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If I could go back in time and not taken Physics(my scheduling only allowed this one guy), I would, but it is too late now. No refund, and I can drop him but that would be money wasted. So far, we have had 3 labs, exam is next week. This guy is just horrible, my god. Even ratemyprof and myspace's ratemyprof graded him poorly. I don't believe one student actually benefited from his class. He is an old Russian guy with a thick accent. Well, the accent I can stand but it's his uninformative lab reports.
First lab, alright, no one knew wtf was going on. He said follow the manual(7 page lab report) and we did, I'm sure some people did the same as me. I did a 7 page lab report. Like I followed the manual, and I had a sample calculations on one page. Everything like that. But fuck, he gave me a 75. He said I have too many pages and should not have more than 4. What the hell? Be specific next time, please. Geez. I am more pissed about that than anything, taking off points just for that. His excuse was "I have a lot of people's lab reports, I don't want to read long labs." Basically he don't want concise lab reports.
Alright. How odd? I guess simplicity is what he wants. The next lab I have a 60. Wow, seems like I keep dropping and dropping. This time, my error was this, I don't even know(besides doing the graph wrong, my part of the error)... you know how you would have a chart and it would say "N" and below it you would have a number? Well, I only put 200N and he took points off for having the repeated results. He said that 200 already shows as 200N which 200N is not needed.
Give me a break, I know a lot of you are going to say, "you're an idiot. Professors don't want long concised lab reports. They don't want to look at all the shit." He made a short speech about "overdoing" it too. I don't get it, what should I do? My last lab, he just saw it, and gave it back to my group. We all received a zero. He just shitted on all four of us, we were just all pissed. Seriously, no one can stand this guy. He told us where did we get the numbers from. Is he too lazy to look in our, no, my data sheet? I put the numbers there. Well, looks like I am going to redo it.
I don't know what to do anymore. Thanks for reading.
/Rant.
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request to schedule a meeting. At the meeting, ask exactly what he expects of you. Don't leave until you're satisfied with the answer. Do what he tells you. Not all professors are great, some are assholes, some are uncommunicative, and some flaky/lazy... but they're all being paid to teach you. Your only job is to meet their expectations. If you don't understand his expectations, you're going to have to ask him about them.
Also, talk to lab partners and classmates and find out how they're doing. If they're doing well, ask if you can see one of their old lab reports so you can figure out what you're doing wrong. If they're doing poorly, you can enjoy their company.
Just don't give up.
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complain to the department? i dont know, but he sounds like a bitch.
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On October 02 2007 16:18 geometryb wrote:
complain to the department? i dont know, but he sounds like a bitch.
Friend had him before, they did not do anything. Other prof's already said he is hard to work with. Thanks guys and I won't give up, I paid for this and I have every motivation to fucking own this course, Physics is suppose to be fun, he told us it's not suppose to be fun. Like, wtf?
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Quality vs Quantity is essentially the best form. Even if the requirement says 4+ pages, if you can clearly explain the subject in 2 pages, no professor should care, vice versa, if you can clearly explain the subject with more than the required pages, then I see no problem. However, your professor sounds like an asshole. If I was you, I'd just pass the class out of spite.
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On October 02 2007 16:59 Lycaeus wrote:
Quality vs Quantity is essentially the best form. Even if the requirement says 4+ pages, if you can clearly explain the subject in 2 pages, no professor should care, vice versa, if you can clearly explain the subject with more than the required pages, then I see no problem. However, your professor sounds like an asshole. If I was you, I'd just pass the class out of spite.
That's what I am trying but this is my first time taking Physics, it's not an excuse but the way he's explaining, or not explaining, is horrible. I know that in the end, quality > quantity, but that's not the case. It's simplicity. I followed the lab manual exactly and he did not want that.
