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I want to kill him
Raziel078
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Registered User regular
So I was supposed to graduate this semester. but of the five classes I took this semester I boffed one of them. It also happens to be the class I hate, that is required for CS majors and is only taught by one guy who is so smug listening to him talk for more than 5 minutes makes me want to smash his teeth down his throat. I spent most of this semester in and out of the hospital with my dad. He almost died 3-4 times and then he got a kidney transplant so that has brought on a whole slew of other issues to deal with. Anyways my point is that I was taking a ridiculous course load, dealing with the idea I could come home to find out my dad was on his death bed, and my car died on me halfway through the semester so I went from a half hour drive to 2 hours of public transit each way if I managed to catch every bus and train in turn and not wait on one.
I managed to, I think I still haven't gotten grades for two of my classes but I'm pretty confident about those, pass 4 of them with A, B, B, and C. But with this class I ended up getting a D and since it's a major course I need a C to pass. So now I have to got to an entire semester of school for this one damned class with this same asshole teaching. The grade scale in the class is adjusted by 20 points because his tests are so hard, a 60 is a C, and by the end of the semester we had over 400 pages of notes, he does PDFs, that's almost half the size of the actual text book. He seriously spends about 15 - 30 minutes of each class just talking about how the author of the text book got something wrong and how he never would have and basically how awesome he is and how his poop smells like orchids. I don't know if I can handle 5 more months with this guy.
Do i have any recourse? Or do I just have to bend over and take it? I thought I was done with school and now I've got to go back I'm not sure I can handle it. Oh yeah and when I emailed him for my grade after telling me that I got a fucking D in his class he ended it with Happy Holidays! it wasn't part of his signature. He fucking actually wrote that.
I managed to, I think I still haven't gotten grades for two of my classes but I'm pretty confident about those, pass 4 of them with A, B, B, and C. But with this class I ended up getting a D and since it's a major course I need a C to pass. So now I have to got to an entire semester of school for this one damned class with this same asshole teaching. The grade scale in the class is adjusted by 20 points because his tests are so hard, a 60 is a C, and by the end of the semester we had over 400 pages of notes, he does PDFs, that's almost half the size of the actual text book. He seriously spends about 15 - 30 minutes of each class just talking about how the author of the text book got something wrong and how he never would have and basically how awesome he is and how his poop smells like orchids. I don't know if I can handle 5 more months with this guy.
Do i have any recourse? Or do I just have to bend over and take it? I thought I was done with school and now I've got to go back I'm not sure I can handle it. Oh yeah and when I emailed him for my grade after telling me that I got a fucking D in his class he ended it with Happy Holidays! it wasn't part of his signature. He fucking actually wrote that.
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Raziel078 on
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In the end, relax over this winter break and get ready to head right back in.
Start looking for jobs. In interviews you can explain, without going into detail, that due to family circumstances you are one class shy of graduating this semester as planned but you know the groundwork for it and you're finishing the class that semester and blah blah blah(list your strong traits, good interview stuff here).
That class, whatever it is, sounds irritating. But you did it once, so you know what to expect and it will be easier this time around. I could be totally off the mark, but I think if(unless you're looking for a job away from where you are...which is very likely) you explain your situation without whining that it might not harm you too bad in the job search. And even if you can't get the job you want...at least it's only 6 months.
Your dad sounds like he is doing better, you passed all of your other classes despite a high level of stress and you're about to graduate in 6 months. I'm pretty sure you don't want to hear it, but it doesn't really sound that bad if you look at it that way. Take the 6 months...which will be easy with just one class, and scout the job market.
Do I have any grounds for contesting it? I mean it seems like the fact that I spent a good portion of the semester on deathwatch should have some weight. Also my dad isn't doing better so much as hes just doing different. Unfortunately replacing a kidney does not cure dementia.
If you've taken the class and really understand the material you probably don't even have to show up, but it sounds like you aren't passing his tests (a 20 point curve really isn't ridiculous in a CS / math class) so you should probably suck it up.
Live with it.
Life is never fair.
You can whine about it all you want but nothing would change.
Forward about the past and think towards the Future and work hard to achieve what you want.
At my university, there were exceptionally few things you can do (aside from bend over and take it), even if the professor is demonstrably at fault, and my understanding is things aren't any different elsewhere. The university will side with the professor in almost all cases anyway, but even if you have the proof, there's only a few things worth the trouble you make for yourself: If the professor is stealing from the university, sleeping with or molesting students, or has a history of discrimination. That last bit is likely prohibitively hard to prove the dean's satisfaction, but at least then you usually have campus groups or even non profit organizations that will go on the warpath and get something done.
