<p>My Physics teacher is a genius. Okay, slight exaggeration, but not much. He has a PhD in Engineering Physics, among other ninja-like level achievements in the science world.</p>
<p>However, he is not that great at teaching. He is just too smart...he assumes that we understand concepts that we have never heard of before, and when we ask him to explain, he just goes "Oh, well you just do this...to this...and then you get your answer...this."</p>
<p>Don't get me wrong, he's a great guy. Most of his students love him as a person, but it's just SOOO frustrating to have a poor teacher for Physics, especially when I want to major in some kind of engineering.</p>
<p>My physics teacher was like that too (PhD in nuclear physics from Los Alamos National Lab). He was a genius (and I don't use that term lightly), but the nice thing was he treated us like geniuses too. The problem was, we couldn't understand half of what he taught us. He also tried to teach us about way more math than he should've (partial derivatives, 4-vectors, bessel functions, 1st/2nd order homogeneous diffie q's, etc.), most of which went waaayyyy over our heads. He ended up teaching us way more than we needed to know, but at least we all aced the AP Phy C exam. :/</p>
<p>My ex physics tutor was like that also.
I couldn't understand the concept because he couldnt teach me well.
So I dropped him. It was too annoying and I didn't understand..</p>
<p>I had a physics teacher like that! He had his PhD from Yale and had this long and VERY profitable career in nuclear engineering or something, then took a 99.7% pay cut to teach when he retired. He was a great guy, but everything he said just went whoosh--right over my head.</p>
<p>at least half of my teachers went to ivy league/ivy league level schools, and quite a few have phds, etc.
lets just say that some of them make me feel incredibly stupid in class.</p>
<p>That would be my dad. He has a PhD in chemical engineering, a master's in chemistry, and a master's in mathematics finance. I ask him to explain an AMC problem, and he does it at this ridiculous speed and writing down the equations all over the paper really not neatly and quickly. It's impossible to learn anything!</p>
<p>My math teacher is like that, and he is very overqualified. What makes him truly awful though is that he just can't seem to understand why some students can't get the material (calculus). When this happens, he gets upset and blames the students. Awful class.</p>
<p>my ap physics teacher(woman) is JUST like that. she is so smart that we cant keep up with her. she thinks that we get it but we dont. she is not neat at all, not clear, but so smart. so i just ask my dad (elec engineer) to show me how to do the problems. its been 3 weeks since i have had her and i still dont know how to understand her. hopefully i'll learn.</p>
<p>I'm not sure what kind of degree my Calculus teacher has, but he's incredibly smart. The first time he explains something, we usually don't get it, but then he explains it a few times and things click into place! And he's an awesome teacher who loves telling corny jokes.</p>
<p>Working on an equation, with variable "C":
"Now we're going to move on to C, so you'd better bring your boats...</p>
<p>Working on an equation with variable "U":
"...In other words, 'U' is... actually, it should be 'U' ARE, equal to..."</p>
<p>"Saying this function is discontinuous at root 2 is like saying it's discontinuous at my grandmother's house" </p>
<p>"For the proof? it's just the toe sticking up through a discontinuous blanket!"</p>
<p>"A mathematician is someone who knows it's worth flogging a dead horse. You don't come across a dead horse very often."</p>
<p>"Of course, mathematicians occasionally find they have defined a man-eating duck, but they don't mind" (On defining things without proving they exist)</p>
<p>"There are more ways to kill a cat than to drown it in cream."</p>
<p>"So where is the rabbit?" (On an incorrect proof)</p>
<p>"When you can do one proof hanging by 1 toe over boiling oil, you can do another proof." </p>
<p>my AP Bio teacher is way too smart. she was the only female in her class and although she only has a major, she knows everything about bio. However she is a terrific teacher and treats you as an equal. Great experience. </p>
<p>However my Chem teacher is another story. she is not a chemist by trade, but a biologist. she takes the questions at the back of the college level chemistry book and takes them a million times further to stuff we never remotly covered.</p>
<p>Better a smart teacher than a stupid one. My ex bio teacher was super duper nice as a person but his specialty was chem so often he'd be like, "oh I don't know the answer to this hang on ..." and 2 min later after reading the textbook, he'd go "oooh I get it now. Read this page you guys, it has a really good definition"</p>