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On October 02 2007 17:05 Raithed wrote:Show nested quote +On October 02 2007 16:59 Lycaeus wrote:
Quality vs Quantity is essentially the best form. Even if the requirement says 4+ pages, if you can clearly explain the subject in 2 pages, no professor should care, vice versa, if you can clearly explain the subject with more than the required pages, then I see no problem. However, your professor sounds like an asshole. If I was you, I'd just pass the class out of spite. That's what I am trying but this is my first time taking Physics, it's not an excuse but the way he's explaining, or not explaining, is horrible. I know that in the end, quality > quantity, but that's not the case. It's simplicity. I followed the lab manual exactly and he did not want that.
I'd find help outside of the class, try looking for a tutor or even go to a library or something and look up books.
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Whoever told you physics is supposed to be fun is a dirty, stinking liar.
Unless ofcourse spherical harmonics are cause for a party
+ Show Spoiler +
Anyways, out of the 20 or so physics courses I took in university I maybe had one or two decent profs. The physics department doesn't exactly attract people who are in it for the teaching. Thankfully most higher level textbooks are extremely well written. And if that's not an option, similar courses can be found on different university websites and you can leach off of their lecture materials to more or less self-teach.
In regards to labs, just learn to give him what he wants. Every prof has their own set of standards and part of getting a degree is learning how to play 'the game'.
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Id go to his office hours and have a sit down and be like, 'listen, i want to pass this course, how can i do this?' extacly like others said, dont leave until you get a CLEAR answer.
Also, less than three weeks in, it's still not too early to drop and get most of your $ back, correct? Trust me on this man, if the course really seems that bad and you're pretty sure your on track to fail, don't kill your GPA. Back when I was a psych major, I waited to do this in two courses (I think experimental and child psych) I got thouroughly assfucked. =[
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Calgary25980 Posts
Go talk to him. Say what you've said in this thread to him.
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I feel you, my theoretical physics prof was exactly like that last semester. Thankfully there's no such thing as theoretical lab reports. Still, the lectures sucked and so does he. I am so glad I have 1 semester without him now.
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If you are a full-time student aren't you paying full-time tuition for something like 12 to 21 credits? I think that's what it was for me. I would try to sign up for one more course than I planned on taking, and just drop the course that seemed the worst.
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Sounds exactly like my Calc. Teacher. I know how you feel. Just keep it up!
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On October 02 2007 17:17 paper wrote:
try office hours? :d
You want me to copy his syllabus for you? He doesn't have office hours, he told us to do things "on our own" as well as if we missed a lab, we do it on our own time, then give him the lab report, he won't use up his own time for ours.
@Flaccid, I mean that Physics lab = fun, not the actual work. We were laughing and joking around but we were still getting our work done. He comes over and tells us to shut up or get out. What the hell?
On October 03 2007 00:24 NoName wrote:
If you are a full-time student aren't you paying full-time tuition for something like 12 to 21 credits? I think that's what it was for me. I would try to sign up for one more course than I planned on taking, and just drop the course that seemed the worst.
I don't think there is another course open at the moment, and it's passed 3 weeks. I'll just have to see and work it out. If all else fails I really really need to talk to him. If he tells me to LOOK at the manual and follow it, I will snap, literally. I will snap.
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What I think you should do is talk to him. Tell him you do a lot of work, and there is nothing wrong with your reports. Just be kind of firm and respectful, and I'm sure he will change your grade.
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that 200N thing is bullshit, I think he doesn't like you lol.
most physics professors will insist that you put the Symbol after the number every single time.
i was beat into me in high school, always put the N or g or m/s^2 at the end of the answer.
schedule a meeting. About the zero, get another professor to grade your paper. I bet he wont give u a zero. Be calm when you talk to him and argue with him politely.
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I don't know the situation well enough to make any comments, but... your prof marks the labs? No wonder he's in a pissy mood. I always thought profs hired TA's to do all the marking except the final exams, which they HAVE TO mark.
Profs are very busy people, I'm surprised the school makes them mark the labs.
