Exams that end up having problems on them on material you didn't study adequately... or in other words, DON'T have problems on the material you DID study.

Today has been a very shitty day.

 

A very painful sinus infection / sore throat resulted in me missing my advising appointment for classes next semester.

 

...and all my classes for the day, as I ended up getting a stye in my right eye. FFS, this sucks, and I've got my big day at Bosch Tools tomorrow.

 

I used to get them to the point where I had to have them cut on. I have not had one in years :knockonwood:

 

So, some of you might have seen my status post on Facebook, but I feel I need to rant about it some in here.

In one of my difficult ME courses, I ended up seeking out the solutions manual after realizing that the homework comes from book questions, there are minimal examples in the books / notes, and the professor does a poor job of teaching (he simply reads off power point presentations which primarily consist of book examples, and I can download the power points and read them on my own). Regardless, I genuinely try to learn the homework problems as I'm working them, using the solutions manuals more as guide than a direct copy. One proof of this was shown in the recent homework where I correctly drew an image that was incorrect in the solutions manual.

At the end of class today, we got our exams back. I knew I wouldn't have a great score on the exam, because while I understood many of the concepts on the test, I forgot the specifics on how to prove the answers. Regardless, I was docked an incredibly large amount of points on virtually every problem, clearly indicating negative bias towards myself, likely due to portions of my homework resembling the solutions manual.

After class, I went up to him to discuss a homework problem that I felt he had docked me more points than he should have. He then asks me if I have the solutions manual, which I admit. Then he goes into a tirade of how that's illegal, it indicates I'm a poor student, I'm completely missing the point of education, and he'll even give me full 100% credit on homework and I don't have to do it for the rest of the course because he assumes I'll fail on the final exam, all with a smirk on his face clearly indicating that he enjoys berating me. He says "I could make my own homework problems, but why should I have to go to that extra work?" He refuses to listen to my argument that you can use a solutions manual as a guide without simply copying it, and that some people learn better with similar examples than more conventional teaching styles.

I VERY EASILY could have ripped into him about the fact that reading off power points made from book materials is hardly teaching, and he could make his own homework problems if he cared that much, but I was polite and refused to stoop to that level. Instead, I chose to simply ask him if, based on my exam grade (10 out of 50, with a high of 40, low of 4, and an average around 26) I still had a chance to "succeed" in the course. He wrote out the percentage different portions of the class were worth, and it looks like I could MAYBE get a B if I got 100% on the final exam, and a C is possible, but would likely be difficult. Needless to say, at this point I'm considering doing a late drop of the course, since dropping a class is far better for your GPA than failing or even just taking a low grade.

Finally, as I'm walking out of the room, he adds "And here when I first met you, I thought you were going to be an honest, hard-working student."

Now, I didn't want to make any poor choices, so I simply shut my mouth and walked out of the door, but this INFURIATED me. I'm taking 18 credit hours this semester, the maximum allowed without petitioning for permission to take more, with 15 of those hours being 300 or 400 level ME courses. In addition, I'm a teaching assistant for a class that meets 5 times a week, I'm the president for our school's chapter of a Mechanical Engineering honor society, I've been involved in a very stressful moving process for the previous few months, and my current financial situation has only further increased that stress. I don't need someone who doesn't know a thing about me and gets paid X amount of money a semester (in addition to his standard salary) to stand in front of a class to read power points that I could read myself to claim that I'm not honest or hard working.

f@#k. That. Shit.

 

Man, that's ridiculous. Props to you for keeping your cool. I doubt I would have been able to.

 

that's not cool at all Garrison. Have you considered complaining to someone in charge of the ME department? There is absolutely no reason a professor should treat a student like that. sorry

 

I would've let him have it if he said that to me. That's BS.

 

For what it's worth, I did indeed drop the class and spoke with several individuals on campus about it, and will likely be speaking with a few more. When it comes time to return his book, I will simply tell him that what he said was completely uncalled for, unprofessional, and disrespectful. He had no right to make that statement, especially when he knows so little about me.

I believe one's happiness is directly related to the attitude of the individuals around them. I'm infinitely grateful for the amazing support of my loving friends and family, and I have no interest in associating with people like that.

 

Garrison, my friend, sorry to hear this. I had something similar happen to me in an advance math class in college. We actually dropped the class en-mass. Kinda got the attention of the administration.

Just take the high road. It's not worth losing sleep over. There will always be 5-10% of people who you will not want to be associated with, who are incompetent, or are just plain idiots. This will apply throughout your life; it applies to professors, doctors, even air traffic controllers

Speak with a professor or another student you trust, and get their recommendation on someone different to take the class from. Take it your next semester, get a good grade, then slip a copy of it into this idiots mailbox. Quiet revenge.

5 years from now you'll laugh about it.