Democratic Underground Latest Greatest Lobby Journals Search Options Help Login
Google

Most difficult class you ever took?

Printer-friendly format Printer-friendly format
Printer-friendly format Email this thread to a friend
Printer-friendly format Bookmark this thread
This topic is archived.
Home » Discuss » The DU Lounge Donate to DU
 
pokerfan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 03:49 PM
Original message
Most difficult class you ever took?
For me it was a graduate level class in nonlinear systems. I survived, but to this day, I don't completely understand it.

I also flunked my second semester (integral) calculus midterm, which was more of a wakeup call. I rebounded and aced the remaining exams. For the next three years, Professor Newton (heh!) would always smile at me when we passed each other on campus.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
CatholicEdHead Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 03:50 PM
Response to Original message
1. Advanced Differential Equations
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Jimbo S Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 01:38 AM
Response to Reply #1
72. Diff equations is the easiest of the calculus classes.
If I remember right, any diff equation can be solved with one of just three methods to pick from.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Lyric Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 03:52 PM
Response to Original message
2. Theatre Tour, just this past semester.
We were analyzing plays as literature, and since I had no familiarity with that genre of writing, it took me a while to really understand it. I got an A, though, so I guess it wasn't THAT hard.

:hi:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
CreekDog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 03:54 PM
Response to Original message
3. Calculus
Every assignment threw me a curve. :hide:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
pokerfan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 04:00 PM
Response to Reply #3
9. That's pretty bad
I hate derivative humor. ;)
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Dr. Strange Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 04:20 PM
Response to Reply #9
24. I didn't care that much one way or the other.
I was pretty indifferential.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Pierre.Suave Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 04:12 PM
Response to Reply #3
20. ROFL
Nice... :P
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
falcon97 Donating Member (343 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 03:54 PM
Response to Original message
4. Logic ;)
Actually, 2 of my friends wanted to take a meteorology course...because who among us doesn't want to know how those TV people predict what the weather will be. They ended up in the section for majors. The semester did not go too well for them.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
wickerwoman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 03:55 PM
Response to Original message
5. Ancient Greek 101 and 102
Fourteen years on, all I can remember is the alphabet.

The optative mood can kiss my royal Irish ass.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
pokerfan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 04:03 PM
Response to Reply #5
10. Ancient languages...
Latin's a dead language,
As dead as dead can be.
It killed off all the Romans,
And now it's killing me.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
no name no slogan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 04:11 PM
Response to Reply #5
18. Latin 101, as a college freshman
I'd had three years of Spanish in high school, and thought I'd probably pick up on Latin fairly easily. How wrong I was. It was the only class I ever dropped in college. I'd study it 2 1/2 hours a night and was still getting Cs and Ds on the daily quizzes. x(
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Critters2 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 05:27 PM
Response to Reply #5
43. For me it was Hebrew. My brain just doesn't think from right to left. nt
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Pacifist Patriot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 11:56 AM
Response to Reply #5
96. I struggled with Russian. I can remember a few words but not even the entire alphabet.
St. Cyril can kiss my royal Scottish ass.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Posteritatis Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-14-09 01:33 PM
Response to Reply #5
113. My Greek class was horrible in the great way
Started with 40 students, only four of us made it to the final.

It was taught by this scary, stereotypical-looking Russian Orthodox priest, nicknamed Ivan the Terrible by the faculty, who knew two dozen ancient and modern languages to some degree of fluency. He also occasionally tripped up on which language he was supposed to be speaking points; start writing out a Greek phrase on the board in Arabic, notices the mistake, grumbles at himself in Hebrew...