As for the final, gl. If he's not a good teacher, learn as much as you can through the textbook. The language can be pretty thick at times and it'll give you tons of details that you don't need, but there is a lot of value in learning this stuff outside of class that even the best profs don't have time to cover in class.
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Snuff that bitch! That guy sounds like an ass, sorry you got stuck in that one... but why would you take a physics class? Thats just craziness.
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On October 03 2007 02:00 Rev0lution wrote:
that 200N thing is bullshit, I think he doesn't like you lol.
most physics professors will insist that you put the Symbol after the number every single time.
i was beat into me in high school, always put the N or g or m/s^2 at the end of the answer.
schedule a meeting. About the zero, get another professor to grade your paper. I bet he wont give u a zero. Be calm when you talk to him and argue with him politely.
Maybe I didn't post it correctly, he is giving my entire group another chance to redo it, thus, which I am still currently doing. He really dislikes my whole group because we were laughing while doing our labs once. He pointed at this girl once and told her to shut it. All she did was ask for the page number, weird huh?
On October 03 2007 02:40 Purind wrote:
I don't know the situation well enough to make any comments, but... your prof marks the labs? No wonder he's in a pissy mood. I always thought profs hired TA's to do all the marking except the final exams, which they HAVE TO mark.
Profs are very busy people, I'm surprised the school makes them mark the labs.
As for the final, gl. If he's not a good teacher, learn as much as you can through the textbook. The language can be pretty thick at times and it'll give you tons of details that you don't need, but there is a lot of value in learning this stuff outside of class that even the best profs don't have time to cover in class.
It's my first time taking Physics, I mean, it's pretty much mostly conversions and stuff, but he's making it worse. He told us we have to have this structure on his tests or we will get an easy 50. Sketch a drawing, put the numbers on it, label it then convert. Show working equations and do the equations AS WELL as put the page number of the textbook of where we found the equation. WTF?
On October 03 2007 02:41 iNCuBuS_ wrote:
Snuff that bitch! That guy sounds like an ass, sorry you got stuck in that one... but why would you take a physics class? Thats just craziness.
No choice, I have to take Physics I and II.
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On October 03 2007 01:35 Raithed wrote:You want me to copy his syllabus for you? He doesn't have office hours, he told us to do things "on our own" as well as if we missed a lab, we do it on our own time, then give him the lab report, he won't use up his own time for ours.
whoa whoa whoa, no office hours? fuck that man, he has to do that. every college professor has to have set office hours. that you certainly can complain about.
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He seems like a really old school prof.
My English teacher is a bitch as well. She thinks she's always fucking right in every discussion. You can't win against her! she knows it all. Her liberal views are pissing me off so much.
First she compared jews to killing chickens for food.. OK PETA supporter I totally get your point of view. She keeps on rambling about bush all the fucking time, "bush is a new born christian, thats a type of funamentalism!!!" just stfu >.< college is ruled by the left wing party ;(
/rant
Your teacher is an ass, you have to deal with it, be smarter than him and dont create more confict cuz hes gonna fuck you up with at the end when you get a C or F.
Most professors have few hours of work FYI. they work 3 hours max in class and another 3 hours doing paperwork. he should def have time for a small little meeting. If all else fails
pull off a VA TECH
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I think the only time people talk to him was during break and break is 15minutes, I guess I'll use those 15 minutes. ;/
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well if he gets mad at you for laughing and messing around during a lab just dont do it, some people are assholes and when they have power over you you just have to deal with it.
but ya no office hours is fucked up, every university i know anything about requires professors keep office hours, you should check with someone higher up about it.
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On October 03 2007 04:27 Rev0lution wrote:
He seems like a really old school prof.
My English teacher is a bitch as well. She thinks she's always fucking right in every discussion. You can't win against her! she knows it all. Her liberal views are pissing me off so much.
First she compared jews to killing chickens for food.. OK PETA supporter I totally get your point of view. She keeps on rambling about bush all the fucking time, "bush is a new born christian, thats a type of funamentalism!!!" just stfu >.< college is ruled by the left wing party ;(
/rant
Your teacher is an ass, you have to deal with it, be smarter than him and dont create more confict cuz hes gonna fuck you up with at the end when you get a C or F.
