What Can I Do?

Student Lounge College Life
1

<p>Okay, well, I'm sort of having a dilemma here.</p>

<p>This is my first semester in college, and I'm an overall good student. I have A's in all my classes except for one right now, and I want to know what I can do, as I'm sure many have been in the same position as I am now.</p>

<p>I'm taking a history class this semester, and the professor is bad, bad, bad..</p>

<p>There are over 45 people in the class. We recently took a test, and out of those 45, only 7 made a C or above, with no one making an A. There were literally 38 people that got D's and F's, and I'm one of those people.</p>

<p>I studied for this test for a good amount and time and felt like I knew the information well, as we spent over a month on the topics that were presented on the test. The test day came and literally every question looked like this:</p>

<p>A. Germany
B. Italy
C. A & B
D. All of the above
E. United States</p>

<p>Now, as a professor, you can write your tests any way you'd like, but this is confusing as heck! And that wasn't the only thing that made matters worse. The answers were extremely generalized. I felt like all of the answers could have been an answer to the question. </p>

<p>Let me tell you a little about this professor. He is super disorganized. He has ONE single powerpoint for EVERY lesson, and it contains over 2,500+ slides. He goes through the slides at LIGHTNING speed. You literally have the entire class taking pictures with their cellphones because we cannot write anything down in time before he move to the next slide. He is also unwilling to email the powerpoint to us. We came into class on the test day and he told us he had graded the tests from his other class and how bad they were and literally started laughing at people's responses from the other classes WHILE we were taking the test. This was extremely demotivating, unprofessional, and unnecessary if you ask me..</p>

<p>The professor is unwilling to curve the test, and I feel like I'm going to have to withdraw out of this class as soon as the day comes in November. We received our results today, and he basically told us how he's never seen such bad grades and how we're not taking enough notes or even paying attention in class, basically telling us it's our fault we all failed. As I said before, I've always been in good academic standing, I study hard, and I am passing all my other classes easily. </p>

<p>I seriously don't know what to do. Don't colleges and universities have to do something about bad professors? More than half the class is failing now, and this person is basically against helping us boost our grade up at all. Is there any way to talk to someone to get something done? I just worry about my grade, and my last resort would be withdrawing from the class...</p>

2

<p>First, analyze the test content. Was it primarily from the lectures? The book? There was one time that I was sick for a week before a test, and for the first time read the actual math book. Who reads math books? Not me! Surprisingly, I got an A on the test, and the majority of the class got Fs. Why? Because the book explained the material more clearly. </p>

<p>Double and triple check that you can’t “swap sections” of the same class to another professor. You might need to talk to the Dean - I am sure he has heard this before. If the prof is listed, find out his ratings from rate your professor dot com. Bring them with you when you talk to the Dean about switching. You are not trying to change the professor - you are trying to learn the material. This isn’t working for you. </p>

<p>Last choice would be to tough it out, perhaps even visit him in office hours before the test (yuk, but it might help) and chalk it up to a great reason to make friends with upper classmen. I always checked with others before signing up for a class - best way to avoid profs like this.</p>