I loved the course, but did it ever kick my ass.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Tuesday Afternoon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 03:56 PM
Response to Original message
6. Calculus -
I would understand it just fine but, come test day :wtf:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Inchworm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 06:02 PM
Response to Reply #6
49. seconded
I did ok, but it was just.. "get a grip of it until test is over"

:crazy:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
pokerfan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 10:44 PM
Response to Reply #49
62. Ah, calculus is where math begins

Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Tuesday Afternoon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 10:56 AM
Response to Reply #62
84. Looks like Art to me --
beautiful! :D
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Inchworm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 10:58 AM
Response to Reply #84
86. LoL
I first got lost in the numbers then thought the same thing. It's perdy. :rofl:

:hi:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Kali Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 12:17 AM
Response to Reply #6
68. same
3 tries, even the one semester "easy" version for nursing students. My first and major instances of test anxiety. To the point of almost not knowing my own name. It was weird.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Tuesday Afternoon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 10:57 AM
Response to Reply #68
85. It was weird.
I would so totally get it and really think I understood it. Then come test day...:wtf:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Bertha Venation Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 03:58 PM
Response to Original message
7. Old Testament.
Even when I was a fundy, it was hard to study something so irrelevant so seriously. :eyes:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
DS1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 03:58 PM
Response to Original message
8. Staying awake through tank school
I think I stood for about 60% of it to not fall asleep. Holy shit that was a slow class lead by some dumb motherfuckers!
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
The Velveteen Ocelot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 04:03 PM
Response to Original message
11. A couple of law school courses:
Federal jurisdiction and secured transactions.

:scared:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
pokerfan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 04:08 PM
Response to Reply #11
16. Law
Law is sophistry.

:hide:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
The Velveteen Ocelot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 04:10 PM
Response to Reply #16
17. Maybe so...
But that doesn't mean it can't be mind-destroyingly difficult.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
blue_onyx Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 04:03 PM
Response to Original message
12. Physics
I took AP calculus and physics my senior year of high school. This made me think I could handle the regular "physics" in college rather than the "intro to physics" class. I got a C+ with the curve (I would have gotten a D otherwise).
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Mike 03 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 04:05 PM
Response to Original message
13. It was without doubt a filmmaking class. I was in film school and this is the
Edited on Tue May-12-09 04:06 PM by Mike 03
class that "washes out" anybody who can't survive.

We had to make five movies in three and one quarter months--five movies that were good enough to please two professors and the twenty-some classmates we each were in competition with.

It was also the most expensive class I've ever taken, because it was costly to make these films. They were shot on celluloid and edited by hand.

I think it was also a test to see if we could survive for one semester on virtually no sleep.

But it was the best time of my life.

Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
rcrush Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 09:58 AM
Response to Reply #13
81. That actually sounds like a lot of fun.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Lucian Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 04:06 PM
Response to Original message
14. Calculus.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
MorningGlow Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 04:06 PM
Response to Original message
15. Statistics
I can't even balance my checkbook, so anything with numbers fried my brain.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Release The Hounds Donating Member (341 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 09:23 PM
Response to Reply #15
58. I burned my Statistics textbook when the class was done so I could send it back to hell.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Pierre.Suave Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 04:11 PM
Response to Original message
19. German
Edited on Tue May-12-09 04:13 PM by Pierre.Suave
not because german was hard, but because the Teacher was mean as hell...

it was the class that almost cost me my scholarship.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Reverend_Smitty Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 04:13 PM
Response to Original message
21. Chemistry
I'm not really a science/math person but it was a required class for my major and waited until my last semester of college to take it. The fact that I managed to not take any math classes in college and that I remembered next to nothing from high school algebra caused me to struggle mightily figuring out problems. I kicked ass in Anatomy and Biology, and did reasonably well in Physics but Chemistry caused night terrors.

I managed a B- in the class because of a good showing on a take home exam and labs plus he curved the grades like a mofo...I probably earned a C-...and I had one of the better "raw" grades in the class. He used to write down all the scores that people got on the exams on the chalk board just to see how you did compared to the rest of the class and I swear one time someone got a 12% out of 100!

I did much better in my Shakespeare class that semester :P
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
rug Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 04:14 PM
Response to Original message
22. A one credit class on the Rule Against Perpetuities.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
The Velveteen Ocelot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 04:27 PM
Response to Reply #22
28. No future interest is valid unless it vests no later than 21 years after
a life in being when the interest was created.

