how you feel. I just hate when exams are entirely trick questions.
Nov 9 2007 1:01PM
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BenBach
Posts: 1034 - Karma: 14
hahaha get your prereqs done at community college or some place else because big schools just want to fuck you, so they departmentalize all the tests.
Nov 9 2007 1:27PM
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Tolz
Posts: 1882 - Karma: 27
departmentalize - good way to put it
Nov 9 2007 3:11PM
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Me_Gusta_Esquiar
Posts: 216 - Karma: 10
if you fuck your professor chances are you will get better than a 60%...
Nov 9 2007 4:17PM
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skithebert
Posts: 2163 - Karma: 16
I wrote a paper on grade inflation in higher education.  Ironically I got an A on it.

The problem is that more and more professors are adjunct faculty that need to get rehired every semester or year.  Their rehiring is mostly based on the student evaluations they give every semester  And guess what, you grade hard then students give you bad reviews and you don't get hired again.  Grading hard also reduces enrollment and classes with low enrollment get cut in budget crunched universities.

There's a professor at Harvard who gives an inflated grade for the students records but also privately gives them the grade they actually earned.  He realizes that cracking down will just put his students at a disadvantage.  It's not a solution, but it's a way around it.

Bottom line is education is a business and we are the consumers.  They need to keep people in the seats and paying tuition so they give us what we want.  A degree and a high GPA.  That's what it comes down to.
Nov 9 2007 4:36PM
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skithebert
Posts: 2163 - Karma: 16
I wrote a paper on grade inflation in higher education.  Ironically I got an A on it.

The problem is that more and more professors are adjunct faculty that need to get rehired every semester or year.  Their rehiring is mostly based on the student evaluations they give every semester  And guess what, you grade hard then students give you bad reviews and you don't get hired again.  Grading hard also reduces enrollment and classes with low enrollment get cut in budget crunched universities.

There's a professor at Harvard who gives an inflated grade for the students records but also privately gives them the grade they actually earned.  He realizes that cracking down will just put his students at a disadvantage.  It's not a solution, but it's a way around it.

Bottom line is education is a business and we are the consumers.  They need to keep people in the seats and paying tuition so they give us what we want.  A degree and a high GPA.  That's what it comes down to.
Nov 9 2007 4:36PM
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skithebert
Posts: 2163 - Karma: 16
sorry for the double post
Nov 9 2007 4:38PM
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skiP.E.I.
Posts: 7838 - Karma: 22,102
my profs all seem pretty good. they don't really wnat to fail any one.
Nov 9 2007 7:39PM
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solitaryman
Posts: 3578 - Karma: 123
this is why you fuck off in life, and ski.
Nov 9 2007 7:50PM
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