Worst course ever taken in school or elsewhere!

[Koolau]

In my senior year's final semester at NYU (in 1985), I took an actuarial exam review course to help me brush up for what was at the time Part 1 of the Actuarial exams (Calculus). I only needed three 4-credit courses to graduate, so this additional 2-point course was not required but would be useful because I was seeking a job in the field after graduation and getting the help to pass the exams was crucial.

The professor gave out several practice exam booklets and we would go over anything from the old exams we wanted help with. But when it came time for our grade, he gave us an old exam from 1973, a time when these exams were more difficult and the questions much different from those we had been seeing and studying from in the early 1980s exams.

I had been doing well on the early 1980s exams, so this threw me for a loop. I got a B on the exam which was my disappointing grade for the course. However, a week later I aced the actual Actuarial exam (got a 9 out of 10) and with it saw my starting salary increase on Day One at my new job (the results came out the day I started in July).

The B on the course's final exam looked like it was going to very slightly reduce my GPA to below 3.70 and prevent me from graduating Magna Cum Laude. But like the other good break I mentioned earlier, about seeing a D disappear from my GPA, this B also disappeared because it was deemed "Excess Credit," beyond what I needed to graduate. So, a B in a 2-point course being excluded raised my GPA just enough to round up to 3.70 and get me those Magna Cum Laude honors. I didn't learn of this until I got my final transcript a month after I graduated and had begun working at my new job, so it was a bit anti-climactic.

I was tempted to show the professor my actual exam grade of 9 before chewing him out for using a 1973 exam for our course's grade, but I decided not to.

Every year (maybe semester) there was always one Prof. who liked to prove to his students that they weren't as smart as they thought. Never mind that a lower grade sticks with you for your c*reer. I took an advanced organic chemistry course. First day, the prof hands out several mimeo pages of organic chemistry reactions. He said "Every good organic chemist should know these reactions." That's all he said and then launched into a dozen lectures on esters. The first test was on esters (Nope!). It was on those reactions. Fortunately, I had gone over them a few times, just because, well, just because.

I mentioned above about the useless info I learned (didn't learn) from the head of the Pharmacy dept. costing me a perfect 4.0 GPA.

I even had an english teacher in HS who prided himself on humbling "A" students - most of whom got Bs in his class. I think in our class of 30 college prep students, there were 2 A's "given." He would say, "If you can get a B in my class, you'll get an A in your college English class." He was right, but kids trying to get into good schools getting a "lousy" B in English didn't help.

This guy had worked on the local paper until his health failed (diabetes) so he lowered himself to teach "minds full of mush." In reality, he spent way too much time in the bar across the street from the paper - even when his diabetes was discovered.

He had this huge dictionary by his desk. He told us, no matter what dictionary we used, his dictionary was the only acceptable source. So during theme writing, there was a constant stream of students to his desk to check spelling. He chuckled at each of us as we used his "bible." He was knowledgeable, and a good teacher, but his arrogance was enough to make my teeth hurt. When I first saw "The Paper Chase" I wondered if it was based on this guy. He delighted in reading passages from our themes to humiliate the author in front of the class. Let's face it, it is the rare HS Junior or Senior who is truly a good writer. Belittling our mistakes made us learn only to never take a chance in our writing.

I guess there is something to that old saying "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach." I don't buy that, but for this guy, I think it fit to a T. YMMV

 

[bolt]

Luckily traditional education in the USA is waning.
Consider its current costs & its costs inflationary metrics are simply unsustainable.
Last I looked it was near 6-7%, annually.

Particularly with a back of the napkin cost benifit analysis of something like this Harvard offering:
https://gened.fas.harvard.edu/classes/science-happiness

Personally, that class is representitive of surreal higher ed's nonsense.
Thats why college grads or higher credentialed graduates are struggeling.

I'm way to old for college or grad schools,(beenthere) but I've learned & completed numerous M.I.T/Bernard colleges/ classes & studies online for free. For fun and education.

