#it will be on the final the midterm and the weekly quizzes

[1794]

I feel like it's been centuries since I got to be long sleeves Isidore. every time I get to stop wearing short sleeves I feel like I become an entirely different person who has the same personality and looks exactly the same. but is still a different person. this is very important and you ought to be taking notes

[tismcosmology]

its the start of week 2 and i have not written a single thing for this blog 😭 blaming it on the lack of Things in my classes so far but its probably just me not wanting to post. curse my years of lurking

Math (calc 1) - ngl, the worst out of all my classes so far. Weekly quizzes, midterm + final exam is 75% of my grade, the first quiz (which is innn 2 hours) is a high school review but I erm. did not take grade 12 math. i took an intro to calc in college last year. which apparently did not cover the entire grade 12 pre calc curriculum. nothing like spending the first week teaching yourself half a years worth of math concepts am i right

english - banger. i love my prof, and the class is on things like writing grant proposals, the publics perception of science, science communication and the history of class inequality in science. legit cannot wait for this class. its also arranged so that my entire section is physics majors, mostly astrophys but theres also some math phys and a few biophys majors too

physics (mechanics) - seems cool so far, my two profs are married apparenly and theyre both yappers but it works so well in physics. one prof spent the entire firet lecture rambling about Dirac without even realizing it. very excited. labs dont start until week 3 so ill see how that goes

comp sci - intro to programming (in python) for people who have Never done coding before, so the first few weeks im expecting to be easy/review for me. not super excited but also not bored of it yet. since its pretty essential to modern astronomy im absorbing everything i can from it and probably will end up self teaching myself more after the class ends, depending on how in depth it gets (since its my only required CS course and id rather use my very few electives for more fun stuff)

french - sitting in this lecture rn, also seems fun so far. only like 12 people in this class and the prof is cool so im hoping itll be easy and/or fun. its somewhat review from my gr 11 courses in hs (passé composé, verb conjucations, weather / geography vocab) but i really enjoy speaking my 2nd language so fingers crossed it gets me prepared enough to take the DELF exam and get my bilingual status !

[asyastudieskorean]

1.09.2024 — You can't hear it, but I’m sighing right now.🤦‍♀️

When the professor said we would have a chapter lecture and quiz every week, I assumed that meant 1 chapter per week, and I was like, okay great, we're doing more of the textbook and learning more per week than last quarter. This is what I am here for. With this assumption, I did the whole chapter last week and all the exercises and listening tasks. And I did find it odd when doing the quiz that only the first couple of pages were covered. Mind you, there's not really any context on how to approach these chapters or what pages/exercises we should specifically do. Each week, there's a lecture and quiz, that's it until midterm/final tests/projects start. There's virtually no homework or textbook checks so far, so who knows if other students are even doing the actual textbook work beyond reading it.

So, Tuesday, today, I went to look at the week’s lecture’s powerpoint, and it says this week covers pages 114-115… Are you serious now?? Each week we are covering 2, maybe 3, pages? And the lectures just repeat what can already be read from the textbook?

So, hold my triple shot, you’re saying I’ve done about 4 weeks of work by doing one chapter and now, besides the weekly quizzes that take 5-10 minutes, I have nothing new to learn? Bro. And let alone we only get new vocab biweekly, and this is usually 15 basic words.

I do not understand why the course is set to go so slow, I really don't. After Korean 1, we should all have the basic skills to learn new grammar at a faster pace. Man, if she didn’t have the upcoming weeks locked on Canvas, I could easily finish this course in 2 to3 weeks if it is always going to be this way.

It honestly feels like I paid 4 digits for this course for which a couple YouTube videos could have covered. I can work through the textbook pretty much on my own at this point, so I took this college-level course assuming there would be important additional learning that you can't get on your own with just a textbook.

I’m honestly getting really worried that I’m paying for such simple, slow-paced courses, and I won’t be anywhere near fluent by the end of the 2-year program that I am doing. Unfortunately, these Korean courses follow a progression each quarter, otherwise, I would ask how I could skip a class to the next level. I am nowhere near advanced; I am a basic beginner, but even still, the pace of this course is kind of ridiculous.

