This is what killed me in Calc I. My professor was Chinese and could not pronounce the letter X. She somehow turned it into a three syllable word. I was two weeks in before I figured out what she was talking about and I had to ask someone. Turns out "ecasis" is not some fancy math term but is actually the letter X.
Most dropped courses at ISU this semester
- Thread starter NorthCyd
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This is what killed me in Calc I. My professor was Chinese and could not pronounce the letter X. She somehow turned it into a three syllable word. I was two weeks in before I figured out what she was talking about and I had to ask someone. Turns out "ecasis" is not some fancy math term but is actually the letter X.
I'm old enough that the course textbook was really just a spiral notebook that followed the lectures...all you needed was a hi-lighter and the ability to stay awake. Was it a Dr. Carlson that taught the class?
I don't remember his name but I remember what he looked like.
That isn't very helpful.
I've had students and parents over the years tell me "XX class (usually orgo chem, calc, physics) is too hard. It is just weed out classes for X major." I never bought that. If someone can't do basic physics or organic chemistry how the hell is engineering or medical school gonna work? The subject matter is hard but so are those professions. If the classes don't work for someone neither will the profession. In all honestly I never took a calculus or physics class in my life, but I recognized I would not have done well anyway. Besides, a history major is where it is at!
I still remember that high pressure systems rotate clockwise because the clock in the auditorium was "high" on the wall.
On the other hand, you missed out on all of the unnecessary crap that makes college what it is.
Regarding courses referenced in this thread, several haven't changed since the '80s, either.
So I take it the math professors at ISU still suck as much as they did over 20 years ago when I had a rough go around with it. Granted the math curriculum at my HS also sucked at the time and did not prepare us well for college and on top of the the good math teacher retired after my sophomore year and the guy that replaced her was terrible. I had to re-take Math 150 after 1 exam basically killed my grade my first semester and 165 (I think it was that or whatever business calc was at the time) kicked my butt so bad I dropped it before I could fail that class and took it over the summer at DMACC and a HS math teacher that taught it made it much easier to learn than the guy with the PhD at ISU ever made it for me.
If I could go back in time I'd take all my math and stat classes at DMACC and probably Econ and Accounting too as I took 1 of each of the later 2 there and wished I had taken the 2nd one there too. It sucks because its the luck of the draw who you get for a professor/instructor for classes like this at ISU. Some are OK and some are just horrible at teaching the subject.
CompSci was another one of those back when I was at ISU (98-02) as Mr. and Mrs. Tomlinson were absolutely horrible instructors. Had Mr. T twice and Mrs once and one of the semesters on Mr T the class AVERAGE on 1 exam was like 45% and he does not grade on a curve either. He ripped us all about not preparing for the exam and several fired back that there were questions that we had not even covered yet in class on it and also it says something about the poor exam he put together if maybe a handful on the class even passed it. That was a fun day going through the exam question by question while some of the students I would assume were the top in the class at the time just picked him apart on either it was a flawed question or something we had not even covered. Funny thing is the next few weeks all the sudden he started to had out "extra credit" assignments or quizzes which we could only assume was his way to still not grade on a curve but raise our grades from his bad exam.
This was nearly my same experience! Had this terrible professor, I think his name was Weerasinghe or something who couldn't teach worth a crap and even his TAs loathed him. Failed it my 1st semester thanks to 1 exam that was worth 20% of my grade. Up until then I was probably doing about C work in the class and all his exams were work it out problems not multiple choice. Well he decides to make an 8 question multiple choice exam on Matrixes and after taking it I thought I had done well because when I worked out the problems I got something that matched an answer. Well I must have been working them all wrong because I got just 1 of 8 right which was good for a 12.5% on an exam worth 20% of my total grade! Took it the following semester with an American professor a friend of mine had that said he was good and got a B+ in it and actually understood what the hell he was teaching.
I can’t remember exactly what class it was, but I loved business calculus so much I took it twice…
Oh I had my moments...but in exchange for a fraction of the student loans, I'll take it.
Fritz Keinert…that class completely changed my path as well. Worst professor I ever had at Iowa State
