Thread for complaining about the new semester.

[bluestarultor]

Those of us in school are probably mostly back in the swing of things by now and know what we're dealing with.

Sadly, I'm not on the ball at the moment and got a nasty surprise with my course material. First off, if the bookstore had actually contacted me when they said they did, I would have had my Music Appreciation crap earlier. They didn't. Now I'm scrambling for a test on Tuesday to listen to and memorize several pieces of classical music.

The worst part?

The songs are all broken up into a million segments and labeled as the music on the 4th CD.

For the love of God, I paid like a zillion dollars for this crap and THIS is what I get? Thank God it came with a booklet saying the real tracks, so I'm stuck doing the math to figure out where one song ends and the next begins and ripping all this shit so I can rename it all.

On top of that, the sound quality is junk and I know it's not my speakers, because I've played tons of other stuff just fine. Not that it's so bad that I can't tell what's going on, but for stuff that came with a music appreciation book, you'd think it would be decent quality so it was actually nice to listen to.



So yeah, slash-rant, complain about your own school BS.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Finding fonding this semester is going to be a bitch. -_-

Remember kiddies, never take online classes using an out of date OS. It always comes back bite you in the ass and in the end you still fail despite this.

[McTahr]

Blah blah Calc 2 blah blah Chem 210 blah blah Newtonian physics blah blah snoozefest.

Mine's not so bad if you keep up on the material, honestly.

[Si Civa]

In Finish highschool system we have YO (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abitur). They're basically final exams which may help you get into university though it's not as important nowadays as it used to be as most universities have system where only half applicants are chosen how well they managed in YO and entrance test and the other half are choosen solely by entrance test.

But anyway this YO thing is starting tomorrow with one of the stupidest tests in Finnish school system and next Monday I will have English listenning. After those two I will have reading vacation. On 15th March YO's start again

Aaaaand after those silly YOs I should start reading books for the entrance tests.

But it's not hard. I'm just little bit too lazy so I can easily fuck up everything (not really though). : D

[Professor Smarmiarty]

It's back to tutoring for me. I can't work out whether I'm the evil tutor or the nice tutor because I tend to yell at them all the time but on the other hand my side of the lab is always a well-oiled machie ad I get everyoe out at least 30 minutes before the other sides and people tend to ask me for questions more than others.
I must know how I am known!

Blah blah Calc 2 blah blah Chem 210 blah blah Newtonian physics blah blah snoozefest.

Mine's not so bad if you keep up on the material, honestly.
If your chem 210 is the same as my chem 210 the answer is always k-space. Consider that a super tip.

[Osterbaum]

I hate molecular genetics. Not so much the field of study as the course that goes by the same name at my Uni. It's so crappy.

[BloodyMage]

I would complain about English Literature lectures but they've all been so boring that I haven't been able to stay awake long enough to learn anything to complain about.

[Sir Pinkleton]

My calc teacher teaches well, and he doesn't allow calculators on quizes/tests/exams, so the stuff he assigns for a grade isn't hard. He assigns problems from the book, though, and I don't get why, but math books are really convoluted and hard to get. the homework isn't required for a grade, but it's difficult. I don't feel like I know anything by them. but in the class, and on the midterm, I feel okay. So basically I'm trying to learn calculus 2 without the benefit of good practice. :/

My other too classes are alright, though. I understand what I'm doing, if nothing else.

[Azisien]

Teachers teaching us to be teachers keep telling us to teach unlike old teacher lecture-style during their 4 hour long lectures.

[Aklyon]

Teachers teaching us to be teachers keep telling us to teach unlike old teacher lecture-style during their 4 hour long lectures.
Huh?
my school: blahblah idiots blahblah closingschoolsaftermyschoolalreadystarted blahgrr!blahgrr!grr!blah. 'best school' my arse.

[Julford Hajime]

I have a teacher who assigned over 1000 pages of reading material at 6PM (via email) for his 1:30 PM class the next day. I looked, and there was no mention at ANY point prior that we would need to have read this for that particular lecture, and nobody from the 100+ class recalled him saying such the Thursday before, either.

He's done this three times since January. The school has told me "Tough shit, drop the class if you hate it so much."

[CABAL49]

I am really dreading tomorrow. I am completely unprepared for my German presentation (pretty good at winging things though) and a test right when I wake up. Anyone here ever read Machiavelli's "The Prince"? Cause I haven't and that is part of the test.

