View Full Version : Worst mistakes made by the professor in the classroom.
threeonefour
10-10-2005, 03:49 PM
inspired by the 'is this fair post?' i was wondering what you all considered to be some horrible mistakes made by your professors in class. it doesn't have to be about grading.
my example is very similar to the 'is this fair post?'
My sophmore year my ethics professor wanted to have an extra credit assignment. the median grade in the class was something like 50 so this extra credit assignment wasn't really optional since the class had no curve. it was supposed to be a way to shift all the grades up a few % points so that the class got a decent grade distribution.
this is how the extra credit assignment was to be scored. the amount of extra credit available to each individual was:
(100-MINtestscore%)/2
so if your lowest test score was a 20% and you got a 90% on your extra credit that was equal to 36 points of extra credit ((100-20)/2 * .9).
this however wasn't exactly a very good method from a 'fairness' perspective. this is because it didn't give people who had lower averages the chance at more extra credit (his obvious intention) it gave students who bombed one test a chance at more points.
basically, the test taker with the higher variance was favored. if you still don't get it, two people could have a 75% in the class (which was actually higher than the highest grade in that class) and have a different amount of extra credit available. or even more drastically, someone could have 75% in the class and have more available to him than someone who currently had a 65%. and the only reason why the 75% guy has more extra credit available to him is because he is LESS consistent. which i couldn't see why a grader would want that build into his class.
dcasper70
10-10-2005, 04:06 PM
the principal of my town's high school walked in on one of the shop teachers doing a 10th grader.
threeonefour
10-10-2005, 04:12 PM
[ QUOTE ]
the principal of my town's high school walked in on one of the shop teachers doing a 10th grader.
[/ QUOTE ]
sure beats my story.
nothumb
10-10-2005, 04:12 PM
This post, and a lot of the college related posts I see, seems pretty stupid. You go to college to earn good grades and learn things. If you're doing this, you'll place high in your class and have a chance to meet your goals. If you aren't, you'll find something to complain about instead of improving yourself. That's more or less college in a nutshell these days.
NT
canis582
10-10-2005, 04:15 PM
One professor make a mistake when she expected me to do an assignment on the first night. Not a stupid ‘whats your favorite tv show’ or ‘why are you taking this class’ assignment either. I dropped that class like it was hot.
Worst mistake made by professors? How about not learning to speak english correctly? My most horrid classes were with foreign born profs with thick accents and/or an inability to project there voices.
How about art professor slicing finger off in paper cutter? Oops.
DasLeben
10-10-2005, 04:30 PM
[ QUOTE ]
Worst mistake made by professors? How about not learning to speak english correctly? My most horrid classes were with foreign born profs with thick accents and/or an inability to project there voices.
[/ QUOTE ]
Sorry, I just had to point this out. /images/graemlins/wink.gif
tonypaladino
10-10-2005, 04:31 PM
I don't think it's productive to agonize over or debate a prof's grading prolicy. It's like when playing a certain game that I won't mention: To be a good player, you have to adapt your playing style based on the texture of your tablee. You have to take the professor's grading style, and adapt to it.For instance, You might do the math and determine that throwing an exam can give you a higher expected grade for the course because it qualifies you for extra credit.
threeonefour
10-10-2005, 04:34 PM
[ QUOTE ]
Worst mistake made by professors? How about not learning to speak english correctly? My most horrid classes were with foreign born profs with thick accents and/or an inability to project there voices.
