So have you had a professor fail a whole class before?

[BoxsterCy]

Wow, brings back bad memories! I had an engineering professor who gave D’s to most of a survey class I was in back in the ‘70’s. Most of us were landscape architect students and on the first day of class he let all of us know in no uncertain terms how ****** off he was to be teaching a course below his stature as the greatest civil engineer in the history of the planet (only slightly exaggerating that). . Several of my friends flunked the class and a couple of us just got D’s. All we would get back on our survey books was a grade, no comments or justification that the work was sub-par because it wasn’t. My summer job at the time was instrument man on a DOT survey crew. I knew how to survey as did several of the other guys who also working surveying in the summer. He was mad about his assignment and stayed mad all quarter and took it out on us. I got an A in the next class in that same civil engineering series, different prof obviously.

 

[mike4cy]

Did the computers run on punch cards?

Golden Drachmas, actually.

 

[DurangoCy]

Herman*Quirmbach - Iowa State University - RateMyProfessors.com

That's funny I was just looking him up to see if he's still there. My experience might have been different. I minored in Econ with the sole purpose to boost my GPA and took 101 and 102 from him.

It's been a while, but I thought he was hilarious in class. He knew 5 people's names in the lecture hall asked each of them several questions per class, usually when they were just falling asleep or starting to talk to their friends. I didn't think it was meant to be mean spirited though, although they probably felt differently.

Anyway, as long as you're ahead of the class average you'll be pleasantly surprised by your grade at the end of the semester, at least that was my experience. I guess I'd rather it that way that some of the teachers always telling me I'm doing great and then I get a B- or C+ from them just because they have some reverse curve.

 

[GMackey32]

Was he tall, going bald, and like poetry?

Yes. He was a total dork.

 

[DurangoCy]

Sturges was never actually that tough. He acted tough and ****** off entire classes because he'd threaten to turn people in for cheating from the solutions manual and then say he wasn't going to curve tests just because the class wasn't smart enough to do well.

1) He actually did give 0's to everyone using that solution manual on the assignment with the error. (first-hand knowledge)

2) He always found an excuse to curve all or part of the course at the end of the year. Guy was pure hardass, but he wasn't totally unfair with that stuff. I think most of his act was trying to weed some people out (which he did). Luckily, after having him 3 times I had that figured out so I didn't let those first test Ds and Fs get to me. :twitcy:

I remember hearing horror stories before I had Sturgis and I think he was my Dynamics prof. IIRC he just wasn't that great of a teacher, but nothing too memorable. No one could put me to sleep like Abendroth (sp?) in Steel Design though. I don't think I was awake for more than 30% of that class.

 

[aauummm]

Wow, brings back bad memories! I had an engineering professor who gave D’s to most of a survey class I was in back in the ‘70’s. Most of us were landscape architect students and on the first day of class he let all of us know in no uncertain terms how ****** off he was to be teaching a course below his stature as the greatest civil engineer in the history of the planet (only slightly exaggerating that). . Several of my friends flunked the class and a couple of us just got D’s. All we would get back on our survey books was a grade, no comments or justification that the work was sub-par because it wasn’t. My summer job at the time was instrument man on a DOT survey crew. I knew how to survey as did several of the other guys who also working surveying in the summer. He was mad about his assignment and stayed mad all quarter and took it out on us. I got an A in the next class in that same civil engineering series, different prof obviously.

Was the professor's initials MP?

 

[Cy$]

Did the computers run on punch cards?

how cool was CF on a typewriter back then? I bet the grammar police here enjoyed it back then!

 

[Cy$]

Herman*Quirmbach - Iowa State University - RateMyProfessors.com

for next semester I'm using this...look ahead at the teachers that teach the class and avoid ****** teachers...your GPA will love you for doing it.

 

[alarson]

My guess is Herman Quirmbach. (sp?) I had him for Micro Econ, and he was the worst teacher I had in any subject....ever. Made an obvious effort to make students feel stupid in class and never explained anything. He might as well have been teaching nuclear thermo-dynamics. He was a Stooge and a half!

Agreed. He was my worst professor at ISU, and at one point (may still be) was one of the worst rated professors at ISU on ratemyprofessors.

 

[alarson]

for next semester I'm using this...look ahead at the teachers that teach the class and avoid ****** teachers...your GPA will love you for doing it.

I did that every semester i could, when the schedule allowed flexibility. At very least it helps you avoid the godawful ones.

 

[RING4CY]

The Greenlee School of Journalism lost my exam I had passed to be admitted entrance into the school. They have no record of me taking it last week.

I'm not too happy right now.

 

[SenorCy]

My guess is Herman Quirmbach. (sp?) I had him for Micro Econ, and he was the worst teacher I had in any subject....ever. Made an obvious effort to make students feel stupid in class and never explained anything. He might as well have been teaching nuclear thermo-dynamics. He was a Stooge and a half!