Simple.

Or go rent the movie "Body Heat." The key to the mystery is the Rule Against Perpetuities.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
rug Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 06:46 PM
Response to Reply #28
55. Frozen embryos have given new life to litigating this Rule.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
The Velveteen Ocelot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 06:54 PM
Response to Reply #55
57. You just gave me a headache.
So the interest would never vest as long as the frozen embryo stayed frozen.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
grace0418 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 04:15 PM
Response to Original message
23. Advanced calculus.
I was going to be an architect and had to take it. It's funny, I was quite good at geometry and trig, but calculus threw me. It was my only "C" in my entire educational career. I think it was only one of two semesters I didn't get straight "A"s in college.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
pokerfan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 04:21 PM
Response to Reply #23
25. Calculus for Architects?
That kind of blows my mind. But calculus is necessary to understanding physics and architects must deal with physical constraints so I guess I can see that.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
grace0418 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 06:06 PM
Response to Reply #25
50. Well, I ended up a graphic designer so
it didn't do me much good except help me realize I did NOT want to be an architect.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Dr. Strange Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 04:22 PM
Response to Original message
26. Algebraic Number Theory
Not that it was the toughest material--but the courses that had the really hard material were seminar courses, so you could skate by with minimal understanding.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Eyerish Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 04:23 PM
Response to Original message
27. Psych Stats....
which kinda sucked because I was a psych major...
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Midlodemocrat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 04:52 PM
Response to Reply #27
34. Go you one better. I hated that fucker and I got my doctorate in psych.
That class was the death of me.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
bigwillq Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 04:28 PM
Response to Original message
29. A few science courses
I hate science. Well, I did when I was in school. I find it more interesting now.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
flvegan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 04:29 PM
Response to Original message
30. My last Sports Nutrition Cert course sucked.
Try being a vegan in one of those. No, seriously.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
LeftyMom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 04:30 PM
Response to Original message
31. Just continually update this with whatever my most recent math course was.
:eyes:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
pokerfan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 04:44 PM
Response to Reply #31
32. Math is terrible and beautiful at the same time (nt)

Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
LeftyMom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 04:46 PM
Response to Reply #32
33. I'm dreadful at it. And I really don't need it for my discipline, so it's hard to be motivated.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
pokerfan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 04:59 PM
Response to Reply #33
35. I find it fascinating
It's so.... elemental.


Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
LeftyMom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 05:03 PM
Response to Reply #35
36. Comm studies is so far to the left of that line you'd need another panel to see it.
:rofl:

It's a very squishy discipline, I must admit.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
KitchenWitch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 05:05 PM
Response to Original message
37. Toss up between Physical Chemistry and second semester Physics.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Mike 03 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 05:59 PM
Response to Reply #37
48. I HATED high-school chemistry. I did the final test out of order and didn't even
know it.

Physics, I have to admit, really turned me on.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
KitchenWitch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 06:30 PM
Response to Reply #48
54. My brain is wired for Chemistry.
Never took it in high school but aced it in college. Biology is another story. I had a difficult time with the 5 different sets of nomenclature in Biology. Loved Genetics. Had a difficult time with everything else.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
InvisibleTouch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 05:07 PM
Response to Original message
38. Several contenders...
...for different reasons. The ones that come to mind are Stratigraphy, Microbiology, the undergraduate Physics series, and Vertebrate Evolution. I did manage to pull off A's in all of them, but it was a struggle.

You'd think Stratigraphy would be a fascinating subject - the study of how to interpret sedimentary rock layers and see what kind of ancient environment produced them - but the teacher I had was so mind-numbingly boring that I could barely stand it. Nice guy, knowledgeable guy, but completely unable to infuse passion into his subject. Drove me to doodle on the desk for the first time since early grade school.

