getting mad when exams are too easy

[burn out]

last night i stayed up til 7:30 AM studying for an exam and the stupid thing was so easy i could have gotten the same grade without studying. none of the advanced stuff in the book we were assigned to read was even on the exam. there were like 5 questions where we simply had to identify the dependent and indepedent variable (something ive known how to do since freshman year of high school). anyway im much happier to have an exam be too easy than too hard but its still annoying when you waste your time studying for no reason. does this happen to you guys a lot?

 

[DG]

Ive had it happen to me in the past. When I approached the professor about it...they generally had the same reply: "The test itself might have been easy but the studying so hard will make you retain all the information needed which is what I wanted overall" (in summary).

Now what I HATE is when they say its going to be easy and then I get there and its incredibly hard

 

[Chaos Butterfly]

I generally find that if you are up to date with all the work, i.e. have gone to all your classes and done all the assigned work, then you generally don't HAVE to stay up until stupid o'clock in the morning studying for an exam. Although that totally depends on your personality type... if you are over stressing about everything, then you are going to stay up regardless. If you are more confident in your ability then you won't stay up so late (in this case you may or may not get burned... some exams do end up being ridiculously difficult.)

Maybe try spreading your study out over a longer time period, by doing a few hours a night instead of 12 hours the night before.

The only times that I have stayed up uber late studying for exams have been where I have only gone to half the classes for the subject in the semester and am trying to catch up on a whole heap of shit so that I can pass.

So relax a bit more, and have confidence in your ability

CB

 

[Kilgore]

What class was that?

 

[subopm420]

they do it for the same reason that kids prof told him, so you learn the shit, but they dont have to fail a shit load of people, which looks bad.

 

[burn out]

What class was that?

psych 395: research design and measurement. it should be a difficult class but so far its been insanely easy. we haven't had to learn any of the statistical formulas in the book or anything remotely hard.

 

[Kilgore]

they do it for the same reason that kids prof told him, so you learn the shit, but they dont have to fail a shit load of people, which looks bad.

Wouldn't it be better if a shit load of people fail so that the weak drop class? Around 1/3 of my chem 1 class was gone and same goes for chem 2. Just thinning out the heard.

 

[subopm420]

yea, but when he said exams i was assuming he was speaking of the end of term exams. i donno, ive just always called exams during the semester 'tests' and exams at the end 'exams'

so i figured everyone had been weeded out at this point and he was referring to some semester ending shit. i

your right though, thin those mother fuckers out. the first two years of college are nothing more then this.

 

[Kilgore]

yea, but when he said exams i was assuming he was speaking of the end of term exams. i donno, ive just always called exams during the semester 'tests' and exams at the end 'exams'

so i figured everyone had been weeded out at this point and he was referring to some semester ending shit. i

your right though, thin those mother fuckers out. the first two years of college are nothing more then this.

Oh yea, there's so many people taking chem 2 over again and even basic biology.I really think tests should be extremely hard. Even some of my multiple choice tests are hard. The teacher basically adds choices such as "all of the above," "none of the above," "a and b only," etc. That basically makes it hard for people that don't study their asses off.

 

[subopm420]

yea no doubt, if the prof knows what they are doing, they can get the ease of multi choice without sacrificing difficulty.

i agree also about wanting hard tests, well, within reason anyways. i want to be rewarded for my work, not a free ride.

whats your major? im econ/finance so a decent amount of math and shit. i like math tests because basically you know it or you dont, no middle ground. can bs your way through this shit.

sadly my chem class is a joke, far easier than the one i took in highschool.

 

[protovack]

psych 395: research design and measurement.

Psychology is not the hardest major out there...so why would you expect your exams to be really difficult? If you want a challenge, look into math/engineering and the hard sciences.

 

[neverfree neverbound]

>"Wouldn't it be better if a shit load of people fail so that the weak drop class? Around 1/3 of my chem 1 class was gone and same goes for chem 2. Just thinning out the heard."<

What luxury!

As a professor, let me tell you that most of us would love nothing better than to flush the lame, the chronically late/absent, the talent-less, et al.; however, dept chairs get leaned-on by deans, who (in turn) feel the heat from the president...who would love nothing better than to keep all of those "warm bodies" in those seats (or at least registered...) as "paying customers"...

Sad, but True...

 

[subopm420]

yea man, cause everyone knows everything else is complete shit.


oh wait, no it isnt. math/science/eng rnt always the hardest. perhaps most intensive, but to some people this shit is natural, while english might kick their ass. choosing a major because it is 'hard' or 'better' is bullshit.

choose the major thats gonna make you the most money haha

 

[fizzygirl]

Research design & measurement (research methods, experimental psych, whatever your school calls it) is usually a fairly challenging class. It's like statistics, but with a lot of terminology specific to the behavioral sciences thrown in there. If a psych major can't get pass something, or fails a class, that tends to be the one. So it doesn't stand that the exams are 'easy' because of the choice of major.