And you might be thinking, well, 에샤 씨, why don't you just learn by yourself and do more outside of the course? Well, homegirl, I am taking (and PAYING) for these courses because I thought they would give me a better learning environment and faster learning than on my own. The way I learn, and with my other personal and work priorities, I need the class environment, with check-ins, weekly assignments, quizzes, professor engagement -- you get it. I need these to stay motivated and to keep myself accountable to consistent, progressive learning. I can only hope it gets better as the course progresses.

[mimimangos]

1/14/25

Journal

I need to organize my classes and assignments and im having trouble organizing my thoughts on how to even do this (I have an issue with organization ig) so im going to word vomit about it here. I've been wanting to start journaling regularly. One of my professors said today, "writing makes us smarter because we put our thoughts on paper which makes more space in our brain for more thoughts" and that really resonated w me, so I'll try to keep this up.

My first class is psych 101. This is an intro level class so it shouldn't be too hard, but there's lots of assignments and things to keep track of. There's Concept Practices, Learning Curves, Response Pieces, Quizzes, and Sona Points. Also some class participation assignments. There are no exams other than the final (I think).

Concept Practices are 15% of the grade. They are connected to the online textbook. I don't remember what type of assignment this is (quiz? Writing? Short answer?) but there's 50 of them throught the semester to they can't be that long.

Response Pieces are 20% of your grade. Theres 3 of them and they take the place of exams I think. Lowest is dropped so if you do good on the first 2 you don't have to do the third.

Learning Curves are also 15% of your grade and also via the online textbook platform. These are quiz style assignments, and the grade is fully based on completion of the quiz, not if you answered everything correctly.

Quizzes are 20% of the grade. These are all online, weekly, 20 mc and 2 short answer. 15 quizzes and lowest is dropped. Extra credit is offered for quizzes. Responding to the discussion board prompt gets you 2 pts, responding to another student's post gets 2 pts. These are due when the quiz is due.

8 SONA credit are required, and if not completed your grade drops one letter. SONA credits are acquired by participating in masters and grad student's research studies. Mostly short quizzes for 1 credit. Some are in person research for more points. Extra credit is offered by doing more sona credits, up to 16 total credits. There's other extra credit offered but unclear if that's in addition to or as an alternative to the extra sona credits.

This class requires an online textbook platform called Achieve for submitting assignments and like I actually can't afford it right now 😭. So what i might do (the teacher actually mentioned this as a last resort emergency option) is I'll start the 2 week free trial and get all the online Achieve assignments done (the concept Practices and learning curves). Then hopefully I can find a pdf of the textbook to use for quizzes and the exam.

My next class is music theory. I'm looking forward to this. I'm hoping it's not too hard for me since I did play flute for 8 years, but I never learned theory and had trouble understanding the circle of fifths, so I'm kinda scared it'll be hard. For this class we have weekly quizzes, 3 exams (including final), and 3 music analysis essays. The final project is a composition and analysis. There are some class participation assignments that are graded. I haven't played or read music in about 5 years, so I'm very rusty at reading notes. I have to count my lines and spaces to figure out the note 😭😭😭. We also have to memorize the 12 keys of a piano.

Next, I have intro to cybersecurity. Another intro course so again I'm hoping it's not too hard, but again there's tons of assignments and due dates to keep track of. There's class activities (groupwork), weekly quizzes, and assignments. This is a flipped class so most of the lecture/info is online, so we need to watch those videos to learn the content before the other assignments. There's no midterm or final :D but there's a final group project.

Then I have a class called Russian music and national identity. It seems pretty interesting, but it was supposed to be labeled as a writing intensive course. I enrolled as credits toward my music immersion, so i was expecting, idk, music? Not essays. I don't know if I would've enrolled if it was properly labeled, but hopefully it's not too bad.

This course has no exams or final, but there's three 4 page essays and two 20 page essays. Class participation is required and discussion is expected. Thankfully he provided the textbook online, and we must read chapters throughout the semester.

Lastly, there's Intro to creative writing: prose and poetry. Long name. This class is async online. I watched the recorded lecture and the professor seems really funny and cool. There's only 4 assignments: a short story, flash fiction, a personal essay, and a memoir. The final is to revise and edit these assignments, and write 5 original poems. It seems pretty easy. There's extra credit, which is to keep a notebook, things like story ideas, a weird dream you had, a cool line you read in a story, it's just a place to compile thoughts. This can be a physical journal or a document. I'm wondering if I can just keep journaling here and then submit this 🤔

I actually feel way better now. Everything is a bit more organized in my head and now I can organize assignments and due dates.

