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Post by Taita Collins on Feb 27, 2008 11:15:32 GMT -5
... where you just wanted to strangle a certain person?
I know I did. I still do.
University has been great. I have been doing great. Actually, my grades are at the top of the year and I am passing just about every subject and practical course without too much difficulty. But Murphy's law is an evil one. It states:
'If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.'
And it proves to be true. Why would everything go well? Oh no, of course it won't. There always has to be some kind of obstacle blocking the way to bliss. In my case, it is my "Academic Skills" teacher. This course is designed to make us familiar with writing scientific papers and such. Our first exam was a discussion exam, where the main focus was on interacting with your fellow students in a debate. My debate was about what we call in Holland a "binding study advise" that some universities have. This basically means that if they tell you to quit the study, you have to quit it (this kind of advise is very rare, mention you, almost every university leaves the final choice to the student).
Anyways, I had done my research and had looked up what it exactly meant to get a study advise like that (4 years of not being able to study that course at that uni, and so on and so forth). When the debate began (which we would be graded for) I came to realize that I was the only one who had looked up what this advise meant. This made me the only one that knew what we were talking about -- hence I spent the first part of the debate explaining to everyone else what the heck we would be talking about. My teacher's verdict? A 5 out of 10 (I did get an avarage 7 out of 10 just because there was another discussion graded by another teacher). And why? Because I said too much. Go figure. I'm the only one that knows what the debate is actually about and I said too much. Should I just not have prepared, like the rest of them?
But oh no, it doesn't end there. That was just problem 1 I have had with her.
A few months later we had to write a paper for that same course. I wrote a paper about alcohol abuse among students related to social motivations in their direct environment. Everyone said it was great (even people in higher years of the study that I know, as well as people in my own year). The demon woman gave me, again, a 5 out of 10. When I went to ask her why, she gave me the following 3 magnificent reasons:
1. I did not spell out the number 3. (I wrote 3, instead of 'three'). 2. I forgot to repeat a year of publication once. 3. She thought I did not explain myself fully (After mentioning the three types of motivations that my articles mentioned, I wrote that I could not review them all because of the limitations of the size of my review article -- she didn't think that enough reason. Good luck fabricating some mysterious reason.)
In secret, I had another teacher of the same course (there are about 10 teachers divided over multiple groups of students) grade my article. She gave me an 8 out of 10. Go figure.
Does this woman just hate me? I have no clue why she would because I have never said or done anything to either disturb her lessons or to disturb her peace of mind. She seems to have decided to dislike me from the start and grade me accordingly (the avarage of my other courses is a 9 out of 10). I'm wondering if she is just too childish to be able to grade someone without letting some odd undescribable personal factor get in the mix.
Grumble.
Ever had that feeling where you just wanted to strangle a certain person?
Oh yes. Have you?
</end of rant -- XD;>
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mathoni
Galactic Republic Alliance
Posts: 177
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Post by mathoni on Feb 27, 2008 14:50:35 GMT -5
Cant say I ever wanted to strangle a teacher, but in your case I can understand why you would want to. I know a few assasins somewhere in keepers universe, if they could just get into this reality we could take care of the problem :-)
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Post by Taita Collins on Feb 27, 2008 16:49:51 GMT -5
XDD How convenient that would be. But I'll have to solve this the civil way after all, I'm afraid. =3 Imminent death just isn't an option. And that'd just be as immature from my end as she is being =P
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Post by Katie on Feb 27, 2008 17:08:07 GMT -5
I know how it is. There are several fellow students in my computer science class that... well, I'd love to see some of them graduate early and a few others unexpectedly move back to China or Slovenia...
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Post by D.A.E. on Mar 6, 2008 5:12:00 GMT -5
All the time hun, I know what you are going through. What you need to do is talk to the head of the department. Show her/him the work you have done, the mark you have gotten and how unhappy you are and feel that other people in the class would agree.
Got this one french teacher fired cause she wasn't teaching right, marking too hard and not doing her job cause we signed a petition and demanded a better instructor else we would get our friends out too, and that's ALOT of money to the department out the window. So they did as we told after bout 2 months of investigation and appeals. Sigh...Do what you think is right, and you got my support and if need be, an alliby.
