(no subject)

[ocelot]

I want to like my history professor. I really do. He's an engaging lecturer, and I like the glimpses of his personality that I can get through his teaching. But I'm really starting to feel that he's more interested in having us jump through hoops than anything. We had a test Friday with some ridiculously obscure questions - you would have had to have basically memorized 6 weeks worth of reading + the entire contents of the lecture, including offhand comments (or perhaps stuff that wasn't even included - I don't actually remember him mentioning the name of the language spoken by the Aztecs, and he certainly didn't focus on it), in order to do well. And now, in Monday's lecture, he announced we have a test on the supplemental book on Friday.

This gives us 4 days to read the book, and, for those taking the televised class, to arrange to get to campus to take the test. Given that many people take the televised class specifically because it's difficult for them to make it to campus, this is somewhat unreasonable to ask on that short notice. For me... if I didn't already have a test in psychology that day necessitating my presence on campus, requiring koyote to come back from his job earlier than he otherwise would, I'd be searching for childcare right now.

Luckily, there was a copy of the book in the library, and I was able to go check it out. And luckily, it's only 111 pages, and I'm already on page 46, so finishing it shouldn't be too onerous a task.

The professor was apparently out this summer for surgery, and is retiring after next semester, so I'm guessing he's just at the point of not particularly caring anymore (and/or having more important things to worry about).

I'm not sure I'll take a class from him next semester. I guess I'll see what type of grade I end up getting this time.

I think I'm spoiled by my physiology teacher, who is incredibly caring and considerate, as well as the human development teacher from this past summer who, while not giving us free access to her secret chocolate stash (which reminds me - I should tell her about the chocolate cough cure, as I expect she'd be delighted by it), was still quite nice.

(Oh good, I can take the test Friday or Monday. I'll probably still take it Friday, but good to know.)

Shoe guy returned to physiology - he's been out for the past week or so, and I feared he'd dropped and I wouldn't be able to give him his shoes. But he's here, and both pairs should easily be done by Monday - I just have the elastic and decorations left.

Comments

[gdmusumeci.livejournal.com]

It's Nahuatl, isn't it?

[therealocelot.livejournal.com]

Yes.

[therealocelot.livejournal.com]

I should clarify that I don't think it's particularly obscure as a general knowledge sort of question - it was one of the answers that ran through my head (I eventually chose Queztal). Just that, in the context of this class, it wasn't something we focused on at all, so it felt like he was put it in there specifically to trip us up. It does basically nothing to prove that I watched the lecture or absorbed the overall concepts - it's just nitpicky.

[purdypiedad.livejournal.com]

Granted, I didn't do much in the way of S. American studies in my few semesters of college, but I did manage to get all the way through Spanish 9-10 (yes, that's a year AFTER AP) in high school in which we studied a great deal about Central and South American cultures, then tutored Spanish in college, and spent a considerable amount of time in S. America and still never learned the name of that language. Then again, I did learn a great deal about the Incas, Quichuas, Quechuas, and Mayans in my travels.

I always get frustrated with profs who think that their class is the only thing their students have to pass the time.