/sci/ - Science & Math

The only professor of mine that does pdf is my foreign language professor

>>7549468
>hey professor, I have a question about topic X
>"it's on the syllabus"

>Clearly and concisely articulate my question regarding the material

>"I don't understand the issue you have"

What is this, a syllabus for ants?

>>7549470

Or the other version of this. "Did you read the book?" I read the god damn book and it wasn't clear.

>>7549471
I hate this.

>>7549468
I've shamed one of the professors into using FSF approved software only.

Pretty funny, he hates me now though.

>The professor can barely speak English or whatever native language they are teaching in.

>>7549470
>>7549471
It means your question was so retarded that it's pointless to explain to you because you're probably going to fail/do very shit in the module anyway, so he'd rather spend time answering people who actually ask good questions.

>>7549473
Meant to quote this faggot too.

Stop expecting to be spoon fed an entire course.

>>7549478
>so, today *incomprehensible Chinese accent* take the limit of *incomprehensible Chinese accent* and then we can *incomprehensible*

SPEAK
ENGLISH
YOU
FUCK

>that one professor who wanted .doc handouts because she's too dumb to either upgrade office or get a .docx compatibility plugin

>>7549476
I would be interested in this story.

>That one professor that makes you use the uni's online system that everyone hates

>>7549488
>When every professor and retard in your school makes you switch to a new, worse online system in your last year of university
Shitheads.

http://its.umich.edu/projects/canvas/?q=node/1

>>7549493

They shoved our latest system down our throats and the best part is? Everyone hates it and it doesn't work as well as the old system. All that money essentially wasted.

>>7549468
>Professor insists, "You can ask any question in this class or in office hours about the material. Heck if you see me at the supermarket, go ahead and ask me and I'll give you an answer. There are no stupid questions."
>Students ask the dumbest questions about the material every class period and we're now two lectures behind the syllabus during the second week of class

>Inform professor that many of the students have a class afterward

>He continues to hold everyone late to sum up points that are in the reading

>>7549493
>>7549500
Hey I'm U of M too. Canvas really does suck.

>Professors trying to collect homework that wasn't assigned. Argues with students about what we covered.

Is it too much trouble to just write down what you assigned?

>>7549506
>Lecturer going over his time

That's the point where you get up or walk out, it's actually considered more formal etiquette to walk out that politely reminds the lecturer that his time is up without interrupting him, a non retarded lecturer then rounds off in 10-30 seconds or less and apologizes for going over his time.


I will never understand you people who think the faculty members are your parents.

>>7549526
>do that
>lecturer gets mad and scolds me as if I were a high schooler

apparently they still think we are kids that don't want to be there

>everyone who has a laptop open is on facebook/not paying attention at all

this is the method that I like to call
>Laptop In Class? They're A Stupid Ass!

If you see anyone in class with you and they have a laptop out, you know that they're 99% likely to be a dumbass and you just narrowed down who you should be friends with in the class. I use my method all of the time and have been right each time.

>>7549564
LICTASA

Remember it, prospective college anons.

>>7549471
then you didn't clearly and concisely articulate your question regarding the material.

>>7549506
>not getting up and leaving when you want/need
you are all at fault here, including the professor.

>that one guy who finished his thesis but didn't graduate because he failed a class in his minor
>that one professor who has great lectures but horrible TAs who ruin each exam
>that one TA who married an undergrad
>that one professor who only got her position due to women quota and every other lecturer openly jokes about in the lectures

>the 9/10ths of all engineer majors who end up dropping by graduation
>the 95% of bio majors who are pre-med and won't shit their fucking mouths about it

>>7549493
Goddamnit fuck Canvas

>>7549553
>lecturer gets mad and scolds me as if I were a high schooler
I seriously doubt that will ever happen. If it does tell him you have another appointment/lecture and he's over his time.

>>7549593
>>that one TA who married an undergrad
What's wrong with this? I-I'm asking for a friend.

>>7549588
This.

What the fuck lectures are open to the public, people usually come and go as they please, why do you think you need to sit there like a retard.

>>7549468
What on earth does this matter.
>>7549471
>Clearly and concisely articulate my question regarding the material
It pretty obviously wasn't clear and concise, or it was so elemental that you could not have gone over the basic material on your own like you were supposed to.
>>7549473
>I read the god damn book and it wasn't clear.
Don't get upset, your teacher is just trying to find out how much work you actually put in yourself to try and understand.
>>7549478
This is a valid annoyance.
>>7549485
>that one professor who wanted .doc handouts because she's too dumb to either upgrade office or get a .docx compatibility plugin
As a teacher you quite often have to deal with pants on head retarded course documentation systems, which, for instance, will not accept .docx files. These decisions are often not up to the teacher.
>>7549488
>That one professor that makes you use the uni's online system that everyone hates
We hate things like that too, but we don't get to decide what system the university uses.
>>7549501
>Students ask the dumbest questions
How on earth is that not the students' fault?
>>7549553
>apparently they still think we are kids that don't want to be there
Most of you still are.