[gseprofessors]

Jaz Robbins – PSY 623

Professor Robbins was awesome, super knowledgable and patient. Asynch is super helpful and professor provided study guides for weekly quizzes midterm and final exam.

[ms-demeanor]

I have a bachelor's degree in English literature (cum laude even), I have spent the last two years maintaining a 3.95 GPA while working 40 hours a week and caring for my spouse after a dual organ transplant, and have spent a total of nine years of my life as a college student.

Telling me "just treat school like a job" as though it is a failing on my part if I don't adequately plan for unknown assignments from multipule professors a week *on top of* my actual job is, frankly, insulting.

Acting like your students are too stupid to learn the material you teach if they read ahead of your scaffolding is insulting and doesn't speak well of your ability to teach the material.

When I clock in to my job I know approximately what my schedule will be like each day, which days will be busy each week, and which seasons will be hectic during the year. I have no idea what weeks of my statistics class, anatomy class, and programming class will be busy and I shouldn't have to walk into a black box every week and hope for the best.

I have *one* class that has given a weekly schedule. I don't know when the midterms or finals are for the other three classes. I don't know which weeks we will need which materials, so I don't know which text I have to get first for my anatomy class, and since they're supposed to be $200 each, I'd like to space that cost out, but it is possible I'll need both within the first month. However, without an assignment schedule or list of assigned readings, I guess I'll just have to get both (yo ho motherfuckers, don't assign $200 textbooks).

I'm not saying "I don't have a detailed schedule" I'm saying "I don't know which of the next sixteen weeks has a test scheduled, which means I can't plan to study for any tests in those classes so I guess I'll be cramming." Do we have an exam in week five? Guess I'll find out in week five! Hopefully it'll be on a Wednesday instead of a Monday so I have more than 24 hours to go over the material! Hopefully if there's a midterm on one of the days I'm supposed to take my husband in for surgery I'll know at least a few days in advance so I can find someone else to give him a ride! This is the case in 3/4 of my current classes, has been true in half of my classes since 2021, and - if the students in the notes are too be believed - is fairly unexceptional these days.

The academic schedule for this school is set a calendar year in advance and I can view a PDF of the minutes of the board meeting from last November when it was set. I know what day grades are due for next summer term and when finals week is for every season between now and then because it's on the plainly viewable 2023-2024 academic calendar, as well as all the staff flex days and school holidays for the next year.

I have had both adjuncts and tenured professors fail to provide class schedules. One of the professors who refused to give a schedule was using his lecture slides from 2015. Several of the professors who haven't handed out schedules are teaching online async courses entirely composed of lectures and assignments from 2020, down to having the wrong days of the week listed in the syllabus.

Here are some free ideas from my decade experience as a college student to consider using to keep butts in seats because clearly your methods aren't working if you have to hide the education from your students to keep getting them to come to class:

Pop quizzes throughout the term, 4-6 total worth 10-20% of the grade; students hate this but it's effective and they hate it less if the quizzes are a check-in rather than a make-or-break (this is the method that my dad, a college professor for 35 years, favored, and one that my beloved Chaucer professor used)

Weekly participation assignments in class, small group work covering the material from the last unit. My capstone lit class did this, as did a gen ed anthropology class, and pretty much every async class I've taken in the last two years. Lock the *discussion* and the assignment submission, not the fucking readings or assignment sheets. If your students think they can skip participation assignments you're not weighting participation heavily enough in the final grade.

Daily attendance quizzes. My American lit professor started every class (and I took 5 classes from him) by having us respond to a prompt with a paragraph that he would collect and use as attendance and class participation. It also made him fantastic at spotting plagiarism because he was exceptionally familiar with each student's writing style. The quizzes were 20% of the grade.

Just make attendance a huge portion of the grade. I was in a 300-person bio lecture with attendance as 40% of the grade. And guess what, on day one I knew when all the exams were scheduled. Some people only showed up for exams and they failed the class, as was clearly outlined in the syllabus.

Do your schools not have attendance policies? My current classes will drop you for missing 3 assignments in a 16-week semester. My university, which had 10-week quarters, would drop any student who missed 3 of 20 class meetings.