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Post by Taita Collins on Mar 7, 2008 16:57:36 GMT -5
XD;; Thanks.
Now I have new trouble because of her. The invitations for the Honour Course for top students were sent out, and now I didn't get one because of her ridiculous 5 for the article for the stupid reasons. Now I have to go write a letter to the commission board explaining that all of my other grades do qualify me for the project. Sigh. ~_x
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Post by Katie on Mar 7, 2008 17:05:09 GMT -5
-sympathetically pats Taita's shoulder- Aww, I'm so sorry. I really do hope that you get all this worked out.
Question: In the US, we grade on a 100 percent scale: 100-93 is an A (excellent), 92-86 is a B (above average), 84-77 is a C (average), 76-70 is a D, 69-63 is a D (below average), and anything lower is an F (failure). A's are the most desired grade, naturally. What are the equivalents on your scale (1-10, I think?)?
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Post by Taita Collins on Mar 7, 2008 17:11:57 GMT -5
Yeah, we grade on a 1-10 scale. It's much the same as yours, only we divide yours by 10. XD On our scale we don't work with A, B etc. but we just only note the grade itself (so 1-10).
1-5.5 failure, 5.6-7 is about avarage, 7-8.5 is good, 8.5-10 is excellent. We don't really give those words to discribe them, but basically anything below a 5.6 and you failed the exam. Anything above a 9 and you rocked it. XD An 8 is still very good, and usually used as the overall avarage your grades should be to get into special courses. Like the Honours programme requires you to have an avarage of 8. Not counting the stupid article mishap, mine is a 8.7, that's why I'm pissed off. XD; But the problem is you cant get in if you failed an exam. I just submitted my corrected paper, so I'm just hoping she'll stop the nonsense now and just grade me. XD;;
Your system compares student's grades to produce the percentages as well as grade accordingly to the test, right? We don't do that. We put a certain amount of available points on a certain question and then all the question points that you answered correctly are added up and divided by the sufficient number to produce your 1-10 score. So it's completely independent of what other students have gotten, it is only based on the values appointed to the test questions.
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Post by Katie on Mar 7, 2008 17:36:17 GMT -5
Actually, most teachers that I know grade by the system you have just described -- each student graded independent of all other students. However, I know one teacher who does grade "on a curve," because his courses are so difficult. I just recently took a test for him on buffers, titrations, and Ksp. My raw score of a 74% (I think) was curved up to a 95% (which is considered a pretty decent A). I believe raw scores of about 20% or so were curved up to passing grades (not necessarily nice passing grades, but passing, as in, a 69%). The lowest grade, a 10%, was not curved up higher. (Honestly, how could someone score a 10%? It's not like the material was new... we covered a good deal of it last year in the honors level...)
This teacher does all his curves based on test scores from previous years. He's been teaching for about 13 years, so he has an appreciable volume of data to work with.
There is one other teacher who grades on a curve, but this is his first year teaching so I don't know how good it is. Most of the people in that class have no business there anyway, so of course they do poorly and need a curve to bolster their grade... -rolls eyes- Not that I'm complaining or anything. >D
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Post by Taita Collins on Mar 7, 2008 17:43:57 GMT -5
Ah. XD Usually when a course is difficult here and an exam is collectively scored bad, the teacher will add 1 point to your grade or make the grading to the different questions less strict. We don't use the curve approach depending on other students anywhere in Holland as far as I know.
.. And yea.. I know those people too. Right now we have an introduction to neuropsychology, so it's a lot of brain and a lot of biology, science and physics (which I love, so I'm quite happy XD). Some of these things we already had to know for an earlier course and were actually exam questions for that course. And still there are people that claim they have NEVER heard that piece of information before. Are you kidding me? The other course's teacher talked about it a lot of times and it was actually IN your exam. Yeah, I don't get the people that get 1's in our system either. At university it is also possible to score a 0 here, by the way, and one person I know scored a 0.7 on some test that solely depended on studying. That's just ridiculous...
