grrrrrrrrrrr.
Apr. 1st, 2006 02:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katekatI wish I could reach through the internet and strangle people.
the situation is this: I'm taking one of those 300 person American History classes. We have a test on Monday. Apparantly the professor is teaching 3 of these classes (so guess roughly around 900 students). He sent out the study guide on Wednesday, and some people emailed the entire class and asked if there were any volunteers to split up the guide, write answers, and then put it back together for study.
That all sounds normal, right?
On Thursday night I get an email in my inbox, and it's from the person who apparantly collated the disparate pieces of the group work into one file. Then she mailed it out. Again, to every single person in all 3 classes.
Whoops! I laughed, because I hadn't helped put it together, and when I looked at the answers, I wasn't really satisfied with what they'd said anyway. (yes, I am that much of a snob sometimes). So I wasn't planning on *using* it extensively, just maybe checking it to fill in something that I might've missed. Ya know?
Friday afternoon the prof sends out an email saying things like 'innappropriate' and 'distasteful' and basically says that he's going to grade the damn test HARDER because of this girl's failure to understand what it means to hit the send button!
And on the one hand, I understand, he's annoyed. On the other, if people actually learn the information, who cares where they get it from??? A study guide, a website, or the stupid $100 in books he made us buy - if they actually get the answers right, they're gonna know more than they did before!
I hauled off and wrote him a stern and angry email asking that the ass not grade us any harder than he already is. It's not like they're easy graders - they weren't for the first test - they were EVIL. Like, the TA that graded my test wrote "you mentioned significant information about each ID that most other students did not" and YET she also only gave me HALF the frigging points for the ID because I didn't talk enough about the "larger context" of each term. And to me, that seems pretty harsh - if I'm displaying knowledge about a term that 90% of the other people didn't even mention, shouldn't that count for something???
So we get a little email today, all apologetic (and yet, still, at the same time, with this lovely 'yes, i still have my head up my ass' tone), stating that the Professor isn't going to instruct the graders to be any harder on us. THANK GOD.
I was so pissed yesterday I ranted to Neil and EB. And Tyler. Luckily, now, I'm calmer, and as long as I know I've got a fighting chance, I should be ok...
I think the thing that frustrates me the most is that this class is NOT my in major, nor will it EVER be. EVER.
the situation is this: I'm taking one of those 300 person American History classes. We have a test on Monday. Apparantly the professor is teaching 3 of these classes (so guess roughly around 900 students). He sent out the study guide on Wednesday, and some people emailed the entire class and asked if there were any volunteers to split up the guide, write answers, and then put it back together for study.
That all sounds normal, right?
On Thursday night I get an email in my inbox, and it's from the person who apparantly collated the disparate pieces of the group work into one file. Then she mailed it out. Again, to every single person in all 3 classes.
Whoops! I laughed, because I hadn't helped put it together, and when I looked at the answers, I wasn't really satisfied with what they'd said anyway. (yes, I am that much of a snob sometimes). So I wasn't planning on *using* it extensively, just maybe checking it to fill in something that I might've missed. Ya know?
Friday afternoon the prof sends out an email saying things like 'innappropriate' and 'distasteful' and basically says that he's going to grade the damn test HARDER because of this girl's failure to understand what it means to hit the send button!
And on the one hand, I understand, he's annoyed. On the other, if people actually learn the information, who cares where they get it from??? A study guide, a website, or the stupid $100 in books he made us buy - if they actually get the answers right, they're gonna know more than they did before!
I hauled off and wrote him a stern and angry email asking that the ass not grade us any harder than he already is. It's not like they're easy graders - they weren't for the first test - they were EVIL. Like, the TA that graded my test wrote "you mentioned significant information about each ID that most other students did not" and YET she also only gave me HALF the frigging points for the ID because I didn't talk enough about the "larger context" of each term. And to me, that seems pretty harsh - if I'm displaying knowledge about a term that 90% of the other people didn't even mention, shouldn't that count for something???
So we get a little email today, all apologetic (and yet, still, at the same time, with this lovely 'yes, i still have my head up my ass' tone), stating that the Professor isn't going to instruct the graders to be any harder on us. THANK GOD.
I was so pissed yesterday I ranted to Neil and EB. And Tyler. Luckily, now, I'm calmer, and as long as I know I've got a fighting chance, I should be ok...
I think the thing that frustrates me the most is that this class is NOT my in major, nor will it EVER be. EVER.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-01 08:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-01 08:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-01 08:58 pm (UTC)You could always do like I do and compose in a word doc and then paste.
This is probably why I don't get that many comments, though.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-01 08:57 pm (UTC)(oh, and let me state, it's not like a multiple choice review sheet or anything - it's 42 IDs and 3 Essay questions, so even though this student sent out the 'answers' it's not like there's not more room for interpretation, etc.)
On the non-techincal side I understand where you're coming from (and in an sense, I do understand about him too), because now that everyone has the sheet it's easier for them to have the *same* perspective on the answers, adn that's not what he wants us to do.
On the personal side, I'm so fucking tired of studying this hard for an undergraduate lowere division history class I could cry. And if he was going to hold us to a higher standard of grading (like he was originally suggesting), I would've cried. And then flipped out. Because I honestly don't know what MORE I couldl've done, besides cheated, to be able to remember facts, dates, etc.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-01 09:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-01 09:05 pm (UTC)although there's still a contingent of professors who won't go near any of those resources - I always like them because I know I won't have to hunt for where they put their stuff.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-02 12:03 am (UTC)Glad to hear, though, that it was straightened out to your benefit, if only slightly.
Aren't non-major subjects supposed to be the fun ones? *g*
no subject
Date: 2006-04-02 12:25 am (UTC)But yeah, I'm really relieved that he's not going to penalise us. I'm still studying my ass off, just in case, though.
And I totally thought non-major subjects were supposed to be fun! But a history buff I am not.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-02 01:25 am (UTC)makes it easier to do stupider things, faster!
(and accessible to more people for longer.)
i accidentally paid my uni fees, when i'd already paid them a month before. i'm almost certain i wouldn't have been so stupid as to get through the entire process without realising something was wrong with this picture if it hadn't been made so quick and easy (and confusing and multiply redundant) by the Internet.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-02 06:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-02 01:37 pm (UTC)(i'm sure i can get it back, i just have to be organised and figure out exactly how to go about doing so. and then admit to having been silly. heh.)