Now it's my turn.
>Inform students they have to give a 10 minute presentation, and have five weeks (!) to prepare.
>If they do not present, they fail the class
>No extensions possible, unless they have a valid reason (funeral, ill for a longer time, etc)
>Send a reminder to each individual student one week before the presentation is due
>Every year at least two or three out of 20 students email me that they didn't prepare
>Complain when they fail the class

>Student doesn't show up for a single class in a course
>It's not mandatory to show up so that's fine, I prefer to work on my own times too
>The answers to literally all exam questions are in my slides, available on line
>Student shows up for the exam and fails
>Complains to dean that I didn't teach properly

>>7549473
kek
As a TA, about 75% of the questions I get in office hours can be answered by pointing to a single figure or couple of paragraphs in the text.

>Hi, I have a question about these equations that you just used on the chalkboard and how I can implement them
>"Not my problem, you should know this from the math course"
>B-but I take this course separate to compliment my physics program
>"Not my problem"

.....

>>7549619
>How on earth is that not the students' fault?
Because if you didn't tell the students it's ok to ask retarded questions they wouldn't do. You should shame stupid questions so they don't waste everyone's time in subsequent lecture.

The 90% of students who actually prepared for the lecture do not appreciate it when some retard holds up your entire lecture asking questions that could've been easily answered just reading the text.

>>7549593
>>that one TA who married an undergrad
so?

>>7549630
Check your prereqs, physics scum

>>7549630
I think lecturers stop giving any shit once they know you are not from their department

>>7549636
>Because if you didn't tell the students it's ok to ask retarded questions they wouldn't do.
You cannot possibly be serious.

>You should shame stupid questions so they don't waste everyone's time in subsequent lecture.
No, because then half the class fails and gives you a bad course evaluation. Everyone is supposed to learn, that's the point of classes.

>>7549619
>>7549636
>You should shame stupid questions so they don't waste everyone's time in subsequent lecture.
I fact I'd like to elaborate on this.

The best lecturer I ever had was a professor emeritus in his 80s. Someone questioned a seriously trivial derivation, his response:

>Do you have a 6 year old sister?
>What, why?
>You should ask her for help on this.


And the lectures went smoothly after that, students weren't apprehensive about asking GOOD question at all.


Also just fail the fuckers, if they can't follow simple instructions it's just unethical to put them through and let them fuck up in a working environment.

>>7549639
I met all the requirements, but because our government in Sweden decided to fuck up the curriculum with the GY11 system, there became a huge knowledge gap between university and highschool, my generation (1995) are the ones who are stuck in the middle of it

>>7549648
>Also just fail the fuckers
I would absolutely love to do that. The problem is that university management at my institution discontinues a course if over 60% fails a few years in a row.

>>7549647
>You cannot possibly be serious.
I am.

>No, because then half the class fails and gives you a bad course evaluation.
Contrary to what you might believe most students aren't low functioning FAS mouthbreathers. They do not appreciate your time being wasted by a minority of idiots any more than you do, they'd prefer it if you can actually get to the difficult material so they can be better prepared for the exam.

Your ratings won't suffer.

>>7549660
>The problem is that university management at my institution discontinues a course if over 60% fails a few years in a row.

What do you teach? If it's an accredited engineering course they wouldn't dare. My dean has had this showdown countless times and he always wins.

60% though damn that's quite a fail rate.

>>7549660
>The problem is that university management at my institution discontinues a course if over 60% fails a few years in a row.
This can't be true

>>7549619
>What on earth does this matter.
because latex

>>7549669
Surprise surprise, modern universities are money milling degree factories with grade inflation and zero standards.

I will never hire a graduate from an American private school.

If 60% is failing a course in a year, not once, not twice, but a few times IN A ROW, something is obviously wrong with that course.

>>7549677
It's either the course, or the students are extremely low quality and the other courses are too easy to show that.

Guess which one it actually is. Look at the degree and grade inflation statistics and it will be more obvious.

>>7549677
50-60% is perfectly fine for some courses,if they are on research level and have no Intro to X to prepare students. Especially if the university offers no possiblity to deregister from exams or is in a shithole with huge tuition fees.

Also courses in first year. Most all have >40% here, Intro to EE 1 has even 80% since it was established and nobody will change it.