Most professors have few hours of work FYI. they work 3 hours max in class and another 3 hours doing paperwork. he should def have time for a small little meeting. If all else fails
pull off a VA TECH
We asked him the second class about a Physics problem in the book. He did about 33% of it, he sketched it out and told us the vectors and whatnot then told us to do it at home. If we could not figure it out at home, why do you think we pay you to do it for us? I mean, this guy, if you question him = you fail. Whoever want to request a ratemyprof link from me, I'll gladly link it. I want to learn Physics, this isn't helping.
On October 03 2007 05:52 IdrA wrote:
well if he gets mad at you for laughing and messing around during a lab just dont do it, some people are assholes and when they have power over you you just have to deal with it.
but ya no office hours is fucked up, every university i know anything about requires professors keep office hours, you should check with someone higher up about it.
We stopped doing that, we're actually just doing the lab and get out early instead because we hate his presence.
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only thing you can really do then is just depend on the book, for the first units like kinematics and stuff it should be more than adequate since thats nothing but manipulating equations.
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Russian Federation4235 Posts
He may not be a good teacher, but there's a reason he's a professor and you're not.
Besides, doing 7 pages of a lab report when you clearly can tell all the stuff in 2-3 pages IS a mistake no matter what the guidelines say. He's also right about that N thing, probably too harsh, but is making a good graph such a hard task? I mean, when I drew graphs, nifty programs like Origin were are novelty and we were doing it with a pencil. How hard is building a graph with a computer program?
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United States24670 Posts
On October 03 2007 01:35 Raithed wrote:
If he tells me to LOOK at the manual and follow it, I will snap, literally. I will snap.
You will snap? Literally? I doubt that.+ Show Spoiler +lol sorry, my mother abuses the word 'literally' like every day and I'm in the habit of calling her out on it.
On October 03 2007 04:27 Rev0lution wrote:
If all else fails
pull off a VA TECH Not funny. You seriously should rethink your decision to post that.
On October 03 2007 06:31 IdrA wrote:
only thing you can really do then is just depend on the book, for the first units like kinematics and stuff it should be more than adequate since thats nothing but manipulating equations. I don't agree that kinematics is nothing but manipulating equations, but a lot of the earlier topics in physics definitely are easier to understand with a textbook than the later ones.
I, a member of teamliquid, do solemnly swear to try to help you through this crisis since I know just how much it sucks. PM me physics questions and I'll try to help you but give me a 1 day turnaround time.
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United States24670 Posts
On October 02 2007 22:35 Flaccid wrote:Whoever told you physics is supposed to be fun is a dirty, stinking liar. Unless ofcourse spherical harmonics are cause for a party + Show Spoiler +Anyways, out of the 20 or so physics courses I took in university I maybe had one or two decent profs. The physics department doesn't exactly attract people who are in it for the teaching. Thankfully most higher level textbooks are extremely well written. And if that's not an option, similar courses can be found on different university websites and you can leach off of their lecture materials to more or less self-teach.
Physics can definitely be fun. Judging from the experience you had in college, it wasn't made fun at all. Depending on what school you go to, you can have a good to bad physics professor ratio greater than 1! Using spherical harmonics to disprove the theory that physics is supposed to be fun is silly, and I hope you were at most half-serious when you posted that. For one, you don't have to memorize all those usually. Also, that's ~graduate level physics. By graduate level it doesn't matter if it's fun or not anymore. Yes you use them in the upper years of undergraduate study also, but I consider it more graduate work when you start using them and French polynomials seriously.
