This is just a rant that I felt I needed to get off my chest.

Got an an assignment back for a linguistics class today. I submitted it about three weeks ago, so it took them an incredibly long time to grade it. Grade? 38/50. Feedback and comments, marks of any kind indicating what was right or wrong? Nothing.

Sigh...

This reminds me of some really rich person building a big apartment building in a rich area which he never expects anybody to actually move into. It's sort of capitalism stretched thin to its utter extreme where it almost becomes a mockery of itself. To me, this is modern academia basically stretched to its extreme wherein it becomes a mockery of itself and it's reduced fundamentally to a numbers game and students honestly aren't even told what they didn't understand. Yeah, it's just one assignment, it's only 5% of the grade, and this class is outside my major and I could just pass/fail it if I really care that much (though I only have three pass/fail uses left, so I'd prefer to use it for a more... serious class). That's not the point. The point is that I have no idea what I did wrong. To me, a 38/50 means I'm not understanding something, and though linguistics is totally irrelevant to my major and my career goals, I do actually care about it and would like to learn.

At this point I'll have to go talk to the professor or one of the several TAs to figure this out, and that'll be an inconvenience for everybody, and they will inevitably think I'm just wanting points back and don't really care about learning because that's how everybody seems to be at this university. And this is, well, a top-ranked school, and it took a ridiculous amount of effort for me to get into here, so suffice it to say I'm also upset about being treated this way ("here's a random number for your assignment that took us three weeks with a team of three TAs to conjure up despite the fact that your other classes, which are advanced graduate-level proofs based mathematics courses, return homework with very detailed feedback in less than a week every time, but we won't even write half a sentence on what material you should look over again, and we certainly won't give you any advice on how to do better on the next homeworks, two of which you've already submitted because, hey, that's just how freaking long it took us to grade this one assignment.")

Whew, it's off my chest. I guess... share similar experiences or frustrations if you've had them?

Good rant. Here's mine a few years ago I took a Philosophy class (mostly for fun) it was very interesting. The curious thing was that the professor never returned any test or homework. He kept saying that he forgot to bring them.

Here the thing, the tests were extremely easy . Anyway because I was so sure I aced the tests I never cared enough to inquire as to my grade, turns out I got a C, I emailed the teacher after that and got no response. I think he lost all the exams or something (if that's even possible) then handed out Cs.

What language(s)?

Good rant. Here's mine a few years ago I took a Philosophy class (mostly for fun) it was very interesting. The curious thing was that the professor never returned any test or homework. He kept saying that he forgot to bring them.

Here the thing, the tests were extremely easy . Anyway because I was so sure I aced the tests I never cared enough to inquire as to my grade, turns out I got a C, I emailed the teacher after that and got no response. I think he lost all the exams or something (if that's even possible) then handed out Cs.

That truly sucks. I definitely understand what it feels like to take a class where you don't get tests back and you feel that you did very well on them, so you assume you're doing okay only to find out that you're not--I had an experience very similar to that last semester (though I ended up getting an A-, not a C, by basically meeting one-on-one with the professor and saying straight-up that I didn't think the grading was fair--bold, but it worked).

What language(s)?

Well, it's just an introductory linguistics class, so it's not actually a study of a specific language, just some generic properties that human languages have in common. Our examples are mostly in English.

Once I got a 14/175 (not missing any digits) on a 10 page essay for a final in a film history class. After emailing him asking wtf was up with that because we had 4 assignments in the class, and getting a ~7% on the final was an instafail the only reply was, "Well sorry but that's what I have written down."

After a semester of listening to him rant about politics mixing in his misunderstanding of such basic concepts of film as montage, autuer, and various other film editing techniques (types of cuts etc), I decided that I was just going to work as hard as I needed to pass, which wasn't difficult as I was going into the final with a B+. I needed a 100/175 to get a passing grade then bam 14/175.

After emailing the dean because of how preposterous that was as the paper wasn't late and it wasn't a complete pile of crap, I got an email from the teacher in which he told me he reread my paper and decided to give me a ~130. He did not apologize for the mix up and played it off as though I was to blame that he messed up that badly.

Your education experience is what you make of it.

You can choose to attend a school where lectures are held in auditoriums with 500+ people and multiple TAs are responsible for the work. Or you can choose to attend a smaller school, such as a small state school or community college, where 15 people is considered a huge class and the professors are available all the time.

You can choose to avoid your teachers and assistants, only seeing them across the lecture hall for 45 minutes during class. Or you can choose to spend one-on-one time with them in the lab or in their offices asking questions during the less busy times of the day.


If you feel that a grade isn't appropriate you can send a single email and hope it gets resolved, or you can go visit their office in person, paper in hand, and ask for clarification, ask what was expected, why yours didn't meet the measure, and how you can improve.