[Azisien]

I have a teacher who assigned over 1000 pages of reading material at 6PM (via email) for his 1:30 PM class the next day. I looked, and there was no mention at ANY point prior that we would need to have read this for that particular lecture, and nobody from the 100+ class recalled him saying such the Thursday before, either.

He's done this three times since January. The school has told me "Tough shit, drop the class if you hate it so much."

That kind of request doesn't even make sense.

[Geminex]

Basically, he starts the book off with his motivation (which is that he's fallen from grace and seeks to become an associate of whatever noble he's dedicating the book to, I'm not sure which one it is. He basically says that when craftsmen seek a patron, they present the patron with a display of their greatest skills, he's apparently best at determining the traits and actions sucessfull ruler acts, thus he presents his potential patron with a "World domination: A how-to guide".

Ok, not really. But close.
Big M's basically summed up the qualities and actions of a successfull, more-or-less-absolute (a prince) ruler in a number of lessons, which are first explained in both their function and implications, and then backed up with evidence. Some of them are bullshit (in my opinion. Cause I'm a total authority on ruling a medieval european country), but some of them are interesting takes on the process of becoming and remaining a prince. The lessons encompass politics, strategy, statesmanship (as in, how a Prince is supposed to behave, what moral standards apply to Princes (answer: Not many)) and also military aspects, though I feel the military aspects fail slightly. European, particularly Italian politics were quite chaotic at the time, so an interesting analysis of the book would include the question whether the majority of Machiavelli's ideas are axioms which he supported, or deduced from, evidence, or whether he's just seeing patterns in the chaos that was politics.

[Eltargrim]

Dear circuit analysis:

Fuck you.

That is all.

[batgirl]

Maybe it's just me, but I find that while I'm taking difficult classes (Anatomy and Physiology and Microbiology), the material at the beginning of the year is super easy. I was warned that A&P would be really hard, but really, we're going over stuff I learned in high school. I expect it will get harder, but at the rate we're moving we'll hit that point at the end of the semester.

Also, while my microbiology professor is a genuinely nice guy, he has the most monotonous voice I've ever heard. Not only that, but he starts off talking normally, and then moves to mumbling at the end of his sentences/points. A 15 person class in a room made for 100 does not give us the best acoustics.

[Roland]

I have not been in college for around three years now, and it makes me very very sad. But I may be going back after this summer, so I'll probably be joining in with the semester hatin' then.

[Loyal]

Math class is... kinda disappointing so far.

The teacher spends most of the first class declaring a no-tolerance policy for missed assignments, saying that it would be hard and arduous (which makes sense, as it meets once a week for 2.5 hours). The homework we get for the week amounts to what would've been two days work in highschool, and the quiz last week had a mere twenty-five questions.

Maybe I'm just spoiled, but I was really expecting/hoping for a bit more of a workload than this. Maybe it'll pick up later, but I somehow doubt it.

[Ryong]

I didn't pass Computer Theory. I didn't even TRY Calc 2.

But screw it, I'm on my break now. I was complaining before and I WILL complain later, but not now.

The teacher spends most of the first class declaring a no-tolerance policy for missed assignments, saying that it would be hard and arduous (which makes sense, as it meets once a week for 2.5 hours). The homework we get for the week amounts to what would've been two days work in highschool, and the quiz last week had a mere twenty-five questions.

Maybe I'm just spoiled, but I was really expecting/hoping for a bit more of a workload than this. Maybe it'll pick up later, but I somehow doubt it.

The "TRY" Calc 2 thing? Why's it "TRY"? Because my teacher was the exact reverse of that. I went to the first five classes and then cancelled them because he said we had to "pick up the slack" as the other courses didn't get to host an international event that teaches a LOT about what we have to know for the first week of the course and thus he was showering us with homework. He gave us a list with 20 things we had just barely figured how to solve on the class he gave it to us. That was one extensive list of homework per 2 hours of class ( 4 hours total in a week ).

[Professor Smarmiarty]

I am really dreading tomorrow. I am completely unprepared for my German presentation (pretty good at winging things though) and a test right when I wake up. Anyone here ever read Machiavelli's "The Prince"? Cause I haven't and that is part of the test.