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go to his office one afternoon
wear something slutty
take it from there
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Russian Federation4235 Posts
On October 03 2007 07:01 micronesia wrote:Show nested quote +On October 02 2007 22:35 Flaccid wrote:Whoever told you physics is supposed to be fun is a dirty, stinking liar. Unless ofcourse spherical harmonics are cause for a party + Show Spoiler +Anyways, out of the 20 or so physics courses I took in university I maybe had one or two decent profs. The physics department doesn't exactly attract people who are in it for the teaching. Thankfully most higher level textbooks are extremely well written. And if that's not an option, similar courses can be found on different university websites and you can leach off of their lecture materials to more or less self-teach. Physics can definitely be fun. Judging from the experience you had in college, it wasn't made fun at all. Depending on what school you go to, you can have a good to bad physics professor ratio greater than 1! Using spherical harmonics to disprove the theory that physics is supposed to be fun is silly, and I hope you were at most half-serious when you posted that. For one, you don't have to memorize all those usually. Also, that's ~graduate level physics. By graduate level it doesn't matter if it's fun or not anymore. Yes you use them in the upper years of undergraduate study also, but I consider it more graduate work when you start using them and French polynomials seriously.
Hah I've taken a course of group theory methods in oscillation problems and another one on non-linear dynamics about a year ago and it was very complex and very fun. Yes I'm proud of myself. The author of the spherical garmonics post may try to rethink his approach to life.
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On October 03 2007 06:57 micronesia wrote:Show nested quote +On October 03 2007 01:35 Raithed wrote:
If he tells me to LOOK at the manual and follow it, I will snap, literally. I will snap. You will snap? Literally? I doubt that. + Show Spoiler +lol sorry, my mother abuses the word 'literally' like every day and I'm in the habit of calling her out on it. Show nested quote +On October 03 2007 04:27 Rev0lution wrote:
If all else fails
pull off a VA TECH Not funny. You seriously should rethink your decision to post that. Show nested quote +On October 03 2007 06:31 IdrA wrote:
only thing you can really do then is just depend on the book, for the first units like kinematics and stuff it should be more than adequate since thats nothing but manipulating equations. I don't agree that kinematics is nothing but manipulating equations, but a lot of the earlier topics in physics definitely are easier to understand with a textbook than the later ones.
well obviously you have to understand what the equations are modeling to be able to manipulate them, but beyond that.. not really much else.
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Most of my profs just look at graphs. 
I totally understand them and would do it too.
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The first thing you should be doing is going and talking to him (doesn't even have to be office hours, after class works as well). Some professors are real douchebags but even with those you can work something out. I make an attempt to talk with every professor of my classes.
You physics class is curved right (it should be or at least on a modified percentage scale)? So if you're doing shitty and everyone else is doing shitty, you'll end up with like an A anyways (as long as you do better than everyone else). No big worries there, he can't just fail everyone (I've had professors who said they don't care if they fail everyone, and in the end it never happens, they always do some sort of adjustment).
I've had a professor who would give me less than 50% on a homework because I fucked up a little algebra and ended up with the wrong answer. His excuse was "you didn't get the right answer, you don't deserve more than 50% of the points. If you were in my lab, I would be very mad at you". I went and talked with the guy and it wasn't so bad.
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United States24670 Posts
On October 03 2007 09:14 ArC_man wrote:
I've had a professor who would give me less than 50% on a homework because I fucked up a little algebra and ended up with the wrong answer. His excuse was "you didn't get the right answer, you don't deserve more than 50% of the points. If you were in my lab, I would be very mad at you". I went and talked with the guy and it wasn't so bad.
Usually it's engineering that's strict about the correct answer... not physics. I guess it can vary a lot though.
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On October 03 2007 06:57 BluzMan wrote:
He may not be a good teacher, but there's a reason he's a professor and you're not.
Besides, doing 7 pages of a lab report when you clearly can tell all the stuff in 2-3 pages IS a mistake no matter what the guidelines say. He's also right about that N thing, probably too harsh, but is making a good graph such a hard task? I mean, when I drew graphs, nifty programs like Origin were are novelty and we were doing it with a pencil. How hard is building a graph with a computer program?