>>7549661
>Contrary to what you might believe most students aren't low functioning FAS mouthbreathers.
Yes, they are. Only about 10% of my students I'd consider to be genuinely motivated, and only 2% to actually be smart enough to make it in science. Perhaps the problem is that this holds for mandatory courses, the student's didn't elect them but have to take them because they are part of the curriculum of whatever bachelor program they're doing. With electives this isn't so much a problem, but there you don't get nearly as many retarded questions either, whether you discourage them or not.
>Your ratings won't suffer.
They most certainly will. I learned that the hard way.

>>7549666
>What do you teach?
A few different courses.
Advanced neuroscience
Nervous system pathophysiology
Introduction to programming
Basic and advanced signal analysis
> If it's an accredited engineering course they wouldn't dare.
Some of these are in the basic curriculum, they still can be discontinued.
>60% though damn that's quite a fail rate.
Yeah well, if I could have it my way that's what it would be like for the electives at least. Degrees suffer from the inflation of grades.

>>7549669
Unfortunately it is. University management doesn't care about proper teaching. They care about diplomas and student evaluations.

>>7549692
>Introduction to programming
I pity you.

>>7549672
>Be a TA
>Pretend a lot of students were asking me how2TeX (I've gotten exactly 1 in 3 years)
>Write a communication explaining the basics, recommending distros for the winjew plebs etc.
>Not so subtly imply that they should learn LaTeX over their holiday break because they will be forced to use it in their research projects anyway
>mfw half the faculty actually uses MShit

I swear to god, I'll make freetards out this entire department one way or the other.

>>7549696
That one's not too bad to teach to be honest.

>>7549471
>Clearly and concisely articulate my question regarding the material
I knew a guy who thought this of himself as well. His ramblings were consistently incoherent, and no one ever understood him (not his professors, not his fellow students). He never even considered that the problem may be on his end.

>>7549690
Same here, our intro ChemE course has a deregistration rate of over 60%. Though they allow everyone in that meets the minimum requirements so that is to be expected. Exam failure rate is only like 50% for first year then drastically goes down every year.

>>7549692
Why are you teaching so many courses if I might ask? Are you at a research university?

>>7549727
>Why are you teaching so many courses if I might ask?
Because I'm required to. All researchers at my institution have to teach. The farther up the ladder you go, the less time you actually have for research.
>Are you at a research university?
Yes.

not from the US:

how bad is calculus 101 to teach? i've heard the class is filled with people who would rather be doing anything but maths, but need it for pre-med/advanced engineering/whatever

You guys are autistic and you guys are faggots. I would punch you in the mouth if you ever said that I was retarded for asking the professor a question. But you would never confront someone in person, because you're cowards hiding on 4chan.

>>7549736
Damn, that's intense though, faculty only needs to teach a minimum of one course in my department.

Some of them teach graduate courses that only have 4 lecture the entire year and then they even get someone else to invigilate their exams for them.

>>7549740
Calm down kid.

>>7549740
So you are that guy who ask the professor a question which the prof has just answered 5 seconds ago but you didn't pay attention?
Get a load of this faggot.

>>7549740
>But you would never confront someone in person, because you're cowards hiding on 4chan.
I've done so several times in front of an entire lecture hall and I'm sure some of them wanted to punch me in the face, but they didn't because I'm a 6'2" /fit/izen.

And no fuck you, we don't want retards interrupting the class because they are so far behind everyone else because they were too fucking lazy to read the textbook, you're wasting our time, drop out and come back when you are actually motivated.

>>7549619
>How on earth is that not the students' fault?
I'm the guy who posted that. It is their fault for not paying attention or doing any of the reading before class begins. I'm just frustrated that the professor though he's very nice is too accepting of really dumb, useless, and even repetitive questions (just on Wednesday we had the same question said word-for-word just 20 minutes later in lecture). I think he was expecting students to ask something more insightful when he made that statement and the stupid question bit probably either if you completely don't understand the material after trying your best or an interesting idea you may have that you're not too confident in sharing, but that's not how it's turning out.

He's a good lecturer and consolidates material well but I'd rather not go to lecture tbh but attendance is mandatory.

>"See me after class, I want to talk with you privately." *wink*

>>7549757
>I've done so several times in front of an entire lecture hall
The only thing that bothers me more than unprepared students, is students who try to do my job for me because they think they're better than the rest of the class. If a question is trivial it won't take long to answer. If the student doesn't get the answer, I sit down with them after class and move on with the lecture. If you'd pull shit like that in my class, interrupting a question, you'd be kindly referred to the way out.

>>7549799
Sounds to me like the problem isn't the questions, but the way your teacher handles them.

>>7549493
>>7549500
>>7549509
Canv-Ass, amirite?

guys?

>>7549808
It's a combination of both. Students too unmotivated/stupid (?) to follow the professor's reading guide or even him in lecture. The professor being a pushover.