It reads much better if you take the stand that it is a satire. A lot of the enlightenmet would agree with you.
The best argument is that Machiavelli filled it with purposefully bad advice so the Medicis would take it and fall.

[Geminex]

Not all of it is bad. Oversimplified and too specific, but not horrible.

Then again, perhaps you shouldn't follow said advice. At best consider Machiavelli's worldview and description of how politics works.

[katiuska]

Maybe it's just me, but I find that while I'm taking difficult classes (Anatomy and Physiology and Microbiology), the material at the beginning of the year is super easy. I was warned that A&P would be really hard, but really, we're going over stuff I learned in high school. I expect it will get harder, but at the rate we're moving we'll hit that point at the end of the semester.

Also, while my microbiology professor is a genuinely nice guy, he has the most monotonous voice I've ever heard. Not only that, but he starts off talking normally, and then moves to mumbling at the end of his sentences/points. A 15 person class in a room made for 100 does not give us the best acoustics.

The only problem I've had is that they seem to assume everyone's taken college chemistry and I never have. Also, on the day of my A&P test last week, the train had a problem and it took like half an hour for it to occur to them to drop us off at the nearest platform so we could catch trains that were actually moving. I missed most of it, but I managed to scrap a B out of the time I had left, so it turned out all right.

Your class schedule is nearly identical to mine, though. What sort of career path are you working on?


I've been having some problems with the university re: my classification and they didn't respond to any of my attempts to contact them before classes started. (Background: I took two classes there last spring as a graduate student. Because the undergraduate and graduate colleges function independently, I have to be admitted as a postbac by the undergraduate college to be classified as such, and until then I'm still a grad student.) So I finally got in touch with them the second week of class, and it turns out that the problem was that they couldn't tell where I'd got my bachelor's degree (even though that's the only transcript with 100+ credits and says in capital letters that I earned a degree, but whatever). I'd only paid the rate they should charge and not what they did charge, so they dropped me from my classes, because they do that, and I've had to get myself manually re-entered into all of the classes. I'm still waiting for Microbiology and the Microbiology lab, and today is the last day to do this, so I have to spend today finding out what the hold up is; the registrar claims they haven't gotten anything and the professor claims he submitted the request.

What makes it even more fun is that right now I can't access the lab online, which is the only way we're able to obtain and submit assignments.

Meanwhile, one of the classes I took last year didn't transfer toward my Master's degree, so I've been locking down a summer class that will. That was annoying, but it's done now.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Not all of it is bad. Oversimplified and too specific, but not horrible.

Then again, perhaps you shouldn't follow said advice. At best consider Machiavelli's worldview and description of how politics works.

It was hidden- it wasn't supposed to be outrageously bad, subtle. And the consideration of Machiavelli's worldview is what encourages the view that it is satire/purposefully wrong because it is completely different from everything else we know about Machiavelli. Unfortunately a lot of people base their views of Machiavelli on the Prince which is silly.

[Viridis]

Anyone know a good resource for learning things about Calculus? Neither my current teacher or book are very clear or helpful.

[batgirl]

Your class schedule is nearly identical to mine, though. What sort of career path are you working on?

Physician's Assistant. I'm actually just taking these two classes as pre-recs so I can start my masters in the fall.

It's funny, there are no requirements for my A&P class, so no one is expected to know more than high school anything. I mean, we spent some of last class going over the periodic table and what each number in each box means. She then decided to draw a Hydrogen atom on the board. I have taken college level chemistry, organic chemistry, biology and biochemistry. She's drawing atoms. I wondered if she heard my jaw drop on the floor.

[Pip Boy]

My school's science teacher, Mrs. Thompson, is some kind of demon raised from hell itself to make humans suffer. She has absolutely no idea how to teach science, and even I'm more qualified to teach the class than she is. She also has a voice that sounds like a choir of screaming babies. Since I put in an official complaint to the school about her last semester, the cheeky bastards have decided to put me in 3 of her classes, so now literally half of my school day consists of being in a room with a teacher I hate and plan to get fired in the near future.

[katiuska]

Physician's Assistant. I'm actually just taking these two classes as pre-recs so I can start my masters in the fall.

It's funny, there are no requirements for my A&P class, so no one is expected to know more than high school anything. I mean, we spent some of last class going over the periodic table and what each number in each box means. She then decided to draw a Hydrogen atom on the board. I have taken college level chemistry, organic chemistry, biology and biochemistry. She's drawing atoms. I wondered if she heard my jaw drop on the floor.

