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Respect for professor/courses? (AKA, how I made my interim prof upset today)
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| RJT |
c0r Version: If you are satisfied with what you know definitively will be your grade in a course regardless of whether or not you finish a final exam or project, is it common courtesy just to "finish it out strong"?
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So I just got done with a final an hour or so ago - and going into it I knew that I needed exactly a 4% to get a B in the course. This was a general degree requirement math course for BA students going into teaching - algebra, stats, and pre-calc stuff.
Our grades for the course were calculated on a point system, i.e:
5 x 100 pt Exams
1 x 200 pt Final
1 x 100 pt Homework grade
So effectively going into the final I had put myself in a position where I needed exactly 8 points out of 250 to get a B in the course. As I had no desire to waste 3 hours of my time this afternoon taking an exam that was genuinely worthless, I completed 4 problems worth 5 points each, double checking my answers to be certain all 4 were correct (and I did 4 just in case even my double checked answers were wrong).
So I get up about 5 minutes into a 2 and half hour exam to hand in my paper and the professor looks at me as I hand it to him and says "Done already?"
I reply, "Yup. Here you go."
P: "But you didn't finish the exam."
RJT: "I know."
P: "Don't you care about your grade?"
RJT: "I already know I have enough points for a B."
P: "But you didn't even take the final."
RJT: "I know."
P: "Don't you care enough about your classes to finish them?"
RJT: "I just finished this class."
The professor proceeded to shake his head and I just left - but honestly, why the guilt trip? This was a low level class that half the people were taking solely to graduate - certainly not a class for math or science majors.
Was I really that big of a dick for not taking the final? I kind of thought the reason he set up a points system was so students could know what grade to expect - I did, so I didn't care to bother with the final.
Thoughts? |
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| iammesol |
This is what you pay the school for (educating yourself with the help of an instructor). How you instruct yourself is not up to the school.
He should be proud of you for "doing the math" to figure that out. :p |
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| wizniz |
its like walking to the finish line when you are ahead...
sure you'll still win, but its better for you if you go to the end.
you did all that work just to half ass the final? lame. prioritize and get that done the right way! |
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| Fibonacci |
Kudos to you, most professors get mirked when students are as callous about their work as they should be. Students pay dearly for classes, and alot of professors have no appreciation for that. They think we should "appreciate" the material for its intrinsic values. Really, we're all there for the grades. That will make an intrinsic difference in my career, regardless if I actually know or remember the material.
Have any professors who insist you buy books, only to find out later they were "supplementary material" or written by the professor, and that it was not necessary or vital to class material? Yeah, thanks professor, it's not like I'm working my ass of working double midnight shifts making $6/hr just so I can afford your $100 book and $50 work of supplementary crap.
By the time I was a junior, I didn't buy books until a few weeks into the semester. By then I had a good idea of what books I actually needed, what I would need occasionally and thus could use the library, and what was an absolute waste of money.
Professors really can't relate, for the most part, for the plight of students. These guys make 6 figure salaries with tenure, and we're having ramen noodles for dinner. Right.
I had one professor my junior year, taking a neuroscience class, shortly before the beginning of the FINAL EXAM, tells us the other final for the other half of the class, all the answers were marked 'A'. So I'm going through, question by question... B... B... B... B... Hmm, I'm seeing a trend. I continue about 1/10th of the way through the test, and am adequately confident that the answers are all B. What a guy, giving us an easy way to boost our score. Must be nice to have tenure.
Wrong.
I failed my final, miserably. Since that point I've lost all respect for professors. I called him up and complained that what he did was wrong and I would go to the dean of the department and the university if necessary. You can't create a bias like that on a FINAL EXAM, much less any test or anything being graded. I was later able to boost my grade, but still it made an impact on my impression of college professors.
So really, nobody is looking out for you better than you. Kudos to you for working your ass off this semester and getting a B without even needing to take a final. |
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| RJT |
| quote: | Originally posted by wizniz
its like walking to the finish line when you are ahead...
sure you'll still win, but its better for you if you go to the end.
you did all that work just to half ass the final? lame. prioritize and get that done the right way! |
Are you kidding? An A would have literally no effect on my GPA - none. There was no benefit at all to be had from working any harder than I needed to - and considering I took absolutely no break this year, and start an 18 credit semester on Tuesday, I think I was well within my right not to stress out about something that was entirely meaningless.
And if the given response is "You should have done it for yourself" - I did. I worked hard enough during the first 10 days of a 15 week course crammed into 13 days to get a B - and it took a piss ton of work and stress to do it. |
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| UWM |
| quote: | Originally posted by iammesol
This is what you pay the school for (educating yourself with the help of an instructor). How you instruct yourself is not up to the school.
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Ding ding ding.
Big shock, a tenured member of academia being pompous about his course. |
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| lücid |
man, he's acting as if you just pooped in his cornflakes or something!
p.s. wanna go for beers and bruschetta @ Nessun tonite? ;) i think this was a stressful week for both of us and i don't want to wait until tomorrow to get out and do something. |
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| RJT |
I think this would also be an appropriate time for me to comment on how much I hate attendance policies at the college level. Frankly, I'm paying for the course - if I can meet every standard you set for having mastered the material expected of me, and the only thing you can downgrade me on is attendance, the problem is not with my attendance - it's with the professors course.
Basically the mentality for me is that if I can ace your class without showing up it's your fault, not mine. |
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| RJT |
| quote: | Originally posted by lücid
man, he's acting as if you just pooped in his cornflakes or something!
p.s. wanna go for beers and bruschetta @ Nessun tonite? ;) i think this was a stressful week for both of us and i don't want to wait until tomorrow to get out and do something. |
Absolutely. My treat.  |
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| Zoso |
You goddamned lazy, long-haired hippie, people like you...oh, wait.
:p |
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| SuspicionVandit |
| a B means you failed to get an A |
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| RJT |
Holy crap - do you go to Oxford?
:conf:
Frightening realization, this. |
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