Mean Physics Teacher: Is This Fair?

[physics girl phd]

I just now realized that I am way too "nice."

Where's this guy teaching, I think I need a new mentor.

There's nothing wrong with being "nice" as long as you still have standards. I think that the OP expresses too much that the teacher is "mean" because he is "hard." That correlation is, in perhaps most often made by the students looking to get a grade, but no knowledge (aka those ones that copy the HW assignments and try to get last years tests, hoping for the same questions). Unfortunately, there's enough educators out there looking for good evaluations (or just plain old lazy), that this happens, and these students get accustomed to it (as do, sadly, admissions offices).

I like to think of myself as "nice" with solid standards appropriate to the courses I teach... and I suspect, based on your history of postings, that you're the same.

 

[BobG]

My calc teacher once tested us on things we didn't learn yet. I found it helpful to study a couple of chapters ahead.

This I don't understand. What's the goal of including these type of questions? Are they easy questions just to make sure the students are reading ahead instead of studying solely for the upcoming exam? Or are these really just questions solvable by what you've already learned, but just presented in a different environment that leads into what you're getting ready to study?

But the majority of the exam are questions which require you to apply knowledge to weird scenarios.

This I do understand - especially when learning some fundamental principles that apply to many different scenarios.

 

[Newai]

Any chance we can see one of his hard test questions?

 

[drizzle]

My best teachers are the 'hard' ones.

 

[jhae2.718]

I can't say I've had any mean physics teachers, though I've had a few median ones.

 

[Chi Meson]

How many people right now are working on a "root-mean-square" joke?

one...

 

[HeLiXe]

This I don't understand. What's the goal of including these type of questions? Are they easy questions just to make sure the students are reading ahead instead of studying solely for the upcoming exam? Or are these really just questions solvable by what you've already learned, but just presented in a different environment that leads into what you're getting ready to study?

Well this was in calculus one, and I actually got the highest score on that exam, which was an "F". The questions on the exam were not essentially "hard," but we did not learn the material yet. We learned transcendental differentiation and she tested on that, but also included implicit differentiation, which was a couple of chapters ahead...so definitely not something we could have solved with what we learned. This is still a pattern in the class with exercises, and occasionally on exams, although not as drastic as the aforementioned exam. I have not asked her why she does this.

 

[BobG]

Well this was in calculus one, and I actually got the highest score on that exam, which was an "F". The questions on the exam were not essentially "hard," but we did not learn the material yet. We learned transcendental differentiation and she tested on that, but also included implicit differentiation, which was a couple of chapters ahead...so definitely not something we could have solved with what we learned. This is still a pattern in the class with exercises, and occasionally on exams, although not as drastic as the aforementioned exam. I have not asked her why she does this.

I wonder if she realizes that when they come out with a new edition of a textbook, sometimes they move stuff around.

In my textbook, they put Newton's method in a fairly late chapter for some reason, which meant it wasn't taught until Calc 2. Their next edition moved it earlier in the book (which I thought made more sense). Fortunately, I had the same teacher for both Calc 1 and Calc 2, so he knew what material he'd taught most of the students the quarter before and knew what material he hadn't. However, for students that didn't take those two classes back to back for some reason - they'd skip right past Newton's method and never learn it.

 

[Dembadon]

One thing about him is that he is not a mean person. He helps people with questions and is generally pretty nice. It's just that his exams are brutal and the questions are completely different from what we studied. He insists on making questions that require "higher level thinking", whatever that means.

It sounds like your instructor is doing an excellent job in preparing you for studies in any respectable university.

I think high school teachers who don't challenge students on the same level as university professors are doing them a huge disservice. Hand-holding produces ill-prepared students, no matter what subject they're studying. Embrace his style; he's doing you a favor. You need to become an independent learner and think of the teacher/professor as a guide. This perspective will help you in college, trust me.

 

[Femme_physics]

How many people right now are working on a "root-mean-square" joke?

one...

That gets you a +1 Urkel point!