Microbiology had much the same problem as the above - a knowledgeable prof who absolutely could not convey his subject clearly. My only hope was the take notes like crazy during the lectures to catch every word, and then try to make sense of it later with the help of the book.

The 3-course undergrad Physics series had somewhat of the opposite issue - the prof was energetic and engaging and very approachable. He insisted upon being called by his first name rather than Dr-so-and-so, and he made no secret of the fact that he was a dedicated liberal. But he was of the mind that one should make the tests impossible, and then curve the hell out of the results. I've never known anyone who could make multiple-choice tests so absolutely convoluted. It's a little demoralizing when you go to get your grade and find you have a 60-something ... until you realize, on the curve, that's an A.

Finally Vertebrate Evolution. Loved loved loved the lecture part of the course, though there was a huge amount of info, and it wasn't easy stuff, but since I had a passion for the subject, I completely devoured it. Lab section was something else again. It was all dissection (lamprey, shark, cat), and the TA was utterly not helpful. When we asked questions he'd frantically page through the lab manual to see if he could find the answer, rather than being able to point out the structure we were asking about. I was doing well in the lecture part but not-well in the lab, and the final grade was determined by an average of both. I was seriously worried about that, until I pulled off a 100% on the final, which nudged me just over the edge into an A. For weeks afterward I had dreams about that class - that I'd be walking into the final exam and trying to protest, "But I already got 100 on this, and I can't pull that off again!"
Ultimately this class would also qualify as one of the most enjoyable that I had. And irony of ironies, I ended up teaching the lab section of a nearly identical course in grad school, for quite a number of years. I like to think I was more helpful to my students than the TA I had!
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Lyric Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 12:30 AM
Response to Reply #38
70. Ha! I had a professor just like yours!
This guy: "The 3-course undergrad Physics series had somewhat of the opposite issue - the prof was energetic and engaging and very approachable. He insisted upon being called by his first name rather than Dr-so-and-so, and he made no secret of the fact that he was a dedicated liberal. But he was of the mind that one should make the tests impossible, and then curve the hell out of the results. I've never known anyone who could make multiple-choice tests so absolutely convoluted. It's a little demoralizing when you go to get your grade and find you have a 60-something ... until you realize, on the curve, that's an A."

Mine was a Political Science professor, and the class was State and Local Government. My GOD his exams were hard--multiple choice, but crazy-convoluted. He'd ask a question with several answers and then the multiple choices would all be "Just A, Just C, A & B but NOT C, B & C but NOT A, or None of the Above"

If not for his insane curving, nobody would have ever passed that class. I regularly got the highest scores in the class, and even MY exams would only have been B's and C's without the curve.

I loved him anyway, though--he was entertaining as hell, incredibly dry and witty, and VERY liberal in a stealthy kind of way. He never outright-stated his political persuasion, but it was no accident that all of the examples he used in class to demonstrate stupid mistakes made by state or local officials were ALL conservatives.

:rofl:

I'm taking him again next semester for "The Politics of Economic Policy." It's gonna be great. :)
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
PfcHammer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 05:08 PM
Response to Original message
39. Compressible fluid mechanics
Went in knowing nothing, came out knowing nothing
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
pokerfan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 10:46 PM
Response to Reply #39
64. Fluids are incompressible
Class over.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
chemenger Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 02:17 PM
Response to Reply #64
98. Sorry! You're incorrect.
Liquids and gases are both considered fluids.

Liquids are generally considered to be incompressible. Gases on the other hand are very compressible.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
NOW tense Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 10:00 AM
Response to Reply #39
82. Fluid Power
it was applied and theoretical pneumatics and hydraulics
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
surrealAmerican Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 05:08 PM
Response to Original message
40. I think it was called "Intermediate Modern Dance".
It was taught by an "artist in residence", and was so physically demanding much of the class dropped out in the first few weeks. We also had to remember long sequences of moves, which was difficult for me.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
mikeargo Donating Member (279 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 05:16 PM
Response to Original message
41. I've had classes...
in Calculus and Advanced Statistics, which I aced, but when I had a class in Blueprint Reading at a manufacturing company I was working at, I had a really hard time.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
XemaSab Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 05:24 PM
Response to Original message
42. Botany
I never want to see another lichen again. x(
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
jdp349 Donating Member (372 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 05:35 PM
Response to Original message
44. Honors Advanced Quantum Nuclear Biomedical Chemical Non-linear Differential Basket weaving.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Midlodemocrat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 05:36 PM
Response to Reply #44
45. Dude. Please. We're talking core here, not electives.
:eyes:

Welcome to DU!
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
kedrys Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 05:36 PM
Response to Original message
46. Physical chemistry - both semesters
Took it my senior year and understood the bumper sticker I'd seen after my junior year - "Honk if you passed PChem!" :rofl:

I got Bs. Whew.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
noamnety Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 05:58 PM
Response to Original message
47. An applied research/statistics class
Our professor left the country halfway through the semester - and didn't tell any of us. We spent a lot of time going WTF ... where's our teacher ... um, I guess we should do the next chapter? The school never formally told us where our professor disappeared to.

Most of us didn't understand the material. My husband the electrical/optics engineer, who has tutored calculus before, tried doing it so he could explain it to me - he ended up taking it to work to have a guy with a doctorate in math help him.

Two weeks before the end of the class, a new professor arrived and stated he was our teacher now. His first question to us: "I don't see where the previous professor has any grades here ... any of you guys have emails from her letting you know your grades on the previous assignments?" He was never able to help us with the material because he was so far behind trying to fix our grades before the end of the term.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
SeattleGirl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 06:10 PM
Response to Original message
51. Undergrad statistics. It was so difficult for me that I decided to
take Statistics II, even though it wasn't required. (Yes, sometimes I AM a masochist!)

Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Xipe Totec Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 06:20 PM
Response to Original message
52. Structural stability of dynamical systems n/t
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
baldguy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 06:30 PM
Response to Original message
53. Definitely Calc II
Never saw the assigned professor. The class was arbitrarily divided into 3 sections, each covered by a graduate TA. The first was a Chinese girl who spoke no English. The second was an Arab whose accent was incomprehensible. And the third was an Asian guy who never spoke. He wrote assignments on the board, and half the time he read a newspaper or worked on his own dissertation. The other half he didn't even show up - other than to assign work.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
sammythecat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 06:51 PM
Response to Original message
56. Latin II
Incredibly difficult when you don't know Latin I.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Tuesday Afternoon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 11:16 AM
Response to Reply #56
89. how did you even get in the class without the prerequisite?
:D :shrug:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
sammythecat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 12:41 PM
Response to Reply #89
97. Oh, I passed Latin I
but I shouldn't have. I got a 70, but it should have been a 50. I was totally unprepared for Latin II. I had to take a summer remedial course in Latin II to get my diploma.

I wish I would have made more of an effort to learn it though. I certainly don't regret knowing the little that I do know. It's certainly not necessary knowledge, but it is useful at times. Plus, it'd just be cool to know Latin. I don't, and I ain't. :(
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
femmocrat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 09:27 PM
Response to Original message
59. I avoided all those classes in order to keep a high QPA!
As I've said before, I'm basically lazy.

And I was too busy having fun to study that hard.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Jean Louise Finch Donating Member (651 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 10:31 PM
Response to Original message
60. Bayesian statistics
Ooof. I'm in the middle of it right now ... four weeks to go, and I have just completely lost the thread.

Should be working on my problem set right now!
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
rucky Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 10:38 PM
Response to Original message
61. Fucking Pre-Columbian Art History
that was supposed to be my blow-off class that semester!
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Tikki Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 10:04 AM
Response to Reply #61
83. My favorite class outside of my Major...
I scour the internets looking for an online Pre-Columbian Art History class...

Tikki
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Coventina Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-14-09 10:16 AM
Response to Reply #61
110. What? You couldn't tell the Olmecs from the Zapotecs from the Toltecs from the Mixtecs
from the Aztecs?