If you feel the professor isn't doing their job, call them out on the issue. But don't forget that you need to do your own job as well.

frob, I suppose I should thank you for getting the inevitable pseudo-condescending reply out of the way which necessarily follows every rant such as this one on the internet. Anyway, I appreciate your advice and do in fact agree with it wholeheartedly. I just think you're preaching to the choir here. The fact is you can do all your duties as a student, put a large amount of effort into choosing a school that's just right for you, and still have issues like this. Hence my title!

I thought Frob's reply was more inline with what way2lazy2care posted. And I fully agree with what he says, even if I often find myself ignoring parts of it.



I also agree that what passes as acceptable professor conduct can be rather sad. I had some rather serious family issues to deal with last year, and missed a big chunk of a term. All of my professors were very understanding and helped me catch up/modified assignments and deadlines, etc. One of my professors kept giving me feedback on a term long project, everything looks fine, its ok, doing well, etc, etc. The project was like 80% of the grade, and after the term ended and I finally got my marks (Never saw the mark on the project itself) I had a barely passing grade. Apparently "doing well" means something very different in the school of business.

I also agree that what passes as acceptable professor conduct can be rather sad. I had some rather serious family issues to deal with last year, and missed a big chunk of a term. All of my professors were very understanding and helped me catch up/modified assignments and deadlines, etc. One of my professors kept giving me feedback on a term long project, everything looks fine, its ok, doing well, etc, etc. The project was like 80% of the grade, and after the term ended and I finally got my marks (Never saw the mark on the project itself) I had a barely passing grade. Apparently "doing well" means something very different in the school of business.

What would you have done in my situation? It was a final that wasn't graded till a week after the term ended. I was already back at home and I doubt he was anywhere near his office.

This is a teacher that is quite notorious for giving out grades well below what is deserved, which I didn't know at the time.

Rate My Professor highlights:

This guy is a complete lunatic. You might as well not even go to class because when you do show up you don't learn a thing. He says to take notes but rambles on about nothing so you don't even know what to take notes on. If you have a class with him as a teacher get out now![/quote]

I would've rather watched grass grow than listen to this guy. He thinks undergrads are inferior and he becomes extremely defensive when you ask questions. He even made a comment about making love to his wife which is gross because he's old and creepy. The only fun thing about his class was seeing him lose his mind but even then I was creeped out.[/quote]

Very hard class. He talks, and talks, and talks. Doesn't give you any advise on how to write better. You just talk about books, then expected to write like Shakespear[/quote]

I didn't like this professor at all. He would make you feel like an idiot for asking questions, and seemed annoyed when the class would start to have intelligent conversations on our own. He seems very arrogant because he bashes undergrads, and gets pissed at you when you don't laugh at his jokes. I wouldn't recommend him[/quote]

he told our class that he should have committed suicide years ago because we are all horrible writers... and no one cares about his poems that he writes. doesn't respect other people's opinions[/quote]

[quote name='Luckless' timestamp='1297295711' post='4772135']
I also agree that what passes as acceptable professor conduct can be rather sad. I had some rather serious family issues to deal with last year, and missed a big chunk of a term. All of my professors were very understanding and helped me catch up/modified assignments and deadlines, etc. One of my professors kept giving me feedback on a term long project, everything looks fine, its ok, doing well, etc, etc. The project was like 80% of the grade, and after the term ended and I finally got my marks (Never saw the mark on the project itself) I had a barely passing grade. Apparently "doing well" means something very different in the school of business.

What would you have done in my situation? It was a final that wasn't graded till a week after the term ended. I was already back at home and I doubt he was anywhere near his office.

This is a teacher that is quite notorious for giving out grades well below what is deserved, which I didn't know at the time.

Rate My Professor highlights:

This guy is a complete lunatic. You might as well not even go to class because when you do show up you don't learn a thing. He says to take notes but rambles on about nothing so you don't even know what to take notes on. If you have a class with him as a teacher get out now![/quote]

I would've rather watched grass grow than listen to this guy. He thinks undergrads are inferior and he becomes extremely defensive when you ask questions. He even made a comment about making love to his wife which is gross because he's old and creepy. The only fun thing about his class was seeing him lose his mind but even then I was creeped out.[/quote]

Very hard class. He talks, and talks, and talks. Doesn't give you any advise on how to write better. You just talk about books, then expected to write like Shakespear[/quote]

I didn't like this professor at all. He would make you feel like an idiot for asking questions, and seemed annoyed when the class would start to have intelligent conversations on our own. He seems very arrogant because he bashes undergrads, and gets pissed at you when you don't laugh at his jokes. I wouldn't recommend him[/quote]

he told our class that he should have committed suicide years ago because we are all horrible writers... and no one cares about his poems that he writes. doesn't respect other people's opinions[/quote]
[/quote]

I'm guessing "Consider how to make premeditated murder look like manslaughter" is a bad answer?