Also: framing your prep time as unpaid labor is, in the grand scheme of things, bullshit. You don't skip grading because it's unpaid labor, because if you chose not to grade the administration would come down on your ass. Administrative work is a standard part of any adjunct's duties, and I'd like to see you try to use the "this is unpaid labor so I didn't show up" as an excuse to get out of division meetings - I bet that would go over just as well with your department chair as it does with your students.

(For the record, I do think that adjuncts are treated like shit by the system and are criminally underpaid, but as someone who has lived with waaaaaaay too many teachers you don't get to tell me that fucking lesson planning is unpaid labor just because it's prep time! That's the job! That's the job you signed a contract to do! I don't disagree that it's a shitty contract, but it is the contract you signed!)

I have ADHD. The ability to pre-plan my semester is something that's important to my success as a student. If I wanted to, I could go to my school's disability office and ask for assignment sheets, reading lists, due dates, and exam days as an accommodation for my disability.

But I'm not going to do that, and the reason I'm not going to do that is because *every* student should be able to pre-plan their term and know in advance if a scheduling conflict might force them to choose between failing a class and losing a job, and in this situation it is the professors who are failing their classes.

If you are a college professor your students are adults and you need to goddamn act like it. For years I've heard my professor friends complain about how students had lost their attention spans or wouldn't do the work, but none of them ever mentioned how much professors had started falling down on the job.

Of course your students don't respect you. Of course they cheat. Of course they don't do the assignments, or half-ass them.

Do you seriously not see how adversarial this is? Can you think of any clearer way you could communicate to your students "I don't respect your time or respect you" than denying them access to an assignment schedule and telling them they're so stupid they'd ruin all your hard work if they read ahead?

Jesus fucking Christ I'm a giant fucking teacher's pet nerd who always has my hand up and does the extra credit and is back in school *again* because I love being a student, and I have never heard anything so demotivating in my life.

Fuckin. Welcome back. Have a great semester I guess.

What the fuck is up with professors not including an assignment schedule in the syllabus I'm going to scream

[comingtoyoursenses]

My smartest friends who I admire don't work during school so I'm taking a leave of absence from work until this semester is over, I have;

Adolescent disorders and development: 1 media critique assignment, a written assignment, a final exam all by March 21st

Statistics: a midterm Thursday then a final exam April 11th

Behavioural neuropsych: 3 more weekly quizzes and an exam

Memory: a research paper, a presentation and a final exam by March 22nd

Behavioural ecology: a midterm Tuesday, a final exam, and a research paper due by March 21st

[assignmentshelpcenter]

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Contacts: Email: gradesavermachine@gmail.com Discord: UnemployedProfessor#4746 WhatsApp/text +1(929) 443-0515

[jasmineon]

Well since my absolute mountain of 3 midterms and two bigger assignments (plus all my regular class work of readings for all five of my classes, online quizzes, and smaller assignments that occur on a weekly basis) which I’ve been swamped with for the past week and a half, will be over tomorrow (which is my federal income tax midterm worth 30% of my grade help me)...

I might finally have time to draw again for the first time in like two weeks

[acadieum]

I'm finally done with midterms!!

now I just gotta suffer thru weekly quizzes until finals come to end me again :')

[prorevenge]

Screw with my grade? Have fun dealing with an investigation from the dean's office.

Buckle in, because this is a long read, but the end is worth it.

Last semester I took an online only ECON-101 class to fulfill one of the requirements of my associates degree. I chose economics because it sounded more interesting than the other options - big mistake. This teacher, let's call him Professor Y., does absolutely no teaching online, takes forever to answer questions, and doesn't really seem to care about actually helping us learn. There was a website, called MyEconLab, which is where homework, quizzes, and tests were taken. Other than that, there were also weekly discussion boards to engage with our peers.

Now I'm not going to lie, I didn't deserve an A for this class, or even a B. I missed some assignments and didn't do so well on others. However, I thought that I earned a C. I got sick in the middle of the semester and missed some assignments, which was totally my fault. I noticed that I was now in danger of getting a D for the class, which wouldn't be good at all. I looked at the syllabus, which was littered with typos and was generally very confusing. I found a passage that says that the final was worth 100 points, and at this point in the class we only had 255 total. It seemed to be worth a big chunk of points. There was also a term paper assigned, which was also worth 100 points.