Why, because i was interested in the teachers teachings.
One was Perry Merhling(coursera), the other was M.I.T.(Andrew Lo-MIT opencoursewear).
Both were outstanding, both were free.
I'm probably way behind conventional wisdom but I see education changing drastically in the USA.

Good luck & Best wishes....

 

[O2Bfree]

First semester at college - I signed up for Japanese 101, which met MWF at 8 a.m. with the expectation that students would spend the two days off in the language lab, if I remember correctly. The professor taught immersion-style and the second phrase I learned after "ohayo gozaimasu" was "anno..." ("uh..."), which I employed liberally. Smart kid that I was, I realized that my study habits and Japanese teaching philosophy didn't mix, so I withdrew and enrolled in Religion 101 (which was inexplicably about Kant and Kierkegaard, not a survey of world religions).

I wound up graduating with a Women's and Ethnic Studies self-designed curriculum, before those were actual majors at colleges. Then I married an engineer, we saved our pennies, and we have made 3 visits to Japan so far.

I took a year of Japanese in college, and the instructor really made it fun. For example, one of the projects was video taping a class recital of The Three Bears in Japanese to send to a grade school class in Japan. She also taught us a little about the culture and encouraged us to behave as Japanese students would, showing respect, diligence, and attention to detail. I forgot much of the language, but the flavor of the class stayed with me and helped me blend in during two month-long stays in Japan years later.

 

[FI_RElater]

By the way, during my undergrad degree, I too struggled with DiffEQ. I somehow got a B in it and have no idea how I did it. I had planned to take one more Math course and DiffEQ convinced me I had reached my personal wall.

The other course I struggled with was a physics course. I forget the actual name - it was a 300 level physics course. It was essentially "The Physics of Quantum Mechanics" (my name, not theirs.) All I recall was discussing mu mesons and the Schrodinger Equation. Most of us in the class called it Science Fiction 351. I got a B but, again, have no idea how.

Several folks have mentioned struggling with Fortran. I was intimidated by the course when I first signed up. I'd never even seen a computer (ca. 1968). Guess what? I only saw "The Computer" once during Fortran - it was in a glass enclosed room and only grad students ran the big bank of tape players and processors, etc. We mere students never stepped foot inside the room. We just punched cards at 2:00AM and submitted our decks for running.

BUT, I got the most amazing teacher in the world. I would describe her (visually) as a cross between Joan Crawford and Jacqueline Kennedy - Age about 45+. She related to us no-nothing, wide-eyed computer-neophytes. In the most basic terms, she explained what we were doing, why and how it all worked. She could have taught a drama class as she flitted to and fro at the black board. She was infinitely patient and could always understand what my lame question was really asking.

I fell in love with her (well, you know what I mean.) I got to where I could submit my jobs and NOT get it back due to Hollerith statement errors. When it was time for the final, it was the only final I didn't study for in my life. I aced it and the course. I NEVER used Fortran and it's too bad. I'm still impressed with the power of the language though it was cumbersome due to the requirements to use formatting statements (and you'd better not misplace one comma or parenthesis!) I guess (other than Philosophy) the course was my most useless college-level course. Still, it was possibly my favorite. Who knew?

ah yeah, the old Diff EQ...and Quantum as well (the prof started at chapter three of it, saying that the rest is review of what you should already know...and it was like starting in the middle of the Diff EQ course)

and, of course P Chem (basically Thermo but for chem and ChmE)... and while organic was "challenging" I did get the A's ...but the prof even had questions about the footnotes in the textbook!! (how's that for pain level!! ...although some footnotes were about protecting groups and protecting catalysts from poisoning etc... but still WTF for an undergrad course)
Of course, I must have been somewhat masochistic since I ended up taking graduate courses in my senior year ...which helped since I passed at least one "qual" exam when just starting grad school