Ah, that makes sense. I'm taking them as prereqs for a nursing program.

Microbiology's an upper-level class and most of the students are bio majors, so it's probably reasonable for them to assume that most people have had molecular biology. I'm coming at it sort of out of order (this is my first semester back and nobody teaches Chem I in the spring), but I deal. A&P is much more basic--not THAT basic, but I think in most places it's an early-program class.

Though they do expect you to pick up a lot of information in a short amount of time. The lab has been running us through the bones and each of their individual structures, which I'm told they WILL drill into you several times before you get out of any vaguely medical-related program. The massage therapist at our table is an old hand at this, but the rest of us are totally lost.

[Magus]

My student teaching has had so many problems, including switching schools after just a couple of weeks and then the school I was transferred to only having like three days of school out of seven due to winter storms and their President's Day weekend vacation. Technically I'm still ahead on the work and everything, it's just disorienting. I seem to have less to complain about than most of you, though, since I'm nearing the end of college.

[CelesJessa]

Right now the only class I really like is my animation class (which is probably a good thing, since it's my major).

Drawing 3 is particularly annoying. There's a girl who sits next to me who I'm starting to think is a little... unusual. The type who is telling you WAY TOO PERSONAL THINGS before you even know their name. I'm just trying to draw here and she's going on about all of these touchy subjects. And she likes to poke me and I don't like people in my personal space (unless they're people I like, of course.)

AND THEN one of our nude models, I don't think it's intentional but SOMEHOW no matter where I'm sitting in class he finds a way to sit, like, front and center right in front of me so it's always like "OH HELLO THERE". Maybe he likes messing with people and notices when I switch chairs after he chooses his pose (Okay, besides the obvious, front and center is just not always the best angle to draw anyway.)

And THEN in my video art class we're watching all sorts of weird controversial stuff that seems intent on making me feel uncomfortable. Although one of them included dudes making out so.....

...Hehe I'm amused, my worst class story involves me getting to look at naked people a lot. My classes are awesome.

[Wigmund]

I have three more years left to obtain a Physics major. I've finished off (or will finish off at the end of this semester) all my fluff credits except for my foreign language. I tried Russian my freshman year - but I've decided that Spanish is the way to go...don't have to learn a completely new alphabet and Spanish is a common language here.

I've figured out when I can take my various Physics classes, but I'm debating whether or not to throw in a Chemistry and/or Computer Science minor on top of everything else. It adds significantly more classes, but it should make it easier to get a decent job out of college.

[Sir Pinkleton]

Anyone know a good resource for learning things about Calculus? Neither my current teacher or book are very clear or helpful.

When I mentioned my calc class before, Eltargrim mentioned that he'd be a resource for me. :D

[Eltargrim]

I'm a bit rusty on a few things, but I can try to offer some explanations and also some nifty resources that will save time but are effectively the same thing as integral tables and can be considered cheating in certain courses!

But yeah, Calculus. Right now I'm in an ODE course, and just finished a multivariable course; no guarantees on the other stuff :sweatdrop

[MasterOfMagic]

My Physics teacher fucked up the first test so bad, that he's now having to give everybody the chance to make 40 extra credit points on it just so some people will have passed. (The test was only about 100 points in the first place).

Ugh.

[Oron]

My Physics teacher fucked up the first test so bad, that he's now having to give everybody the chance to make 40 extra credit points on it just so some people will have passed. (The test was only about 100 points in the first place).

Ugh.


My Physics teacher let us make a notecard to use on our Finals last year. The exam questions were also the exact same questions as those on the study guide he handed us.

Probably the easiest 100% I ever got on a Science test.

This semester, I don't have much to compain about, other than my scholarship woes as I scramble about, doing mock interviews and trying to get things filled out before the deadline.

[Mike McC]

New? My semester is a third over already.

[greed]

My semester starts next week. On the one hand I only have to go two days. On the other hand Tuesday I'm there for 12 hours and Monday I'm there for 14. I predict Wednesdays will be spent in mild comas. Still 5 day weekend until I get part time work sounds pretty good.

[Seil]

Why the crap do I need to take a stupid math assessment test to take stupid math. Just let me into the course already!