If you can look back over the class and see things this teacher did that were flat out wrong (not just hard or being a smug bastard) that casued your grade to slide, then you might have some recourse to getting an adjusted grade, but it does not sound like this is the case.
I know what it's like to have heavy course loads, I've had teachers who seemed to think that the students in their class had no other classes or homework/projects than their own... so they assigned work like they had a mission to fill up all your free time... it happens.
As others stated, a big part of college is learning to deal with situations on your own, thinking ofr yourself, doing things for yourself, and working through problems. This is a pretty shitty one (as it postpones the graduation) but working through this situation is part of your experience. And I certainly would contact this teacher and try to work with him, see if there is anything you can do to adjust this grade (revised projects, extra assignment, etc). Be polite, be courteous, and be respectful, it doesn't matter if tis guy is the biggest cockburger on the planet, he's still in charge of your grade.
Granted, this is a minor. However, you can't be chastised for seeking what the school can work out for you. If you got a D because you only know 40% of what he wanted you to know, you are fucked and need to take the class. If you got a D because of weird things marking you down but you actually know your shit, you may be able to work something out.
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Did you go in to the professor during the semester and explain your situation? Did you talk to your advisor/emergency dean/whatever about the situation going on in your personal life? If you're in a rough spot, you can't wait until grades or assignments come in and then bring them up. You'd be surprised how much people are willing to work with you for documented circumstances, but you need to talk to them early and often.
Only one person got an A, and I had never seen him in a class before the final exam.
I guess what Im trying to say is that you will eventually get a professor who is absolutely horrible and the only solution is to really push to get a passing grade. There really is nothing else you can do and it sucks. You'd think with the thousands of dollars we spend every four months that we would get (mostly) competent professors across the board.
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This means you already have all the notes, have taken all the tests, all the papers etc. Study your face off and kick ass in round two.
Ummm... Yeah. Christmas is NEXT WEEK. Hannukah is, well, sometime soon. He said Happy Holidays? What a freakin' monster!
Seriously, there was probably nothing snide intended by that. Yes, you're pissed. Yes, it sucks. But try not to read venom into everything that comes from the guy!
And, like someone else already suggested: if you haven't done so already, take several deep breaths, count to 10, whatever you've gotta do to get calm, then go talk to the guy. Explain the situation and specifically ask if there's anything YOU can do to bump up the grade. The simple act of explanation and the offer to rectify will go a long way with some folks. Just do your best to put your anger aside and give the guy a chance.
To really know your options though, there's still something unknown - why did you get the D? A poor final exam grade? Missing homework because of other obligations? Did the professor show your grade as the semester went along (maybe even just after the midterm)?
I was in your situation, with a turbulent family life affecting my school performance, but rather than just let it tear me down, I went to all my professors, as soon as I could. I told them my situation, explained to them I would try my best to get everything in the class done, but that if I ever fell behind and needed assistance, it would be for this reason. I pre-emptively warned them of my sitatuion - and guess what - when push came to shove and I needed some help in my Art History course, my Professor remembered what I had said and gave me a free pass on a few assignments. If I had told him about my situation the day before the assignments were due, however, he would not have given me a free pass. Being in a rough situation sucks, but being irresponsible about it sucks even more.
Even if you have to take the class again, be up front and let him know now what you're dealing with on the homefront and he will be more understanding if you have to miss class or be late with assignments down the line.
Beat ya to it! Great minds think alike, sir.
I did something similar and was actually going to suggest that if he said this class doesn't show his progress somewhere. If the professor does take a very long time to return assignments or exams, you may have a valid case as to how it's too difficult to anticipate grading standards.
I always assumed with all profs that grading standards should always be considered extremely high and therefore you should always do all your work and give 100% in every class.
To the OP, sorry to hear about your dad but I think if you look at the whole situation from an outside perspective you'll see why people here are saying what they're saying. It simply wouldn't be fair for the prof to take exceptions for your particular case. You need to stop making excuses for yourself (your dad, your car, your prof in egotistical, etc). Even though they may be TRUE none of them are really valid.