If an instructor is telling you to study a massive amount of material in detail, and then really not testing you for the knowledge of that material, then they are not doing their job well (IMO). True, you might take in that information for the first exam, but once you know that the exams are going to just be surface-level information, you're not going to pay attention as much. Besides, with that kind of information it's more crucial that you understand the application of the concepts, and not just basic questions, and those should be a bit harder. My preference is for about 1/2 of this kind of exam to be short answer, so that students really have to explain the terms or show what they know. My thought is that the instructor is slacking a bit on what they should be doing. Definitely keep up with your reading, though, cause if you get the principles of this course down it'll make other classes that come after it a lot easier to understand.

As a psych major, though, you should know not to cram for exams! Spaced studying = better retention of the material, as does being able to sleep before you have to retrieve that material.

 

[Kilgore]

whats your major? im econ/finance so a decent amount of math and shit. i like math tests because basically you know it or you dont, no middle ground. can bs your way through this shit.

sadly my chem class is a joke, far easier than the one i took in highschool.

Biochemistry but I kinda wanna also major in business or finance later on just because I love money.

 

[rm-rf]

i pay for all my education out of my own pocket.

NOTHING pisses me off more than spending hundreds - thousands of dollars on a class, and in the end knowing I could have learned more throughout the entire semester watching a single hour of the science network or related television.

I have made personal visits to the dean of my college, wrote many letters to same person and dean of students, written letters to chairpersons of respective departments, torn professors to bits in mandatory evaluations, and ripped them several new assholes on our online student-run rating system for professors. I dont like knowing that 25% of the money I spent on my university was both fruitless and wasteful. It goes beyond inefficiency, its just burning my dollars away.

I once told a professor that his very existance was counterproductive to humanity as a whole.

Ive had way too many classes where ive felt like it was pointless for me to be there. If i can never ever study, never purchase a textbook, be stoned out of my gord every day in your class, and STILL get above a 90%, you are damned certain that I will not stfu untill you are fired. Shit ive taken tests for classes i hadnt been to in weeks completely drunk/hungover and gotten nice grades. Of course, soon as I find out theyre tenured i get 1000x as mad.

This naturally does not represent my entire education. The small portion that it does represent burns me inside out. I actually one time asked the dean of students if there was any way I could get my money back. Just this morning i saw a campus tour of high school kids milling through the central courtyard and screamed "DONT COME HERE" at the top of my lungs.

Im sorry but my education has made me loose my faith in anyone with the title of professor:

THOSE WHO DO, DO. THOSE WHO DO NOT DO, TEACH. Professorship as a career yields a lifetime of unachievement.

btw this is coming from someone whos personal hero is/always will be a professor.

 

[subopm420]

those who can do, those who cannot teach, i believe the saying goes.

 

[Soteki]

yeah

I feel that way too. I can either not buy books or not do much studying and still do good on tests. I guess I can just read tests well. However I'm glad that just by getting a bachelor's I can find a decent paying job and move out of my house. So I can't complain about things being too easy. However a few years ago I was as angry as you, that it was all so dumb and so expensive for no reason. But pretty much just consider yourself really smart, and realize that they cater to the average. And you're just above average. I worry more about my future paychecks and all the cool things I'm gonna buy.

www.flytheroad.com

check that out.

 

[neverfree neverbound]

>"Wouldn't it be better if a shit load of people fail so that the weak drop class? Around 1/3 of my chem 1 class was gone and same goes for chem 2. Just thinning out the heard."<

What luxury!

As a professor, let me tell you that most of us would love nothing better than to flush the lame, the chronically late/absent, the talent-less, et al.; however, dept chairs get leaned-on by deans, who (in turn) feel the heat from the president...who would love nothing better than to keep all of those "warm bodies" in those seats (or at least registered...) as "paying customers"...

Sad, but True...

I address this to The Wood, et al.: ¿what about this element??? I was a crusader, but I realized that I had *ZERO* support to do things honorably (i.e., assign True [=failing] grades, etc.). I was told *directly* to conform to that particular institution's "ways"--or else...

BTW: I'm not talking about incompetent profs, here, but instead those who are pressured to conform, to let everything slide--many simply cannot endanger their (yes, "tenured") careers.

¿What would you have them do--defy The Administration, single-handedly???...

 

[neverfree neverbound]

>"I have made personal visits to the dean of my college, wrote many letters to same person and dean of students, written letters to chairpersons of respective departments"<

¿What has been the response???...