Friday, October 3, 2008

Why Do We Allow Students On the Site?

Okay. So. I'm a fuckin' student, so I don't deserve any time on this blog. But I need to rant to someone and maybe that someone will understand.

I'm in an Anatomy class. The average, out of 600+ students, of our first test was a 68%. The average of the second test was 64%.

The instructor makes my head hurt. He's good lookin'. He lectures extremely well. But I don't think that I can get an A in the class. Ever. Why?

First day of class: we have a $250 textbook. He throws $300+ of "highly recommended" study materials onto that pile. Great, if you can afford them. I can't.

The first day is mostly taken up with how important /time/ is to the class. This class is time-intensive. Understandably. Normally, I take around 30-60 minutes per day to study for this class, on top of the hours it takes to make the study materials and the fact that I should obviously attend all lectures. Maybe I'm doing something wrong?

According to the prof, the people who ace his class are the ones that come to his office hours. Like, all of them. "They don't even have to have a question! Sometimes they just come and study!" he exclaims. That's nice. I can't come to his office hours because I work full-time on top of studying. I have emailed him a few questions -- weeks ago -- he never answered. Maybe I should set up an out-of-hours office appointment...just to study?!!

I've never been the paranoid student who thought that Prof X was out to get them. No, it's more subtle than that. I think that my Anatomy professor makes his tests too fucking hard because he needs that gaggle of (mostly female) students to follow him around. He can't face the fact that he might have office hours where no one shows up; let alone the dozens of students that he forces to show up, because they couldn't pass the class any other way.

Admit -- I'm going to fail the class. Actually, I'm going to drop it at the last minute and then re-take it with, apparently, the same prof. As a student, I feel like I've worked my ass off - yet I'm sure that many professors/teachers would disagree with me. Funny how that works, eh?