(and as for high school...the physics teacher had physics majors from the state U take the exams ..just to make sure they were hard enough... they often only got ~70's!! At least the calculus teacher recognized how few made it to that point (under 25 combined from the two high schools... but that's back in the "stone age" (70's) when there weren't that many taking those courses and when there wasn't any "bump" in GPA for taking them either)... and unlike the physics teacher who held an exam on the day...the calculus teacher said that he would flunk anyone in the class that showed up on "senior ditch day" (and invited those with A's like me and a few others to meet after graduation for a few weeks for presentation of more advanced math, which helped when I took abstract algebra as undergrad, since I had at least seen it before and was introduced to some of the theorums and postulates)

probably like many...didn't use any of the Diff EQ, quantum, or even abstract algebra during the decades of my career...(but definitely the organic)

 

[scrabbler1]

Not by the difficulty of classes themselves, but the hardest were the classes that started way too early for this night owl. I just couldn't stay awake!

I hear you. I had 3 rules for class scheduling I tried to adhere to in my 4 years at college: (1) Nothing Friday, (2) nothing back-to-back, and (3) nothing starting before 11:55 AM. I was able to follow (1) the whole time. With (2), the shortest gap between 2 classes was 40 minutes, 1 time. But (3) I could not always maintain. I had 4 classes which started at 9:55 AM and I never did better than a B+ in any of them (the Cobol class). One I took pass/fail and would have gotten a C in it (it ended 40 minutes before another class, so I cut it a few times after I handed in the form for P/F). Another was the one I got the D in.

Getting up at 9 AM to get to those 9:55 AM classes was too much for this night owl, too!

 

[Qs Laptop]

Put me down for another calculus class, mine was called Vector Analysis. This was the 6th trimester of the calculus sequence, so end of my sophomore year. IIRC, I got a C+ and was damned glad about it.

As a freshman, the first time I walked into my university level Calculus I class I was astonished. Giant tiered lecture hall, seated about 300 people. Three or four huge chalkboards at the front of the room. The professor comes in and introduces himself. Based on his name and his accent he's obviously from India. And I can't understand half of what he is saying. When he writes on the board it's very small, and messy, it might as well be hieroglyphics. The first impression I got of college level engineering calculus was not pretty. I definitely consulted with the TA's that trimester. I don't know how many times I muttered under my breath--"I can't see, I can't comprehend what I hear, it's basically another language and good money is being spent on this."

 

[RunningBum]

I hear you. I had 3 rules for class scheduling I tried to adhere to in my 4 years at college: (1) Nothing Friday, (2) nothing back-to-back, and (3) nothing starting before 11:55 AM.

There was no way I could ever avoid Friday classes. Most classes either met MWF for 50 minutes, or TTh for 75 minutes, and many of the required classes were only MWF. I always tried to do back-to-back classes too, so that I'd have open mornings or afternoons to work. No mornings off, either.

 

[Koolau]

ah yeah, the old Diff EQ...and Quantum as well (the prof started at chapter three of it, saying that the rest is review of what you should already know...and it was like starting in the middle of the Diff EQ course)

and, of course P Chem (basically Thermo but for chem and ChmE)... and while organic was "challenging" I did get the A's ...but the prof even had questions about the footnotes in the textbook!! (how's that for pain level!! ...although some footnotes were about protecting groups and protecting catalysts from poisoning etc... but still WTF for an undergrad course)
Of course, I must have been somewhat masochistic since I ended up taking graduate courses in my senior year ...which helped since I passed at least one "qual" exam when just starting grad school

(and as for high school...the physics teacher had physics majors from the state U take the exams ..just to make sure they were hard enough... they often only got ~70's!! At least the calculus teacher recognized how few made it to that point (under 25 combined from the two high schools... but that's back in the "stone age" (70's) when there weren't that many taking those courses and when there wasn't any "bump" in GPA for taking them either)... and unlike the physics teacher who held an exam on the day...the calculus teacher said that he would flunk anyone in the class that showed up on "senior ditch day" (and invited those with A's like me and a few others to meet after graduation for a few weeks for presentation of more advanced math, which helped when I took abstract algebra as undergrad, since I had at least seen it before and was introduced to some of the theorums and postulates)

probably like many...didn't use any of the Diff EQ, quantum, or even abstract algebra during the decades of my career...(but definitely the organic)

Never used much other than the analytical chemistry I learned. IT was rigorous but never used as a "club" to the head of the "pathetic student" just to make the Prof(s) look superior. What a concept. The stuff I never really needed was more of an ego trip for the Prof(s) than a path to better things once I got on at Megacrop.