:-)

Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Manifestor_of_Light Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 10:45 PM
Response to Original message
63. Five years of law school. 90 Semester Hours.
I worked and went to law school at night. I could only take 8 to 10 semester hours at a time. That's why it took five years. A few of the courses were easy, but the rest was mindblowingly hard.

And I grew up with a father who was a lawyer, a mother who was a legal secretary, and I was a court reporter!! I thought I knew this stuff. But it was very difficult.

Some of it is incredibly boring as well, like Bills & Notes, Sales & Secured Transactions, and Contracts (9 months).

I dropped Estate & Gift Tax because it blew my mind. I couldn't deal with it. It was an elective.

Evidence and Texas Civil Pre-Trial Procedure, Texas Civil Trial and Appellate Procedure, and Criminal Procedure were easy for me because I worked at the courthouse. You can't understand Evidence and Procedure unless you see it in action in court.

That said, the hardest undergrad course I took was Histology. I thought I was stupid, but I found out later that Histology is a medical school course, not an undergrad biology course. Studied my ass off and made a D.

Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
pokerfan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 10:50 PM
Response to Reply #63
65. Five years of sophistry
I don't mean to trash law but can you not make a legal argument for anything? Isn't that part of your training?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Manifestor_of_Light Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 12:35 AM
Response to Reply #65
71. What? Io non capisco. No comprende.
Edited on Wed May-13-09 12:38 AM by Manifestor_of_Light
In law school you learn a different way of thinking. It's not like scientific reasoning where there is one right answer.

You learn that with the legal question within a given fact situation, there are TWO possible answers. And either of them could be right. The logic in the process used to get to the decision is more important than the decision itself.

So everything has two sides. Is that clear?

There are also TONS of memorization. Laundry lists of things like: The intentional torts. Various tests for constitutionality. The conditions of a negotiable instrument.

The fatal defects in indictments. The non-fatal defects in indictments. And on and on. Those are just the ones I can call to mind immediately, and I graduated 25 years ago.


Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
MilesColtrane Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 11:29 PM
Response to Original message
66. Finance
Edited on Tue May-12-09 11:32 PM by MilesColtrane
I took it as an elective and it was difficult because I hadn't taken any of the prerequisite accounting and economics courses for it. I had to scrape my brain to remember what little calculus I had taken years before in high school.

Also, I was taking fourteen hours of music classes and labs AND trying to practice and learn how to play during that time.

I passed it with a B.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Muttocracy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-12-09 11:37 PM
Response to Original message
67. Organic Chemistry
I did well in and loved inorganic and physical. Organic seemed like all memorization and the teacher really taught to the top 5 students in the class. I think it was the only class in WAY too many years of school where I just gave up. Teacher also had a strong foreign accent, went super-fast, and the means on his exam (honors chem students) were in the 40s to 60s.

It helped make my career decision, though I wonder now how a different teacher would have changed my direction in life.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
GaYellowDawg Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-14-09 04:50 AM
Response to Reply #67
109. Same here.
I had an easier time with biochem on the doctoral level than I did organic at the undergrad. That said, I was a piss-poor student as an undergrad.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
DarkTirade Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 12:21 AM
Response to Original message
69. Wasn't a whole course, just a quarter of a weird math class that the state of FL foisted on us.
But statistics really fucked me over good. I'm not sure why. It seems so simple. But for some reason I just wasn't getting it.

The first half of the class was algebrae. The next quarter was geometry. Stats was only the last quarter.

And yet my grade went from an easy B+/A all the way through the first three quarters of the class, down to a D. I had to take the final exam just to get my grade back up to passing. And I spent the first three quarters of the class goofing off and never doing my homework. I spent the last quarter working my ass off.

I suspect it was just a bad teacher. Maybe I'd be able to do it if I had a teacher who could explain it to me properly. But I'm a wee bit afraid to try, on the off chance that it was just me.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Jimbo S Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 01:40 AM
Response to Original message
73. Statics. Curcuits.
The statics prof was perenially voted the worst on the engineering campus.