[/ QUOTE ]
on topic and a pretty good zing. i am assuming you are talking about how the thread title is worded pretty awkwardly. i have a bad habit of doing that. i think i have this problem where i just skim what i am reading/typing and frequently make those type of errors. i am pretty sure i am not dyslexic since i don't have any problem with math(its my field) as most dyslexics do.
anyway, i make a lot of typos on 2+2 since i am rarely not doing something else also when i post.
in reference to your OP. non native speakers can be really tough. i think if you are a physics or math major you get used to it pretty fast since you are exposed to a lot of foriegn professors and grad students early. depending on what school you go to of course, you could probably have more non fluent speakers than fluent speakers in your undergraduate physics career at some schools.
edit: maybe you didn't intend a zing now that i think about it. maybe i am just to self conscious about my grammar :S
threeonefour
10-10-2005, 04:36 PM
[ QUOTE ]
I don't think it's productive to agonize over or debate a prof's grading prolicy. It's like when playing a certain game that I won't mention: To be a good player, you have to adapt your playing style based on the texture of your tablee. You have to take the professor's grading style, and adapt to it.For instance, You might do the math and determine that throwing an exam can give you a higher expected grade for the course because it qualifies you for extra credit.
[/ QUOTE ]
yea i agree. i certainly didn't agonize over it. its all part of the game and playing the game within the game is what i am best at academically.
threeonefour
10-10-2005, 04:40 PM
[ QUOTE ]
How about art professor slicing finger off in paper cutter? Oops.
[/ QUOTE ]
did it come all the way off? wow that sucks. how did the class react?
threeonefour
10-10-2005, 04:46 PM
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I don't think it's productive to agonize over or debate a prof's grading prolicy. It's like when playing a certain game that I won't mention: To be a good player, you have to adapt your playing style based on the texture of your tablee. You have to take the professor's grading style, and adapt to it.For instance, You might do the math and determine that throwing an exam can give you a higher expected grade for the course because it qualifies you for extra credit.
[/ QUOTE ]
yea i agree. i certainly didn't agonize over it. its all part of the game and playing the game within the game is what i am best at academically.
[/ QUOTE ]
i'd just like to add why i actually posted this 'mistake'. it was pretty crazy because some people had like a 60% in the class and got a 100% on the extra credit and got lower grades than people with 50% in the class who got a 75% on the extra credut. you would think it wouldn't come up often but since all the tests were incredibly difficult an there was no curve the %s were all over the place so these kind of anomalies were commonplace.
naphinfitos
10-10-2005, 08:46 PM
I had an econ test last week. 5 kids got 100, 27 failed. There are 32 kids in the class. My teacher then proceeded to give an extra credit assignment worth 100% of the points back that you missed on the test, and it was mandatory. So 4 other kids and I had to do the homework which benefitted us nothing, and everyone else got bailed out for being retards.
The Yugoslavian
10-10-2005, 08:51 PM
[ QUOTE ]
You go to college to earn good grades
[/ QUOTE ]
It saddens me that this is the case for many, many people. It certainly shouldn't be the reason anyone goes to college.
Yugoslav
dibbs
10-10-2005, 08:59 PM
That cat in cali that left his laptop with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of privy government and business deals for some punk to steal on his desk.
I wasnt there, but pretty sure that was it.
sammysusar
10-10-2005, 09:05 PM
i went to a pretty good school and i found that about half the teachers did not even read your papers. some professors tried very little. think college is a waste because of this. but hey if you want a good job i guess you gots to go. anyway you can have fun and probably get all Bs if you take the right classes. i speaks and write good english from my college experience.
InchoateHand
10-10-2005, 09:16 PM
Wow, that would really grind my gears....
Can I start with a "worst mistakes made by college age kid's parents?" 'Cause sending them to college seems to win hands down according to OOT.
I had a teacher in Middle School who was talking about his personal life, and got onto the topic of his wife. I don't know what he was trying to say but he slipped and said he likes to lick her p***y.
Lots of laughs after that one. I don't think he came back that year.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
How about art professor slicing finger off in paper cutter? Oops.
[/ QUOTE ]
did it come all the way off? wow that sucks. how did the class react?
[/ QUOTE ]
Hanging from just above the 2nd knuckle. We all laughed.
STLantny
10-10-2005, 09:26 PM
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
How about art professor slicing finger off in paper cutter? Oops.
