University physics 2

I’m taking university physics 2 covering electromagnetism, wave mechanics, and optics. This is is a calculus based physics class (at least it should be). So far the professor has skipped any calculus and sticks to the algebraic formulas for the physics equations/relationships.

Now that I’ve set the scene, here is the problem. As easy as this prof is taking it on us, in a class that should be much more difficult, nearly half the class has been creating a major disturbance over what they perceive as being “too hard.” They have: submitted multiple complaints to the dean, taken hours of lecture time to complain, and accused the prof of “messing with people’s families and people’s futures.”

We are all part of a chat group on GroupMe. On these chats, the same students have made it clear that they don’t study outside of class at all. They also have been caught cheating on an exam. The prof let them retake the exam. And yet they still condemn him for what they consider to be “too hard.”

During the last class disruption one person unmuted their microphone and said, “I speak for the entire class when I say that this material is too difficult.” So, after months of silence, I spoke up and said,” you don’t speak for me.” And I illustrated my perspective, as I’ve done here. I told them that I work 40+ hours a week and still make time to study outside of class. That I put in the work to understand the material. I told them that they can’t expect to master every concept in the 1 hour 20 min class period and then submit complaints against the prof when they fail. I told we all owe it to ourselves to commit time outside of class to studying. They all unmuted and started screaming and hollering at me that they are taking four classes and it’s impossible to study outside of class. But I am also taking 4 classes in addition to my job. I just have no social life right now. But that’s the necessary sacrifice. A sacrifice they seem to not be willing to make.

It bothers me to see a good professor bending over backward to help these students, just to have them not put in the time to master the material. They seem to want a degree handed to them. They don’t respect the process of earning a passing grade. They got caught cheating and now have his full attention during exams/quizzes, making it more difficult to cheat (we use Lockdown Browser). They got away with it for a while because he wasn’t watching the videos of us taking the exam. But eventually they did something stupid and all got the same grade on an exam and finished at exactly the same time (10 mins into a 2 hour exam).

The professor didn’t create this curriculum. They are basically holding him personally responsible for how “hard” the class is. When this class should actually be much harder, and would be if he covered the calculus based parts of the course.

I just needed to rant. I’m an electrical engineering major. And this is the first taste of electrical/magnetic theory I’ve gotten. Which makes me really excited and I love the material. This makes me enjoy studying. And I believe that helps me grasp the material.

I’m at a complete loss of why these students are in this class if they obviously hate the material so much.

Submitted March 26, 2021 at 07:17AM by spring081220 https://ift.tt/2QG7xbo