- #1
Pengwuino
Gold Member
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I think it would be beneficial to students beginning or getting towards the beginning of their college careers if we shared how bad professors or poor college careers affected our lives. Since I'm only a grad student, i can only share the former.
For example, the professor upper-division quantum professor who was too good for his students. We had a professor who was rarely at his office hours and according to some people, believed the students weren't up to his level so he wasn't obligated to put in much effort. Now QM is quite a different subject... and being able to discuss such a strange topic with a different form of math then one's use to with a professor is key, at least to me. Thankfully, I was chummy with the chair of the department and he was able to help me better understand the seemingly un-understandable!
Another classic example was the professor who was "easy!". The problem was that he explicitly told the students that the test was going to have homework questions on them. He literally picked problems from the homework and put them right on the test verbatim. Now we thought wow, sweet, easy class right? Well, I of course, got a D in the class so i decided I wasn't cut out to take the 2nd semester of the class so i waited to do it over the next year. Well the class that did the 2nd semester with him eventually graduated and they went into the grad program. It was a disaster. They came into the class unprepared and simply not up to par with what they should know and it was a miserable experience for them. Moral of the story? If you're planning on attending grad school, you'll pay many times over for any shortcut you try to take in your undergrad education!
Anyone else have experiences/lessons to teach prospective undergrads/high school students? I know I wish I could have gone back into the past with a few choice lessons...
For example, the professor upper-division quantum professor who was too good for his students. We had a professor who was rarely at his office hours and according to some people, believed the students weren't up to his level so he wasn't obligated to put in much effort. Now QM is quite a different subject... and being able to discuss such a strange topic with a different form of math then one's use to with a professor is key, at least to me. Thankfully, I was chummy with the chair of the department and he was able to help me better understand the seemingly un-understandable!
Another classic example was the professor who was "easy!". The problem was that he explicitly told the students that the test was going to have homework questions on them. He literally picked problems from the homework and put them right on the test verbatim. Now we thought wow, sweet, easy class right? Well, I of course, got a D in the class so i decided I wasn't cut out to take the 2nd semester of the class so i waited to do it over the next year. Well the class that did the 2nd semester with him eventually graduated and they went into the grad program. It was a disaster. They came into the class unprepared and simply not up to par with what they should know and it was a miserable experience for them. Moral of the story? If you're planning on attending grad school, you'll pay many times over for any shortcut you try to take in your undergrad education!
Anyone else have experiences/lessons to teach prospective undergrads/high school students? I know I wish I could have gone back into the past with a few choice lessons...