[/ QUOTE ]
did it come all the way off? wow that sucks. how did the class react?
[/ QUOTE ]
Hanging from the 2nd knuckle. We all laughed.
[/ QUOTE ]
I had an art teacher do that in grade school. first time I had a teacher say fuk in grade school.
silkyslim
10-10-2005, 09:57 PM
[ QUOTE ]
the principal of my town's high school walked in on one of the shop teachers doing a 10th grader.
[/ QUOTE ]
Was the teacher a female and was the 10th grader a male? cuz thats awesome. if it was the otehr way around lock that pervert up
nothumb
10-10-2005, 10:25 PM
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You go to college to earn good grades
[/ QUOTE ]
It saddens me that this is the case for many, many people. It certainly shouldn't be the reason anyone goes to college.
Yugoslav
[/ QUOTE ]
Way to cut off the rest of the quote. Obviously you don't just go to get good grades, but why go if you aren't trying to succeed? I don't see the point for all these kids who go to school to scrape by, and don't want to put in even a minimum of effort.
FWIW I burned the candle at both ends for eight semesters and graduated magna cum laude. There is no reason you can't work hard and play hard. Anyone getting a 60 on an easy test and complaining about the professor has their priorities way out of whack.
NT
GuyOnTilt
10-10-2005, 10:45 PM
Not in college and went to good private schooling thru high school. The only thing that bugged me was one of my instrutors constantly referring to Reuters as "Rooters" instead of "Roiters", but it's not like it really mattered. Oh and my finance instructor my senior yr was constantly making mistakes, but that's just 'cause she was a dolt all around.
GoT
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Worst mistake made by professors? How about not learning to speak english correctly? My most horrid classes were with foreign born profs with thick accents and/or an inability to project there voices.
[/ QUOTE ]
Sorry, I just had to point this out. /images/graemlins/wink.gif
[/ QUOTE ]
There's a difference between speaking and writing. Sorry, I just had to point this out. /images/graemlins/wink.gif
And I wasn't trying to zing the OP about his grammar or whatever. Was just referring to trying to flounder through math classes, which I hate, taught by some ching chang that isn't confident about his english so he speaks so softly that no one can even tell he speaks barely comprehensible english. Student's grades shouldn't suffer because of the horrid communication skills of some of these professors.
Another mistake made by a professor that pissed me off was my Human Sexuality prof putting questions on the tests that weren't in the textbook or lectures. That prof broke my 4.0, and it was just embarrassing getting a subpar grade in sex class, so I stuck it in his wife's pooper.
Drew16
10-10-2005, 11:38 PM
During a college Humanities class my professor was trying to start a discussion on why we use the words we use for certain things. For example why do we call a car, a car?
However, the first example that came to his mind was, "Why do we call a pig, a pig and not...a nigger"
Of course there was a black guy in the class and the professor instantly started stumbling over his words, turned red and was trying to save himself saying "maybe that wasnt a good example"
nothumb
10-10-2005, 11:51 PM
[ QUOTE ]
During a college Humanities class my professor was trying to start a discussion on why we use the words we use for certain things. For example why do we call a car, a car?
However, the first example that came to his mind was, "Why do we call a pig, a pig and not...a nigger"
Of course there was a black guy in the class and the professor instantly started stumbling over his words, turned red and was trying to save himself saying "maybe that wasnt a good example"
[/ QUOTE ]
When I used to tutor at the residential treatment center I now work at, my college advisor used to come in and work with the guys. Most of them are black and this is a young, urban, and hence very homophobic crowd. One of my guys in particular was throwing 'F-A-G' around like it was nothing.
I asked him to stop, and when he didn't grasp what was so offensive about it, I was trying to explain to him that it's a derogatory word for a whole class of people and is thus unacceptable. He still wasn't getting it.
My advisor (his name was Jim) is about five foot three, seventy years old and a very mild mannered, impish, friendly guy. Spent a lot of time working for SNCC and SDS in the 60s, real left-wing guy. He just pops up and says to the kid, "Well, it's sort of like how you wouldn't want me calling you a nigger, isn't it?"