I focused more on the final than I did the term paper, because I'm better at multiple choice than I am papers. I received an 83% on the final, and I was satisfied that I would scrape by with a C.

The class ended on December 15th, and the final was not added to my gradebook. I thought that it was a little weird, but I didn't think anything of it. The professor had been taking a long time all semester to grade assignments. I checked every couple of days to see what my final grade was, and on January 10th, I was assigned a D. I checked my gradebook and saw that I got a 67% on the term paper, which is around what I expected. However, my final was nowhere to be found. In addition, the only assignment that referenced the MyEconLab website had not been updated since November 6th. Remember, the class ended on December 15th, so there was almost a month of assignments that weren't counting towards my grade.

Thinking that there must be some mistake, I sent my professor an email.

Hello Professor,

I checked my grade on webadvisor and it says that I have a D. I logged into blackboard and it says I have a 67%, but that doesn't appear to be taking into account the grade I received for my final exam, as well as some of the other MyEconLab assignments.

In addition, I'm having a hard time understanding your grading rubric, so any clarifications you can offer there would be most appreciated.

Thank you,

Ceryliae

I did not hear back from my professor for 48 hours. At this point, I called the Dean that oversaw Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences. I explained my situation to her, and she said that she would call my professor, and that there was a chance that it was just a mistake. The next day I received an email back from my professor

HELLO STUDENT, HERE IS A SUMMARY OF YOUR GRADE TO DATE. IT LOOKS LIKE YOU MISSED (2) CRITICAL DISCUSSION BOARDS WHICH AFFECTED YOUR GRADE SIGNIFICANTLY. PLEASE REVIEW THE COMMENTS I MADE IN BLACKBOARD REGARDING YOUR TERM PROJECT. IF NEEDED WE CAN MEET TO DISCUSS YOUR GRADE FURTHER.

Yes, it was really in all caps. Below that my professor had included my gradebook, which I already saw. That was the whole reason I was getting in touch with him. My professor didn't actually answer any of my questions. So I wrote him back.

Hello Professor, I appreciate your reply, however this doesn't answer my questions. Where is my final? What about my MyEconLab assignments from the last couple weeks of class?

Ceryliae

He replied

Ceyliae (he misspelled my name), please watch your tone. Your final is located in myeconlab, as mentioned in the syllabus if you reviewed it here is a breakdown of how the grades are calculated. Course Assignments and point distribution approximations:

(3) Chapter Mid-Term Exams (MyEcon lab) = 45 %

(1) Final Exam (MyEcon lab) = 25%

(16) Chapter Quizzes (MyEcon lab = 15%

(1) Term Project (Written) = 100 (points)

(10) Chapter H/W/Video Assn. MyEcon lab = + 15%

(6) Chapter Discussion Forums = 120 (points)

Total Points 100% weighted (plus 220 points)

Underneath that, he included the gradebook from MyEconLab. Which I already had. The grade breakdown that he included in this email was already located in the syllabus, which I read. I'm not sure about you guys, but this is very confusing to read and its actually impossible to calculate your grade from this. Once again, he failed to answer my questions. Not only that, he also asked me to watch my tone? I've been nothing but respectful. Also, he implied that I haven't read his dumpster fire of a syllabus, which I have.

My reply to him was

Professor,

I apologize if I come off as rude, it's not my intention. I'm just very confused. The only assignment on blackboard that is labeled as MyEconLab says that it is for weeks 1 through 11, and was last updated on November 6th. How does that include my final exam grade, which was taken on December 15th. Additionally, how can something that was updated on November 6th include all of my assignments for November 7th through the end of the semester?

Also, I did read the syllabus, and I spent quite a while trying to work out how the point distribution is calculated. I wasn't able to figure it out, which is why I asked for some clarification. I'm sorry if asking for clarification came off as being disrespectful.

I wait four days without a reply, and then I called the Dean again. I told her that I didn't feel like this was a mistake, and that I didn't think this was going to be resolved between the professor and me. She told me she would look into it further, and that she's been following our email conversation, but she didn't have my last email to him, which I forwarded in her direction.

Shortly after my phone call with the dean, my professor emailed me back.