I'm in junior year and I thought by now most of the people taking upper-level science courses cared about what they're learning. It's bio though...

>>7549812
I get it anon! Here's some gold! :^)

>>7549478
Professor's native language is English but he was born and raised in rural Arkansas and has a lisp.

>>7549828
Oops forgot to put meme arrow, guess no one will read

>>7549843
>meme arrow
kek

>>7549593
More like
>That one professor who left his wife to marry an undergrad.
or
>That one professor who fucks his TA

>>7549861

>An undergrad

>>7549509
Virginia Tech here. Half are Canvas half are Scholar, it's gay as fuck.

leave canvas alone moot tried his best

>>7549660
>fail them because of muh feelings

Americans are truly interesting animals.

>>7549684
>60% failure rates are okay
>low quality
jesus christ, you guys are fucking niggers. i bet you get assblasted if a student hows genuine interest in a subject, and he isn't an absolute genius.

And it's always physics autists that act like this.

>>7550696

Different anon, but It's not as cut and dry as you are making it out. Without a doubt there are classes that are poorly taught or there is some reason other than student ineptitude for a large number of failures. At the same time, there are many classes where students aren't adequately prepared for the amount of work involved. This is especially true when their curriculum is rather easy compared to typical expectations of undergraduate work for their major. A good number of students coast until they hit a "real" class.

>>7549468
every fucking one of them jesus christ

>the professor that looks at you exclusively everytime he talks

>>7550902
>when you make eye contact with the professor and neither of you wants to look away first

>>7550696
You should be able to get a degree just because you "show interest" in it.

>>7550902
>he then waits until you nod before continuing

>>7550902
this has only happened to me for one class but it can be unnerving
it's probably not even a conscious thing they're doing

>>7549468
>that one prof who gives docx files amid excel, pdf, gif, and txt files

>>7549509
I... kinda like Canvas. Granted, I haven't had anything else but it seems fine

>>7549493
>Pilot evaluations showed 92% of faculty respondents and 100% of student focus group participants either preferred Canvas to CTools or were neutral.
Oh my god kek

Handouts?
Textbooks?
What are those?

In my many of my classes you showed up for mandatory attendance, which was just you saying "Here" when a TA called your name in the first 5 minutes, then you could leave the room after the TA left. You were to later give a project relevant to the class that other people kept mistaking for a thesis paper given the requirements listed in the syllabus. Met professors for first time for final exams where they failed you for not know more then them.

>>7549509

I actually liked canvas, though it could get fucked if the professor didn't organize it well they and it at my CC. But now my uni has a custom shit interface that doesn't make much sense.

>professor is mexican

smh fam worst people on the planet

>those spergs that at the end of every fucking lecture go talk to the professor about obvious shit in a pathetic attempt to impress the prof

>The professor who usually takes this course is on leave until further notice, I'll be your substitute
>What is this course about?

>>7550995
should you ?
Sorry I'm not much into letting someone genuinely interested in building bridges build mine if they can't even pass calc 2 or can't model what they want to build.

>>7551115
>The professor who usually takes this course is on leave until further notice, I'll be your substitute
>explains 10 times better than the professor
>never comes back

>>7551121
Jesus fucking christ fam I was obviously being sarcastic.

Fuck this planet. Fuck that you even considered my post to be anything other than cynical sarcasm.

This thread made me look at the failure rates of the courses included in my CS education.
Considering only traditional written exams we had the following failure rates in percent:
>7, 13, 15, 15, 16, 16, 17, 17, 25, 34, 35, 43
In retrospect this seems really low, most people weren't exactly geniuses...

>>7550902
>>7550945
>>7551014

>class consists of 3-4 people
>you have no idea what the fuck he is talking about
>he keeps looking at you and your nods

>>7551181
>example/previous exams be made available
>learn these inside-out
>actual exam is almost exactly the same
This is how a lot of people pass courses round here.

>>7551176
Some people say that without the sarcasm, even in this thread, so...

>>7551051
>>7551061
Yeah I don't mind canvas. I downloaded the app and use it to submit assignments and check on grades. I don't know any other system so I can't really compare it to anything else. It does suck though when professors don't organize consistently and some put all the assignments under "Modules" while others use "Files".

I do have one professor this semester that makes you do some serious digging to find anything. She had the exam review within the "Exam 1" link under "Assignments". In theory it works but who would check that when the exam is done in class?

>>7549493
Didn't Moot invent canvas?

>>7551207
Moot's shitty, failed drawing app has nothing to do with this Canvas.

>>7550682
I want to fail them because they don't know the material, it has nothing to do with feelings. And I'm not even American.

>>7549757
>I'm a 6'2" /fit/izen
>People like this actually do lectures

Kill yourself, my man.