This of course infuriated the kid, who spent the next ten minutes trying to fluster Jim, play the race card, etc, and Jim just smiled and politely explained that he was illustrating a point. It was great.
NT
I had a high school religion teacher that admitted she was addicted to sex. Her daughter then walked very soon after.
youtalkfunny
10-11-2005, 02:32 AM
[ QUOTE ]
During a college Humanities class my professor was trying to start a discussion on why we use the words we use for certain things. For example why do we call a car, a car?
However, the first example that came to his mind was, "Why do we call a pig, a pig and not...a nigger"
[/ QUOTE ]
The more you guys post about what goes on in those classrooms, the happier I am that I didn't waste four years listening to nonsense such as this. And I'm not even talking about the "nigger" reference. Cross that word out of the post, and I still find the post outrageous--that grownups would spend their time and money on such nonsense topics.
What is "humanities", any way?
A friend of mine told me he was majoring in Liberal Arts.
"Liberal Arts? What does that mean?", I asked.
"It means I go to school and F*CK OFF all day!"
ptmusic
10-11-2005, 02:37 AM
First class this semester, my old male accounting prof is discussing a situation with a cute girl. He says "suppose I paid you $50 for your services."
Awkward silence, some guy chuckles, whole room roars with laughter. Old prof and cute girl both turn beet red in embarrassment.
-ptmusic
imported_anacardo
10-11-2005, 02:51 AM
[ QUOTE ]
During a college Humanities class my professor was trying to start a discussion on why we use the words we use for certain things. For example why do we call a car, a car?
However, the first example that came to his mind was, "Why do we call a pig, a pig and not...a nigger"
Of course there was a black guy in the class and the professor instantly started stumbling over his words, turned red and was trying to save himself saying "maybe that wasnt a good example"
[/ QUOTE ]
If he'd just played it off, it would have been fine. Only when he started getting embarassed did this become an incident.
beernutz
10-11-2005, 04:06 AM
Actual question from a physics exam I once took:
A building is 30 meters tall. How much does it weigh?
The funny part was that the instructor, when asked about the question, could not see what was wrong with it.
WackityWhiz
10-11-2005, 04:25 AM
I had this western civ teacher once who gave me a 60 on an essay I wrote when I clearly deserved a 65
The Yugoslavian
10-11-2005, 06:03 AM
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You go to college to earn good grades
[/ QUOTE ]
It saddens me that this is the case for many, many people. It certainly shouldn't be the reason anyone goes to college.
Yugoslav
[/ QUOTE ]
Way to cut off the rest of the quote. Obviously you don't just go to get good grades, but why go if you aren't trying to succeed? I don't see the point for all these kids who go to school to scrape by, and don't want to put in even a minimum of effort.
FWIW I burned the candle at both ends for eight semesters and graduated magna cum laude. There is no reason you can't work hard and play hard. Anyone getting a 60 on an easy test and complaining about the professor has their priorities way out of whack.
NT
[/ QUOTE ]
Sorry, I should have been clearer that I wasn't talking about you but that I took a piece of what you said and am commenting on how I think too many people (in general) think that way. Rereading my post now makes it painful obvious that I also implicated you to be a perhaps poster child of this group.
That wasn't my intention.
Anwyay, I agree that the OP seems to have his priorities out of whack. I mean, I don't really feel the professor is taking the best line for the grading most likely but that is far less important than the OP having so much trouble in the class in the first place.
Yugoslav
Dave G.
10-11-2005, 06:08 AM
My lecturer this semester is really dumb. I dunno how, but she managed to schedule 7 20 minute presentations into a 1 1/2 hour time slot. I think she must have failed high school maths or something. She then expected us to stay back the extra time to watch the extra presentations.
I hate this subject. Basically, the students give half the lectures, and the lecturer does jack all.
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