Ok, 1st the points in MyEcon Lab are calculated within the My econ lab system based on the weighted point allotment for the particular assignment. This is why I sent you a copy of the syllabus which expresses all assignments in Myecon lab as a weighted %. Hence, the 92% for example on the final, is weighted with all other exam grades, which represented 70% of the Myecon grade.

Secondly, the Big reason, respectfully, your grade was lower than anticipated was based on the (2) discussion boards you missed in my opinion, with those 2 scores you would have been above a 70%.

All I can say is, we can sit down in Spring 2018, during office hours, and I can explain the grading criteria, as I have designed it based on student work within Myecon lab and Blackboard.

You did miss (2) discussion Board Correct? I just ask this to make sure this point clarification is correct.

Again, email me after February 12th, 2018 when I return from Winter Break and we can over your grade scores again.

Thanks Sincerely;

Professor Y.

So now finally I've gotten an answer on one of my questions. He says that he is calculating my grade by reducing all of the assignments that were done on MyEconLab down to a 100 point assignment based on the weighted percentages in the syllabus. This is ridiculous because there are 355 points in total for the class, so reducing all that work down to 100 points means it's all worth very little. The final ended up being only worth 7% of my grade. I replied back to him:

Professor Y.,

I appreciate your efforts to clarify your grading policy, however I am even more confused than before. If I'm understanding you correctly, it sounds like you're saying that every single assignment for MyEconLab is weighted according to the percentages on page three of your syllabus. Then those points are counted as part of the "MyEconLab (Weeks 1-11)" assignment, which is worth one hundred points.

This contradicts what your syllabus says on page five:

"Exams: there will be 4 exams over the course of the semester, (3) Midterm and (1) Final. These exams are a combination of multiple choice, matching, ordering, and essays. Each Exam is worth 100 points, and the exams are each worth 45% of your overall grade.

Research Paper: you will submit an 8-10 page research paper on a topic approved by the instructor. A separate handout will be distributed to students with details on formatting this assignment. The research paper is worth 20% of your overall grade and is 100 points. Document Requirements Page Located in Blackboard (Term Project Requirements)." (Emphasis mine)

This seems to contradict what you've stated about the final and midterm exams only being included in the MyEconLab assignment on blackboard. Towards the end of the semester, after I missed the two discussion boards, I realized that I might end up with a D in your class. I consulted your syllabus to see what points were remaining, and found the passages from page five that I quoted above. It seemed to me that the final exam was worth quite a big chunk of points, and I was relying on that to bolster my grade. At the end of last semester I was incredibly busy with other classes, performances, work, and illnesses. I believe you are aware of my illnesses, because you denied my request for an extension on the term paper. For these reasons, I had a limited amount of time to devote to studying. If I had known that in reality, the final was only worth 7% of my overall grade, I would have budgeted my time differently. Instead of studying so much for the final, I would have put more time into my term paper, which seemed to be worth less points.

You keep asking me to reference your syllabus, and in a previous email, you stated that if I had read your syllabus, I would not have questions about my grade. However, your syllabus seems to contradict itself in several places. I saw the quoted passage on page five, and assumed that it was correct. Was I incorrect to rely on your syllabus to guide me in how to approach your class?

Furthermore, I have asked a direct question in three separate emails, and I have not received a direct answer:

There are several assignments which were turned in after November 6th at 2:34 PM, this includes three chapter quizzes as well as my final exam. How are these assignments included in my overall grade, if the MyEconLab assignment was last updated on November 6th at 2:34 PM?

I would appreciate an answer, because it doesn't feel fair to me to receive a grade without all of my work being included in my grade. MyEconLab says that I spent over 4 hours working on assignments that were turned in after November 6th at 2:34 PM. Was that all for nothing?

I am sorry to keep bothering you during the winter break, however this is a time sensitive matter for me, as I receive a hefty discount on my car insurance for maintaining a 3.0 GPA. For that reason, I would like to resolve this as soon as possible.

Please be aware that I have CC'd the dean to this conversation.

Thank you very much, Ceryliae

The professor emailed me back the next day:

Well, I will address these issues within the next 4 weeks with you when we Meet. Again, did you miss (2) discussion Boards?

I am aware you have spoken with my Dean, and Chairman, however, this does not change my position or your grade until further review.

I will be back in the office starting February 13th, 2018 and we can revisit these issues 1 by 1.