I guess it was all part of the process to become "educated." Well, I got an education and swore if I were ever a Prof. (nope) or a teacher (yep), I'd never use it as an ego trip - rather as a way to inspire students to their best. I hope I did that when I was in the "leadership" role. Some of my students used to catch me at National Meetings and tell me I DID inspire them. That was worth all my ego could handle. YMMV

 

[Walt34]

Philosophy. I was incapable of paying attention in that class and would check out mentally after about two sentences.

I also hated philosophy. I majored in Criminal Justice and had to take a Humanities class, I suppose to make me a "well-rounded person". That meant either Intro to Music, Intro to Art, or Philosophy. Well, I knew enough about the first two to know that I had zero abilities or interest in either. I knew nothing of Philosophy and in college, learned that I hated that too. That was the quintessential "underwater basketweaving" class, utterly useless in The Real Life that we were supposed to be preparing for. Nonetheless, I scraped out a "C" in it.

First runner-up has to be Political Science. While I could see what I thought was the very loose connection to my major the teacher was one of those who thought her class was the only class anyone was taking or had any interest in, which of course was the reverse of the reality. Every kid in that class was there for one reason and that reason only: It was a required course for their major. On more than one occasion when handing out homework she had to be reminded that "We DO have other classes, you know".

 

[Koolau]

I also hated philosophy. I majored in Criminal Justice and had to take a Humanities class, I suppose to make me a "well-rounded person". That meant either Intro to Music, Intro to Art, or Philosophy. Well, I knew enough about the first two to know that I had zero abilities or interest in either. I knew nothing of Philosophy and in college, learned that I hated that too. That was the quintessential "underwater basketweaving" class, utterly useless in The Real Life that we were supposed to be preparing for. Nonetheless, I scraped out a "C" in it.

First runner-up has to be Political Science. While I could see what I thought was the very loose connection to my major the teacher was one of those who thought her class was the only class anyone was taking or had any interest in, which of course was the reverse of the reality. Every kid in that class was there for one reason and that reason only: It was a required course for their major. On more than one occasion when handing out homework she had to be reminded that "We DO have other classes, you know".

My very last Humanity course was a Lit course. I actually would have liked to be involved in it. But it turned out I had an Organic Qualitative Analysis course and an Inorganic Chemistry course. So, I had little time and didn't even read half the books in the Lit course. IIRC there were 7 books total. As it turned out, the final in the Lit course was open book. So, I took the books to the test and did very well with a bit of luck. Heh, heh, I did better in that Lit course than in the Chem courses. How much sense does that make? YMMV

 

[38Chevy454]

Thought of a funny story. After graduation and working as an engineer I decided to go back and get MBA. Well as an engineer, the business dep't made me take a bunch of "pre-requisite" courses before I could even take the official MBA courses. I quickly learned why business majors had it so easy vs engineering. The business courses were mostly memorization and regurgitation, or make up some proposal and support it with some BS writing. None of it was logical derivation and a definite answer like engineering. Due to life events and fairly busy work travel, I ended up stopping my MBA after only a few of the real MBA courses.

Apologies to business majors for slamming your courses. I do have one thing that is ironic on those business courses: the whole time I had an accounting class I never did get a balance sheet to balance I never could figure why some detail item went in one column vs another - "because that's the way it is done" is not a valid reason for an engineer. But I still got a B in the course

 

[MRG]

I was one of the 40 students you mention. [emoji23] I dropped out fairly early on, as I didn't want it to affect my GPA.