Most of the time he just droned on and on during his lectures. I would guess around 1/3 of the class was sleeping. Occasionally however, he would go on rants about coal power plants which were entertaining, but had nothing to do with economics. What drove me crazy though, was that he basically used his own terminology for equations. Half of the stuff was the same as the book and half wasn't. Also, every test had something about the dangers of Big Tobacco.

 

[laminak]

My guess is Herman Quirmbach. (sp?) I had him for Micro Econ, and he was the worst teacher I had in any subject....ever. Made an obvious effort to make students feel stupid in class and never explained anything. He might as well have been teaching nuclear thermo-dynamics. He was a Stooge and a half!

LOL at Herman. He was the only professor I had who had assigned seating for 200 students in a lecture hall and had his TA's take attendance.

 

[IsUaClone2]

Did the computers run on punch cards?

Yes they did and the compilers did not have error messages. If your program had an error in it, all the computer did was print a list of your punched cards followed by the words "NO GO" on the next sheet of paper. It took me two thirds of a Quarter (we didn't have two semesters, we had three Quarters) before learning that procedure is not spelled proceedure.

We had no personal computers or even hand calculators; we used slide rules even if we were not in engineering.

No photo copy machines; if you wanted to copy a source or old test you had to do it by hand.

No Cy-Ride, you lost your draft exemption after four years whether you graduated or not, Iowa did not sell or serve liquor in bars or restaurants (all liquor was purchased from state liquor stores and recorded in your personal book) and worst of all, three guys for every girl. I'm not complaining because I survived and still have my wife of nearly 45 years that I met at good ol' ISU.

 

[laminak]

I had Bathie for Thermo 1 and Joensen for Thermo 2. Joensen was definitely a hard a** in the classroom - no hats, putting your feet on the desk in front of you, etc. He also went on a tirade against my wife (GF at the time), telling her she was incapable of being an employable engineer.

Hardest teacher I ever had was McConnell teaching Dynamics. I got the 2nd highest grade in the class with a B-. Highest grade was a B, and half the class failed. Proudest B- grade of my life, as I worked my butt off to get that grade.

I had Joensen for Thermo 1. I agree he was a hard-*** and had all of these rules, however I learned a lot from him. Funny how he banned drinks, too, for not being professional, yet in my job, everyone has drinks in their offices or in meetings.

Best Joensen story--his syllabus had the typical homework assignments, however weren't collected until the test time. He stressed that you need to have the homework assigned for that day's class completed to have questions for his lecture.

So one day he was calling on people in class, usually focusing on his "favorites" (the people not doing well) and three or four of them could answer the questions. Frustrated, he asked for the homework assignments assigned for that day and the one assigned the previous class. In a class of 25-30, one student handed in one assignment. The look on his face was priceless and stated, "If you're not going to do the work, neither am I," and promptly packed up and walked out. Everyone waited about five minutes before leaving.

 

[jsmith86]

1. Wait a second. We are talking about a design class? Like one where you draw things? Maybe you all just suck at drawing?


2. As to the comments about sturgis, he's probably just mad that you stole the solutions manual and he didn't get any royalties from it. I'm very much against professors requiring you to buy a book that they wrote to take a class that they are teaching.


3. As for professors failing the whole class before, yes I've experienced it. I took analytic chem a couple years ago from Ning Fang. This is supposed to be a freshman/sophomore level class and the first exam was nothing at all related to anything we had done so far. He then complained about how we did on the exam. I took this class as a senior in Chemical Engineering and got one of the highest grades on the test, which ended up being somewhere around a C. Enough students complained that the department head got involved in things.

 

[CyBer]

1. Wait a second. We are talking about a design class? Like one where you draw things? Maybe you all just suck at drawing?


2. As to the comments about sturgis, he's probably just mad that you stole the solutions manual and he didn't get any royalties from it. I'm very much against professors requiring you to buy a book that they wrote to take a class that they are teaching.


3. As for professors failing the whole class before, yes I've experienced it. I took analytic chem a couple years ago from Ning Fang. This is supposed to be a freshman/sophomore level class and the first exam was nothing at all related to anything we had done so far. He then complained about how we did on the exam. I took this class as a senior in Chemical Engineering and got one of the highest grades on the test, which ended up being somewhere around a C. Enough students complained that the department head got involved in things.

This is a possibility, though it is a lecture...

 

[thatguy]

those that can't do, teach.

 

[GMackey32]

those that can't do, teach.

those that can't teach, teach gym.

 

[cyinne]

EXSP 360 (when I was there) now KIN 360 Sociology of Sport and Exercise. There was a 60% retake rate of students in that class. I didn't think that I would become one of those statistics, I was sadly mistaken.