Please just reply back for my records if you missed (2) Discussion boards or you can defer until we meet and I will use what I have in blackboard as my answer.

Please, no more emails until we meet, to keep perceptions and frustrations to a minimum.

Thanks.

So not only is he refusing to answer my questions, he also asked me a question about the discussion boards I missed, which I actually answered in the previous email. That means he didn't really read my assignment. Additionally, I can't really afford to wait 4 weeks to resolve this situation as my car insurance will literally go up hundreds of dollars.

I email him back:

Professor Y.,

I am disappointed that you are unwilling to answer my simple questions about my grade at this time, because this situation is very time sensitive for me.

As I stated in my previous email, yes, I did miss those two discussion boards.

I appreciate your offer to meet with me once the spring semester begins, however I don't think it is in my best interest to meet with you alone. I am uncomfortable meeting with you without the dean in attendance.

Thank you, Ceryliae

The next day I hear back from him with this short email:

Grade was changed to a C.

Best Success.

So now I've gotten what I was trying to get a week earlier. However, I'm not satisfied. So I call the dean and tell her that since I've been given the C I'm dropping the matter. However, I still think that Professor Y. should be investigated for how he grades assignments, as well as the confusing nature of his syllabus. She tells me that she is already investigating, and then asks me to put all this in an email to her so that she has a written account. She also tells me that she was calculating my grade and she thought I earned a C. She also didn't think that I had any issues with my tone, and said that I was nothing but respectful.

Here is that email:

Hello Dr. E.,

Professor Y. informed me that he was changing my grade to a C. For this reason, I would like to put this matter to rest. However, there are still some lingering concerns that I feel should be addressed going forward.

It still appears to me that not all of my assignments were calculated into my grade, due to the MyEconLab assignment on blackboard last being updated on November 6th, and the class ending on December 15th.

The syllabus has many inconsistencies as well as flat out missing quite a bit of information. Page three has the grading breakdown and mixes points and percentages, which makes it very confusing. Furthermore, the grading breakdown is contrary to what it stated on page 5:

"Exams: there will be 4 exams over the course of the semester, (3) Midterm and (1) Final. These exams are a combination of multiple choice, matching, ordering, and essays. Each Exam is worth 100 points, and the exams are each worth 45% of your overall grade.

Research Paper: you will submit an 8-10 page research paper on a topic approved by the instructor. A separate handout will be distributed to students with details on formatting this assignment. The research paper is worth 20% of your overall grade and is 100 points. Document Requirements Page Located in Blackboard (Term Project Requirements)."

Along the same lines, there are typos littered throughout the syllabus, including stating that the four exams are each worth 45% of your overall grade, which adds up to 180%. If the Syllabus for Econ-101 is confusing, there is a good chance that his other classes are equally confusing. How many students have not had the confidence to come forward after they were misled or confused by Professor Y's syllabus? I have attached all three revisions of Professor Y's syllabus to this email.

You have been exceedingly helpful with this matter, and I appreciate all the help you've given me.

Thank you,

Ceryliae

So now the professor is under investigation for how he grades assignments as well as his syllabuses. None of this would have happened if he had assigned me the grade I earned.

TL;DR Professor screws me over with my grade. I get the dean involved and my grade is changed to a C. Not satisfied, I also get him investigated by the dean's office.

(source) (story by Ceryliae)

[tismcosmology]

My grades are all officially in finally!! and so, an end of term review of my classes, how I did, what I did well, and what I need to improve on for next term.

MATH - Calculus 1

Final Grade: 67

worst class overall by quite a bit, but honestly? im really happy with how I did. I went into this course extremely unprepared bc i never took high school calc, just a college level course that did not cover everything I needed, and spent the whole term playing catchup.

Need to get more in the habit of doing practice questions daily, and not just a few days before the quizzes. Also. making a note to not trust a thing the TAs say and just read the syllabus (looking at the TA that told me there were no more online weekly assignments and i didnt find out he was wrong until the last month)

CS - Intro to Python

Final Grade: 86 !!

I forgot how much I enjoyed coding. Almost sad I dont have another CS class until next year (almost). Im very happy with how I did, and I think the main thing that brought down my grade were the assignments I missed, which shouldnt be as much of an issue now that I have accommodations. I think I had a good time management schedule and started the assignments early (mainly bc they were more fun to do than math or phys)

PHYS - Mechanics

Final Grade: 81

After the mess that was the second midterm im just glad I did well on the final. Not much to say about this other than im glad its over holy hell. I enjoyed it but oh my god.