He's crazy, he has a PhD in Physics and Math, yet he can't explain formulas etc, he just puts the numbers on the board.
On October 03 2007 09:14 ArC_man wrote:
The first thing you should be doing is going and talking to him (doesn't even have to be office hours, after class works as well). Some professors are real douchebags but even with those you can work something out. I make an attempt to talk with every professor of my classes.
You physics class is curved right (it should be or at least on a modified percentage scale)? So if you're doing shitty and everyone else is doing shitty, you'll end up with like an A anyways (as long as you do better than everyone else). No big worries there, he can't just fail everyone (I've had professors who said they don't care if they fail everyone, and in the end it never happens, they always do some sort of adjustment).
I've had a professor who would give me less than 50% on a homework because I fucked up a little algebra and ended up with the wrong answer. His excuse was "you didn't get the right answer, you don't deserve more than 50% of the points. If you were in my lab, I would be very mad at you". I went and talked with the guy and it wasn't so bad.
Uhm, there's 3 exams and 1 final, I think the other thing that can be relatively close to "curve" is labs, there's no homework checking, etc.
Someone wanted me to link him, here we go:
http://ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=641861
Anyone want the myspace one? Heck, I'll just link it instead: http://schools.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=schools.viewRatings&sid=2892&tid=1044745&lname=G&hiddenschool=0&schoolName=Middlesex County College&Mytoken=8656E808-9E20-433C-9122C5F2DA89859737573942
Not as thorough since there is only one person grading him. To be honest though, those grading is nothing to what he's like in person. In a respectful way, his way, he's really rude to people.
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On October 03 2007 10:05 micronesia wrote:Show nested quote +On October 03 2007 09:14 ArC_man wrote:
I've had a professor who would give me less than 50% on a homework because I fucked up a little algebra and ended up with the wrong answer. His excuse was "you didn't get the right answer, you don't deserve more than 50% of the points. If you were in my lab, I would be very mad at you". I went and talked with the guy and it wasn't so bad. Usually it's engineering that's strict about the correct answer... not physics. I guess it can vary a lot though.
I've never had an engineering class where they were bitches about the correct answer (except one midterm where they were bitches about everything). In fact, most of them even give full marks for the "carry-over" mistakes, where you use your answer from part A to do part B, and if you get the wrong answer for part A, obviously part B will be wrong.
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I feel sorry for you man =(
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Thanks for reading guys, I will have to learn on my own time. Monday is labor day = free day to learn my chapters for the exam.
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United States24670 Posts
On October 03 2007 13:46 Purind wrote:Show nested quote +On October 03 2007 10:05 micronesia wrote:On October 03 2007 09:14 ArC_man wrote:
I've had a professor who would give me less than 50% on a homework because I fucked up a little algebra and ended up with the wrong answer. His excuse was "you didn't get the right answer, you don't deserve more than 50% of the points. If you were in my lab, I would be very mad at you". I went and talked with the guy and it wasn't so bad. Usually it's engineering that's strict about the correct answer... not physics. I guess it can vary a lot though. I've never had an engineering class where they were bitches about the correct answer (except one midterm where they were bitches about everything). In fact, most of them even give full marks for the "carry-over" mistakes, where you use your answer from part A to do part B, and if you get the wrong answer for part A, obviously part B will be wrong. That's great; just not what I've heard. Hopefully my impression is an exaggeration of how it really is.
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Well I know some profs like that which will always seem to criticize whatever you do and never give good grades but after 2 years i realized that those are the best profs. After a while you will feel disappointed with all the 'easy' profs who explain everything ten times and give good grades if you are just average. You'll be thankful that someone taught you to be precise.
I think it's a terrible reaction to blame him. You should try to find your errors and don't do them again. If he's not even explaining what you did wrong your mistakes were probably so horrible that he lost faith. T_T Learn more.
Maybe your prof is a different case, but that's what I learned for myself after thinking very similar things like you.
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no self respecting physicist doesn't use units on every single number of every single problem. =/
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