Yeah, I know those people who have no business in the study. They think this will train them to become the next Dr. Phil, whilst university psychology at the uni I go to is an education to become a fundamental researcher and requires a lot of biology, science and physics as I mentioned. And the uni made this VERY clear, at every gathering, information day etc. They always said we are not a Dr. Phil education. Some people just don't listen. XD;
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Post by Katie on Mar 7, 2008 17:54:25 GMT -5
You've heard of Dr. Phil? o.o I'm so sorry. I just want you to know -- not all Americans are crazy. (Well... actually...)
Yep, same for my computer science class. Two of the students signed up for the class simply because they thought it would be an easy class that would boost their GPA, and now they need the curve just to pass. And most of the class did not take the prerequisite course... and one student -- I have no idea how he got the recommendation that you have to have to get into the course. He's not even in the right grade range (the course is restricted, so only students of certain grades can sign up; he does not fall into that range).
-shrug- But what am I saying? I forget that I attend a public school. Of course nothing makes sense. x.x
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Post by Taita Collins on Mar 7, 2008 18:00:51 GMT -5
Haha. Yes, everyone in Holland knows Dr. Phil. His show is on tv here every bloody day except for the weekends. Twice a day actually, on two different channels and interrupted by another old repeat of the Oprah Winfrey Show. In psychological terms, he is a terrible therapist. For one, a therapist should never voice their own opinions about a situation. But yea, if he wants to do business like that and fill his pockets, he can be my guest. Public american figures have a tendency to be crazy, it seems. But that doesn't condemn the rest of you. XD Hell, we have a prime minister that looks like Harry Potter and a radical bleached-haired anti-muslim fundamentalist that gets us into trouble with the ridiculous things he shouts. We all have our quircks. XD
Ugh, yes. I know those people. XD It's quite odd how they seem to beat the system time after time. Luckily there isn't so many of them at university anymore, but there's still people who go out too much and sleep during class. Interesting phenomenon.
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Post by Katie on Mar 7, 2008 18:04:22 GMT -5
I just think it's bad practice to try to do "therapy" or whatever on national television. I just don't think that's going to be effective and healthy for the people involved. Most of them really do need help, and I don't think they'll get it by being fodder for Dr. Phil's tabloid-esque show.
EDIT: Dinner. I'll be back in about half an hour, probably sooner.
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Post by Taita Collins on Mar 7, 2008 18:14:46 GMT -5
That's actually exactly why he is a bad therapist. Voicing personal opinions about what someone is doing is the worst thing you can do as a therapist and it gets you nowhere. Plus ridiculing and displaying people's dispair on national tv is kind of disgusting to me, even though the people come there voluntarily. He's too much of a public figure.. It's kind of ridiculous. What I find interesting about those shows like Dr. Phil and Oprah is the overreaction that the people who attend those shows have.. Anything that happens they start screaming their heads off, when Oprah or Dr. Phil walks on stage, when they get presents that they will never use.. They scream their 'oh my god!' as if they are about to faint. It's ridiculous. They are just people, not some kind of divine beings. What's with the screaming.. Dutch people hate that. Actually, a lot of performers like dutch fans cause they're not hysterical XD. Of course not everyone is like that, but it seems the studio audience is selected solely on that criterium of 'how soon will you start screaming'... As you might have noticed, I'm not a real commercial type person either XDD. But hey, we have Harry Potter, coming to a government near you! Jan Peter Balkenende and the chamber of fools ~
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Post by Katie on Mar 7, 2008 18:43:15 GMT -5
I don't read Dutch very well, but I can understand sarcasm in any language. xD
Truth be told, I'm really frustrated with my government right now too... It's not about doing what's right for the country anymore, it's about getting in power, staying in power, and sabotaging the other party. And the 2008 presidential candidates don't impress me either...
That's America for you. The idol worship and publicity surrounding Hollywood celebrities is, indeed, ridiculous. x.x
Hysterical fans (actually, hysteria in general) annoy me. Maybe one of these days I'll move to Holland. xD
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