It's a language people either really get or hate. I was fortunate to have it click just about when I gave up, many thanks to my DW who kept encouraging me, and it's what made programming resonate in my mind. It actually made the computer into a machine, almost mechanical, similar to the engines and sawmills I'd worked on.

I got a job as a assembly language programmer as my first IT job. While I developed systems on many languages I thought in assembly.

 

[Bflotomny]

The worse collage course…that’s easy Industrial Organization. I was a mature non traditional student. That means I was attending night classes because I worked full time during the day. As a business major I needed Industrial Organization as part of my major.
I will never forget this class. First day of class in comes an teaching assistant. TA’s taught almost all evening classes. This guy walks in and in broken English announces he is the instructor. He goes on to say that he speaks very little English, reads even less. I swear those were is his words
I can’t transfer to another class because this was the only IO class offered that semester. I could of waited till next semester but I would most likely get this guy again.
I simply did what most of us in the 70’s did with classes like this and the various BS requirements; I got the syllabus, the reading list and the text book. I determine when the mid term & final were scheduled and never attended another IO class.
I sat for both the mid term and the final. I earned an A for the class.

 

[oiseux]

Interesting so many people hated Diff EQ. I didn't love it, but didn't hate it. I eventually took an upper level electric/mixed grad course in photonics that relied heavily on Maxwell equations and Fourier transforms. Probably a nightmare for some.

I did not like some parts of Abstract Algebra, and circuit theory was my personal struggle Bus.

I remember taking a power course, and seeing my friend electrocuted in the lab. She fortunately didn't have a permanent injury. That was fun (not).

 

[Koolau]

My second college level math course, we had a TA who was nearly unintelligible in English. I'm guessing he was a Mensa candidate, but that wasn't what the class needed. 2nd time the class met, the guy came in, very excited. Turns out he was being "promoted" to a higher level math course. We students were ecstatic as well. Got a really good TA. When spring came, we'd leave the building and meet under the trees. YMMV

 

[Rocket Man]

Two college classes come to mind. Educational Policies Studies, which was a class that should not exist. Classic overthink by some so-called intellectuals was my take. Also, Economics 101. My section TA was from Austria and you could not understand him. The weekly lecture hall was handled by professors who were lecturing at the 300 course level. By the end of the lectures, two thirds of the students in the hall had left. You had to go to a computer lab to take your tests on the Plato computers. Am I showing my age? I have heard Econ 101 was a decent class for many people, but not at the University of Illinois in 1976.

 

[tmm99]

It's a language people either really get or hate. I was fortunate to have it click just about when I gave up, many thanks to my DW who kept encouraging me, and it's what made programming resonate in my mind. It actually made the computer into a machine, almost mechanical, similar to the engines and sawmills I'd worked on.

I got a job as a assembly language programmer as my first IT job. While I developed systems on many languages I thought in assembly.

I'm more of a software kind of person. Assembly was too "hard"!!

 

[plex]

Physics I taught by a pure research professor in engineering school. He had to throw out 1/2 of his tests because he wrote them so poorly that more than half the class failed them, when normally less than 10% of the class would completely fail a test, it is hard to bell curve a test where almost no one can get a single right answer. Let's not even get into how nearly unintelligible his lectures were. On top of that he wouldn't even record the test scores correctly that were kept. It was a complete mess, I was frantic because this was one of the few unavoidable core prerequisite classes that you weren't allowed to skip or redraw later with a better rated professor. Comparatively, the Calculus classes were much easier, by about an entire order of magnitude or two, I was getting A's in those while this Physics class was a nightmare.

 

[ncbill]

I dithered between majors at my school.

Really enjoyed physics and my junior year took a class where all the majors dropped it, so I was the only person in that class, and a non-major to boot.

Worked my a$$ off and just barely got a B...of all my college courses I'm most proud of the work I did in that class.