I had one term of college where just about every day was a literal struggle not to quit school, go home, and kill myself. By the end of the term I got help and was much better, but one of the things I did was go to every teacher I had and explain what was going on in my life and how it affected their class specifically. It was really embarrassing, and I ended up crying in front of just about every single fucking one.
They all had different things to say... one said "Withdraw from this class right now and I'll put in a good word to make sure it doesn't show up a 'WF'." One said, "No problem, I'll give you an 'I', and an extra term to finish your papers. Just try to get them to me ASAP, and I'll turn the 'I' into a grade." "One said, "Do your best, and we'll see what happens." That grade was a 'C' in the end, and I'm pretty sure it should have been an 'F' otherwise. One was mostly based on attendance and the final, and the teacher said that it was fine if I missed classes as long as I did well on the final.
The only class I didn't bother with was Music History, because it was being taught entirely by a smug GA and I hated her, and going to her class, and she actually managed to make music history boring. I finally talked to her closer to the end of the term, and she took it up with professor who had better things to do than supervise her classes, and he said "No, why did you wait so long to say anything? Maybe if you said something earlier."
What I took from this experience was that people are pretty understanding when you have a serious problem (even people you wouldn't think), as long as you let them know what's going on, keep them in the loop, and keep doing the best you can. Even the shitty music teacher extended a deadline or two for me.
One thing about teachers you hate: everybody gets that. The smug ones generally have a good reason to be smug, even if it's a shitty attitude to have. One thing, though: I've had teachers I felt were really good, while my friends in the same classes hated them, thought they were smug and pretentious. We tend to perceive certain attitudes differently, depending on our circumstances. I found those classes challenging, but still doable, while those friends got so hung up on the teacher's attitude that it caused them to almost fail (I think some of them even actually failed.)
Your personal situation may have exacerbated your reaction to that particular teacher's attitude. If you re-take this class next semester, you may find that the teacher isn't as bad as you originally saw him, and you will likely find the class to be a little easier, this time (since you've already been through it once, and should at least know some of it.)
One last thing that could help: if the course materials are good enough, and if there are "exercise sessions" (I don't know what the exact term is for you... basically, the professor gives big lectures, and then you have graduate students who hold scheduled sessions where you bring in some problems you were supposed to solve, and they go through those problems, explaining things, and helping with the practical application of the theory that the professor presented in his lectures) you can sometimes skip the lectures entirely and just go to these exercise sessions, get a graduate student to explain the parts that still pose a problem for you, and just study the textbook and any handouts or PDFs that the professor gives out.
I had a math course where I was forced to do that, because the teacher actually gave lectures that were only 20% course matter: the rest went way past that, and was only interesting for students aiming to proceed towards graduate math, and extremely confusing for anyone else. The exercise sessions were all I needed to pass that course.
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I was thinking grading standards more in a CS sense. I know I've had professors before who would deduct points for too much commenting, not enough commenting, certain coding style, etc. and if you don't know about those things (and they're note explained) you could turn in several assignments that all have the same "problem".
Hope your dad's doing better, btw.
Also, Happy Holidays. ;-)
Gotcha, makes more sense now. I was looking at it from a liberal arts perspective.
This idea confuses me... Granted, it's been a long time since I finished my degree, and almost as long since I've done any real coding (I went into IT Support/Architecture, rather than programming), but the idea of "too much commenting" sounds rather like "too much money in my bank account."
Try to be fucking sympathetic. Dude's having a tough time, and looking for options. There's no reason to shit on him.
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Now, onto the actual advice. You may be able to just take the tests for the class as soon as it begins. That was one option offered to me by a professor for a calc class I did poorly in. Basically I couldn't retake the exams I already took but if I took the course again he would let me take them all in the first week, if I so chose. Maybe that is something you can look into? I'm not sure how solid your grasp on the material was versus how much it was a time constraint thing. You'll have to judge that for yourself.
Anyway, good luck, hope your Dad is doing well.
This is a really important question that needs to be answered. I'm an adjunct professor, and I've had students wait until after the semester ends to tell me about whatever horrible thing happened to them two months ago which explains why they haven't been in class for 8 weeks. As much as it sucks, I can't do anything for people at this point, but I definitely would have worked with them if they'd told me what was up 7 or 8 weeks before. Did you make an attempt earlier on to contact your professor and let them know what was going on? I've met some really shitty people, but most folks still want their students to do well, and we're more than willing to accommodate people who are put in shitty positions, but we can only do that if we know about it.