<p>Hi,
I have always had to look at taking at classes when planning for upcoming semester schedules and there are always some classes I need where the professor has no rating. How do people decide if it's worth it to take the class with the professor who has no known rating (could end up horrible, such as the Econ 100A one that everyone talks about)? Is it worth it to take it?</p>
<p>Honestly, it’s sad that it’s come to taking anonymous individuals opinions to register for classes but I wouldn’t risk it. My GPA is worth more than actually learning something because my future takes precedence so I damn sure don’t take a class that’s not required without completely vetting it and the professor (or at least getting opinions from friends).</p>
<p>I personally wouldn’t risk it, especially if it’s an important class, because I like to play it safe with my GPA, others might feel differently but I know my limits.</p>
<p>Personally, if I need the class, I would just suck it up and hope for the best. I will agree, however, that it sucks when there are no ratings. I remember once semester I chose to ignore the negative rating for the teacher of my pre-cal course and everything people said about him was true. He was a cool guy, but didn’t know how to teach. </p>
<p>Going off what 123456789bc said, I really HATE HATE HATE HATE when professors say that “GPA and grades aren’t important.” I’d rather have my dick be run through a food processor than listen to another professor spew this absurd statement.</p>
<p>^^ lol. thats painful passion folks</p>
<p>ya. i hate when theres no ratings either. also, when profs INSIST on you buying the newest book when there is only 5 pages different from the older edition (and costs about 9X the older editions price). also, when they post books the day before schools starts when they could have posted them 2 weeks earlier and given you the chance to order them online for way cheaper.</p>
<p>^^Campbell and Reece, tell me about it</p>
<p>And you grade whores who don’t think that learning is more important than grades will get . .let’s see . . . no where in life. </p>
<p>Grades are not motivation for success. Pursuit of skill and knowledge is.</p>
<p>I think the “pursuit of knowledge” can only be found in humanities/social science majors.</p>
<p>I’d bet my stars that there are more students doing pre med because their parents forced them to or who are breaking their balls (or…vagina…) because the engineering path is the more logical path which will lead them to better job prospects than there are students in EECS/pre med who are actually doing it for enlightenment. I think if people were REALLY looking to learn something which appeals to them or pursue knowledge, we’d have less people in the more difficult fields (e.g. EECS, pre-med, sciences). Of course there will always be exceptions, but I’m pretty confident this is the case for most students in these difficult fields.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>if you want to learn, come back to college and take every class you ever wanted to take here AFTER you’re rolling in the $$$. Until then, grade whore it up.</p>
<p>Alternatively, if you honestly love learning, and work hard to “learn” the material, then wouldn’t you NATURALLY get high grades? also, don’t grade whores who get straight A’s end up “learning” too? You can’t say they know more than your laid back class-subject lover who got a C. so they go hand in hand.</p>
<p>but my opinion is still:
grades >>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >> >>>>>>>>> learning.</p>
<p>If you’re passionate about your choice of career, then naturally you’ll get good grades. If you grade whore for the sole purpose of money or prestige, then you will never be amongst the best in your field and will never be truly successful. Those spots are reserved for people who give a ****.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure what professors mean when they say “Grades and GPA aren’t that important” is that the amount of effort at which some students work for the extra 0.3 GPA boost in that one class is ridiculous.</p>
<p>My EE professor said, “If you’re going to cheat, don’t do it for a half grade. Run a ponsy scheme at least.”</p>
<p>face it. why do you/your parents pay big money for you to study here at cal? its a nice big public school, the best in the world. just walk on campus and sit in on lectures. no one here would stop you. no one would even notice. you get the same education as the kids sitting around you paying to be there. you could sit in for tests, go to OHs, etc etc, whatever you want. so. if you could do this for free and get this renowned caliber education, why pay the $$$? oh yeah, its for that fancy looking list of all the classes you took with an even fancier assortment of little letters A,B,C,D,F next to each one, your transcript. oh, and that cute little piece of paper that you get at the end of it all, your diploma. oh, what about the cool gowns and all that other stuff like a spiffy summa cum laude title. wait, so why the money? oh yeah, its for the GRADES.</p>
<p>People like you make me feel sad.</p>
<p>^^ its sad but it is true. no denying that.</p>
<p>if you learn the material well, you’re probably going to get an A in the class anyways.</p>
<p>but to answer the OP’s question, it doesn’t really matter if the professor is bad imo because everyone in your class is in the same boat. no matter who the professor is, you still have to score in the top 25% on exams to get that A.</p>
<p>Crowslayer, for many people, they’re all in college to get a job afterwards. </p>
<p>I and some others are much more academic in nature and while we still care about grades, we don’t give it as much value as you might. We, rather, place much more value on the exciting intellectual challenges and on meeting like-minded people. I still get good grades, and I would guess that people like me would, but we don’t avoid hard classes. Instead, we’re excited by them. </p>
<p>To illustrate my point, most PhDs at Berkeley don’t care so much about job or lots of $$$. If they did, they probably wouldn’t have gotten a PhD in the first place.</p>
<p>I don’t get good grades but I didn’t suicide like you guys would. And I still love going to classes. I have a better heart than you.</p>
<p>lulz @ this thread</p>
<p>Yeah, I wish my heart was as large and great as yours.</p>
<p>tightrope game between value of classes and grades. i like it. i guess for a pure gpa obsessed person, they would avoid all hard classes to maintain max gpa. perhaps even go as far as to take the easiest major, fluffing along with the easiest breadths and electives the campus has to offer. hmm. i agree that it is fun to challenge yourself, but for me i get off just knowing that people want to compete for grades at a high personal or even social cost. i don’t advocate being anti-social, but i definitely enjoy when you can tell some of the people in a class come ready to kick buttocks, and then trying to beat them too. but idk. im still not on the academics’ boat, i guess you can lump me with gpa whoring. though idk how successful ive been lately, muhhhhhhhhh…</p>