Now the worst part is that at that time my college was on the quarter system...during the school year that meant three trimesters of 10 weeks each, 3 classes (each day) a full load, no credit hours.

Probably related to the above my college at that time allowed only one major, no minors.

So even though I lacked only a couple courses for a physics major I couldn't take them since my official major was different.

Also lowered my overall GPA since the physics department was proud to have the lowest GPA on campus.

Later the college switched over to a conventional semester system & now of course offers majors and minors same as any other undergraduate institution.

I'm still *@#$# about the above.

 

[Time2]

In about '76' I took an intro to transistors class. I remember the text book was named 'Transistor Circuit Approximations' by Malvino. The professor chose to have a TA teach the class. The TA was from the middle East and had a very thick accent. I could not understand what he said during the lectures, it was a topic of conversation among the students in the class, but he lasted through the semester.

On a positive note, in my 'AC circuit analysis class' I got in deep with understanding B/H curves. All the students were given identical inductors to measure, the whole class got a number of about 20% of what it should have been. Nobody cared! I did, and went on a personal search to find out why.
Slope of the curve thing, but unseen without greatly magnifying 0,0 area.

 

[eytonxav]

I was a EE major and actually loved math through diff E. In fact I loved it so much decided to take advanced calculus. Now that course I struggled in, cannot remember if I got a C or B, but what made it so hard was it was purely theoretical , where as I enjoyed the practical applications of math much more. The other thing about many college courses, a lot depends on the textbook and the college professor. Get a bad text book and prof or teaching assistant and it won't be the best experience. Good textbook/bad prof, you may be OK or similarly with a bad text/good prof.

 

[sroby2020]

Dredging up memories

Wow! My degree was in Geophysics, so math was almost a second major. Diff EQ was a snap for me, but the class I least liked was "Topics in Applied Math", a junior level course. I still have yet to "apply" anything I learned in that course.
This was in the late 70's so the prof was something of a hippie... imagine John Lennon glasses and long tangled hair, and he stared over the heads of everyone while he lectured. He would try to explain some of the mathematical concepts while using his hands to form shapes and ... I don't remember much more, it's a blur.

 

[Estuaryman]

There were several classes that were a real waste of time. The hardest class was Physical Chemistry II (or PChemII). Fortunately the instructor graded on a big curve, everyone that dropped out (about half of the 12 person class) was considered an "F". Students that stayed an tried, rec'd at least a "C". And so ended my college chemistry education. I had just enough hours of chemistry credits for a major. I promptly returned to my marine Biology graduate program. My other nightmare class was Physics I, It wasn't the class so much as it was the foreign instructor (Pakistani) whom I just couldn't understand. I finally was able to decipher his accent about the middle of the semester, but by then it was too late to recover. I did much better the second time I took that class.

 

[Gumby]

When I was in college, you could neither drop a course nor take it twice. And if your GPA for any semester was less than 2.0, you were automatically kicked out of school. You would have to appear before a special review board during the break to determine whether you would be readmitted for the next semester.

 

[NW-Bound]

Although I was an EE and started playing with vacuum tubes at the age of 12, I also loved math. So much so that I always had an A for any math class I took. With my advisor approval, I took a year of Advanced Calculus for math majors instead of the Advanced Applied Math for engineering and science majors. I took those classes in my sophomore year. The Advanced Calculus classes were meant for senior-level math majors, while the Applied Math courses were meant for junior-level students.

And Advanced Calculus is not really abstract. Real Analysis and Complex Analysis classes are. Real Analysis and Complex Analysis are generally taught as graduate-level courses here in the US, but in some other countries, they are taught as undergraduate classes. And in other countries, one does not have to take social and humanity courses in universities. Students are supposed to be done with that when they finish high school. That frees them up to take more courses in their interest.

PS. I recall that the 1st Advanced Calculus class had about 12 students, all other than myself being math majors. The 2nd Advanced Calculus class was down to 6 students. The professor was happy to have 6 students signing up, because the course would be cancelled with fewer students.