Electrical engineering I could never get a handle on, and I ended up taking two semesters.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
pokerfan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 11:12 AM
Response to Reply #73
87. Statics just clicked for me
Had the benefit of a great text and a good prof. Circuits was just tedious. Solving RLC circuits with convolutions was infuriating especially since I had read ahead and knew about Laplace transforms. For some reason they felt that it was important that we do it the hard way first.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
PfcHammer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 08:59 PM
Response to Reply #87
101. I used Beer & Johnston Vector Mechanics for Engineers
the black text with a bridge on the cover. very good.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
EFerrari Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 01:49 AM
Response to Original message
74. Trig. As soon as that plane turned left in SPACE, they lost me.
:(
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
travelingtypist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 03:30 AM
Response to Original message
75. 1st year college chemistry.
I worked harder for those two C-pluses than I did on
any of my the As I got in English and philosphy. If
was horrible.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Strong Atheist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 08:45 AM
Response to Original message
76. Two. Cobol was the most boring. Couldn't stay awake. Teaching Elementary English
was the hardest. I can not multitask AT ALL, much less to the extent they want you to today...:scared:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Tikki Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 09:41 AM
Response to Original message
77. Stats...not my forte'...as they say.....
Tikki
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
HamdenRice Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 09:45 AM
Response to Original message
78. Corporate Tax. The prof would describe a transaction. Everyone would close their eyes...
to try to imagine it and the tax consequences.

It was weird. It was very Zen. Almost like meditation.

Or three dimensional analytic geometry.

Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Rising Phoenix Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 09:47 AM
Response to Original message
79. Math and computer programing
this makes me sound very old, but I took it freshman year in college, before every person had a computer, so it was really hard. I basically learned how to program gambling games......waste of time. I got a C, but failed every test. I never missed a class though.....hence C that and a wicked curve. To illustrate just how hard this class was....a story.....We had a homework assignment, probablilites.....I couldn't do it, so I went down the hall to Peter's room. He was a nuclear physicist major, and a math minor. I begged him for help. Figuring it would take him a few minutes, he agreed. Several hours later a stressed peter returned my finished homework. I turned it in. He got a 50 % an F.......he was ripshit.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
guitar man Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 09:56 AM
Response to Original message
80. Airframes II
When I was going to school to get my A&P license. I had just come off a job where I was bending a lot of large pieces of heavy sheet steel and I had absolute hell adjusting to the light aluminum we were using. I tore up a lot of pieces trying to get it right. My riveting really sucked ass too :(
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Commie Pinko Dirtbag Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 11:15 AM
Response to Original message
88. Abstract Algebra.
Group Theory was my first under-5 grade, ever. I felt like I was hit by a train.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
TZ Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 11:32 AM
Response to Original message
90. A tie
Between 1st semester Calculus,second semester Organic Chem and second semester Physics...I still have nightmares about the polymers from organic chem though...20 years later I still shiver over having to memorize the equations for making nylon....:scared:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
JustABozoOnThisBus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 11:34 AM
Response to Original message
91. Accounting
Incredibly boring. I hated it. And I didn't exactly "get it".

Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
applegrove Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 11:44 AM
Response to Original message
92. Matrix Linear Algebra. I took the course 3 times before I passed. I just couldn't compute.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Orsino Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 11:51 AM
Response to Original message
93. Thermodynamics.
Fascinating and deadly. I referred to it as "βθηgA," in geek-speak homage to the old "death or bonga" joke.

Thermogoddamics is one of those legendary hurdles facing a student. As with physical chemistry for the chem majors, and differential equations for the mathists, a lot of physics majors remember Thermo as the toughest ordeal. It certainly was for me.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Manifestor_of_Light Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 11:36 PM
Response to Reply #93
108. Thermogoddamics.
Yes, my BF who has a BS and MS in math/physics said the same thing.