Need to make sure I continue starting the practice questions basically as soon as theyre out/covered in class, and i want to start reading the textbook before lectures (which i can actually do now that i dont have morning classes every day!). Making a note to go to office hours more this term (as long as theyre not directly over another one of my classes again) and finding more study buddies to drag into our ever growing group

PHYS - Mechanics Lab

Final Grade: 79

Overall? Meh. The lab itself was fun, I enjoyed the act of doing experiments and recording them, my groupmates were fantastic, but the goddamn time crunch was horrendus. I was so stressed the entire time about finishing lab notes on time that I barely absorbed anything. I was firmly placed in charge of data collection and so I havent the slightest clue how to plot data in excel or use the statistical formulas we were taught, but goddamn can i operate a motion sensor.

For future terms, i Need to get better at understanding the pre and post labs and actually understanding what we're doing before going in, and not in the last 15 minutes

ENGL - Communications

Final Grade: 82

I enjoyed this class a lot, my prof was fantastic and my groupmates for the final project were also amazing. Has only made me reconsider my profession slightly. But the interest in sociology of science and fixing the academic system is real

Time management kinda sucked here ngl, I think because it was lower on my priority list and so got done last. There was a 5% assignment due last day of class I completely just forgot to do, and a few weekly worksheets I didnt finish. Thankfully I dont have any more communication classes but I need to keep that in mind for future non-stem electives I take that writing things is in fact time consuming

FR - Intermediate French

Final Grade: 81

Honestly? Suprised I did this well. I was bombing the in person tests but acing the assignments and I think thats mostly because of spelling. My oral and listening assignments I did well on. Idk if im going to continue in another year, I really just want my DELF status. As long as I can pass a B2 exam i could care less

Overall Average: 79 !

Im. super happy with how I did tbh. calc defiently brought my average down but I passed !!!!!!🎉🎉🎉 looking foward to next term starting monday :)))

[university-study-blog]

09-01-19

Spend most of today creating a question bank for my quiz next week. There are about 58slides of information that I have to memorize for a quiz worth 10% of my overall grade. I typically crate a question bank after every class so that I can study it for quizzes and midterms and finals. Plus I get to review them weekly. Usually I make them all short answer unless other types of questions are more suitable. But yeah. 100 questions this far. And this is only the 2nd week of classes!

Happy studying guys!!!!

[susierpt]

my astronomy prof is the real MVP for allowing open-book homework and quizzes, putting no time limit on the weekly quizzes, letting us email her with questions if we get stuck, and only making the midterm and final count for about 25% total in my final grade. god bless her, i just might pass after all.

[gseprofessors]

Katia Arroyo-Carrion – PSY 600

Katia Arroyo-Carrion was a wonderful professor. She takes class time to really prepare students, not only for the weekly quizzes, but for the midterm and final exams as well. She is kind and answers students’ questions by using her clinical experience as examples. If she doesn’t know the answer, she will look it up and get back to you. I recommend her and would take another class with her in the future.

[ewhauniversity2018]

Sorry if someone has asked you this already. How many credits are you taking per semester while abroad and how difficult would you say the work load/grading is compared to your home university? I feel like Korean university might have a higher standard. I want to do well academically but I also don't want to spend all my time there studying.

Hello, sorry for the late reply.

I am only taking 15 credits this semester. For undergraduates, the minimum number of credits is 9 and the maximum is 18. Though the minimum is 9 credits, consult with your home university adviser to see their requirements because universities differ from one another. Out of the 15 credits I am taking, 2 classes (3 credits each) are online, one class (3 credits) is an art elective, and the Korean Academic class (6 credits). Thus, my semester is much easier than others. However, from what I heard, the classes are similar to America in a way. Most classes have either weekly readings, quizzes, or assignments depending on course. Usually all classes have a midterm and a final. The hardest part in my case would be attendance. As an American college student, attendance was never a large part of my grade, missing a few classes could do. However, in Korea, classes typically will fail you after missing class for the fourth time. This is all I can say for my part since I am not taking stressful courses this semester. I hoped this helped a bit. 

Thank you,

C.