Ever had a really bad professor and didn’t know what to do? Starting a thread for people to share stories and outcomes. Maybe doing so will help students not feel like they are under the mercy of a bad professor.
I had a professor during my freshman year whose grading had no rhyme or reason to it. It was a Tuesday/Thursday class, and we had 7.5 points for attendance and 7.5 for participation each day, so we could earn 30 points per week. The first day of class, she told us that she wouldn’t dock us for participation during the first week because we weren’t really delving into course material until the second week. So, when she posted the grades for the first week (it was around week five when she started posting the grades), I saw I had a 15/30 for week one. I emailed her about it, and she didn’t have an answer. I didn’t want to sound like a grade-grubber, but to me, it was BS that she gave me 0 points for participation after she had said she wouldn’t dock people for that week.
In the end, I had to suck it up and deal with the 15-point loss. I just made sure to participate during every class, and I got 30/30 every week. It just really irritated me that she couldn’t give me a good reason why she took points off. A lot of the people in my class had the same issue.
Hmmm. Did you say anything at all that first week? I would not necessarily think of “not docking” as meaning that you would “earn” all 7.5 points just for showing up, but I would definitely agree that you deserved an explanation.
Well I’m just going to get this off my chest:
For the professor that copies theory from the text onto the board for the entire lecture and doesn’t explain anything… quit your job. You’re lazy and shouldn’t be teaching.
For the professor that gets angry when people don’t come to class because they learn more from youtube… probably a good time to find another career.
For the professor that may or may not show bias in grading and gets away with it because there’s no rubric… let’s hope you get early onset Alzheimer’s so you have to retire early.
For the professor that has to mask the inability to actually teach by forcing students to teach each other… maybe teaching college isn’t your forte - try kindergarden.
For the tenured professor that slacks off because he bets he can get away with it and makes the whole experience a waste of time… tenure is the bain of education and should be abolished.
For the professor that thinks on using self made notes instead of an actual text book that’s not rife with error… maybe you shouldn’t make students part of your own poorly designed experiment. We’re paying to learn.
For the professor that tries to control the curve by putting stuff on the final nobody’s seen before and wasn’t really covered in the course… we know you cry yourself to sleep at night wondering about your wasted life
For the professor that makes a course difficult by throwing in surprises rather than actually making material more complex… You’re not some innovative educator. You’re just a PhD with no real experience.
@AboutTheSame, I can’t remember if I did participate or not. To me, however, when she said she wouldn’t dock us during the first week, I and many other students took it as she wouldn’t really grade participation until week two. I was annoyed because how can she tell us that we won’t be docked points but then give 0/15. Doesn’t make sense.