Boring as hell but required.

He also had a prof that said "Don't read the chapter on relativity".

That was like saying to him "Don't look at that girlie magazine". :D

Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
RoadRage Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 11:54 AM
Response to Original message
94. Business Law 1 - 3
I could barely keep my eyes open....
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Pacifist Patriot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 11:55 AM
Response to Original message
95. Literary Criticism
I did so well in a History of the English Language course the bloody professor talked me into talking Literary Criticism. A course clearly designed for English majors which I was not. I thought I was going to get to read stuff and rip it apart. Not exactly. I withdrew with an Incomplete before I could fail utterly and spectacularly.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
UrbScotty Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 02:34 PM
Response to Original message
99. Empirical Methods of Political Research
Required for all Poli Sci majors. Advanced stats. Chi square tests. It's a shock that I got an A-.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Pacifist Patriot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 03:49 PM
Response to Reply #99
100. Poli Sci major here who lucked out big time!
For our stats requirement, I ended up with a brand new professor fresh out of grad school. He reasoned that 50 was halfway between 0 and 100 so a 50 must be a C. I got a B- in the course.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
elshiva Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 09:03 PM
Response to Original message
102. Graduate Level Worship & Liturgy
The most difficult class I ever took because the professor was a complete asshole to all the students. One of the many reasons I dropped out of Grad School.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
skooooo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 09:05 PM
Response to Original message
103. 4th year russian
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
AwakeAtLast Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 09:10 PM
Response to Original message
104. Any class in which the professor wrote the book
For me that included conducting, choral methods, and a psychology class. Arrogant, sexist professors didn't help either. x(
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
midnight armadillo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 09:34 PM
Response to Original message
105. Graduate level in physics Electricity & Magnetism II
Once we starting doing contravariant and covariant matrices for handling relativistic electrodynamics I really had to scramble to keep up. I never retained that stuff after the class ended either.

Canonical transforms from Classical Mechanics also sort of mystified me.

Good times.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Flying Dream Blues Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 09:37 PM
Response to Original message
106. Graduate level Microeconomics with Dr. Young. Total intimidatiion...the kind
of professor who wrote with his right hand while erasing with the left hand. You could smell the fear in the room in the final exam which was 50% of our grade...

:scared:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
cloudbase Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-13-09 10:44 PM
Response to Original message
107. Materials Science.
Not because the subject was all that difficult, but it was taught by a Korean professor who spoke with such a heavy accent that it was almost impossible to understand him.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
av8rdave Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-14-09 10:33 AM
Response to Original message
111. Several calculus classes in college
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
snooper2 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-14-09 10:33 AM
Response to Original message
112. semiconductor circuit analysis
nt
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Patiod Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-14-09 01:48 PM
Response to Original message
114. I wouldn't have graduated without the Penn State Football Team
and finding out that a calculus course was offered Spring Term in the evening, and all the football players took it.

All of the test questions were true and false, and the class was graded on a curve where a 51% was a passing grade. And tacked on to the end of the calculus course was a chapter on matricies, which I grasped completely and immediately - the one test I got 100% on.

Thanks to matricies, I was able to pass Calculus I with something like a 55% average and absolutely NO UNDERSTANDING AT ALL of calculus, except that I think it calculates the area under a curve. Credit for Calculus II goes to a a dopey swimmer I was seeing at the time, but we won't go into that one either, except to say that I still escaped with no understanding of calculus.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
DU AdBot (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view 
this author's profile Click to add 
this author to your buddy list Click to add 
this author to your Ignore list Sun May 05th 2024, 08:52 PM
Response to Original message
Advertisements [?]
 Top

Home » Discuss » The DU Lounge Donate to DU

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators


Important Notices: By participating on this discussion board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.

Home  |  Discussion Forums  |  Journals |  Store  |  Donate

About DU  |  Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy

Got a message for Democratic Underground? Click here to send us a message.

© 2001 - 2011 Democratic Underground, LLC