Worst course ever taken in school or elsewhere!

[blueskyk]

ME major, some grad school work in Geotechnical Engineering, 3.8 gpa- loved Diff EQ, linear algebra, thermodynamics, advance fluid dynamics.

Made the mistake of taking Cost Accounting as an elective - barely survived.

Math and engineering get the same answer with the same input. Accounting not so much…

 

[Ronstar]

”I still have yet to "apply" anything I learned in that course.”

I never thought I would ever apply calculus to anything in my lifetime.

We had an oil refinery as a client (civil engineering work). I had to measure the location of 2 pipe ends about 200’ apart about 50’ above ground for the purpose of designing a connection pipe. The pipe ends were at different elevations and the pipe end flanges were not parallel in any plane.

Measuring the location was no problem. We surveyed the locations by turning a series of angles to visible points on the flanges and pipes. I computed 3d coordinates of the pipe flanges and end vectors of the 2 pipes, and gave the info to my boss.

He told me that our engineers were busy and for me to design the pipe connection. I (about 20 years old) had no clue where to start. I tried to iterate through a series vectors but nothing worked.

But we had a mechanical engineer with a PhD in math who sat quietly in the back cube designing sewage treatment plants. I asked him for help. He said he could do it during lunch.

I gave him the survey data. He whipped out a yellow pad, and scribbled some calculus looking integral stuff and gave it back to me. Pipe lengths, fittings, everything.

I took the yellow pad and gave it to the boss. He looked it over impressed. I told him that I didn’t do it, that Mark did.

He said that he knew I didn’t do it. And told me that it’s not important to know the answer if you how and where to find it.

Luckily that was the first and last time that I was stymied with a math problem at work.

 

[NW-Bound]

Math and engineering get the same answer with the same input. Accounting not so much…

And some people think accounting is just arithmetic. It can use some creativity.

 

[isisdave]

I started at RPI in 1966. I came from a Western state, where calculus was generally not taught in high school. Certainly not in mine -- and in retrospect, I can't believe they admitted me.

Well it sure was taught in New York, and as over half the class were New Yorkers, they hit the mathematical ground running. Only it turned out that we didn't have ONE calculus class, we had FOUR: Calculus, Physics, Chemistry, and Mechanics. Somehow, after three semesters of that I was still there with my C average. I got a C in Diff E too -- but it was a lot less stressful somehow.

At the time, there was a common pre-engineering curriculum, in which EVERYONE took the same five courses, and one humanity (huh? whaffor?) elective, each semester for the first three years. So chem, electrical, computer, mechanical, aeronautic, nuclear, and even Engineering Science, whatever that was -- all had the same five courses. I remember sitting in Fluid Mechanics studying steam tables -- STEAM TABLES !! -- in my fourth semester, pretty darn sure that 98% of us would never look at that stuff again. Another Mercy C, I think.

Somehow, I managed to make it out alive. They just re-postponed the 50th reunion.

 

[Gumby]

Steam Tables were the best! I enjoyed Diff EQ, but I really loved Thermo.

 

[Sand101]

For the posters who said they loved Diff E: you are either mixing this course up with some other course you actually liked or you are not human.

Y'all are crazy. DiffEQ was pretty fun. Calc III was much, much harder. Luckily I'll never have to see a triple integral again.

Hardest class I had was statics. Not because of the content, but because of the teacher. Had the senior faculty member at Clemson (45 years or so) - he taught from memory and all test were unannounced. Oof. I still know my statics. Of the 60 students I think 3 got an A.

Even though he was insanely hard I loved that professor.

 

[WWDog]

In undergraduate school I had to take two graduate level math courses to graduate in math. One of the ones I selected was a theory of linear algebra course taught by the prof who wrote the book and involved proofs of vector spaces. The book was nothing but mathematical symbols. I was talked into taking that course by a graduate math student from a neighboring college who came over just to take that course. After a few classes I figured out that all of the students taking the course were graduate students and half were from other colleges that signed up for that class just because of the man who wrote the book and was teaching the course. I struggled through the course and took the final. Stayed up all night long studying. Took the final and my mind went blank half way through the final. I went to see the prof the next day and he told me I was doing great and then everything seemed to go south. He told me not to worry as I got a B. I later found out that the prof was the definitive expert in that field.


Second story was from graduate school. I was in the Electronic Warfare Systems Engineering curriculum. The only place in the world where you could get that degree. We had a visiting prof from Germany teaching the Signals and Noise class. It involved a lot of Fourier Transforms. I took the first test and my score was 35 out of 100. The guy on my left got a 17. The guy on my right got a 23. I studied my butt off for the next test. When I went to bed that night, I had a dream that I would make a 97 on the test. I got my test back and it was a 97. I went on to get an A for the course and ended up teaching half the class in study sessions the rest of the quarter. They all passed.


Graduate school again taking an antennas course with another visiting prof. This time he was from Taiwan. Nobody could understand a single word of what he was saying. He was always talking about the "ech" field. Finally I got up the nerve to ask him what this mysterious "ech" field was. He went to the board and wrote H. Well that cleared up everything or so he thought. The class only had one test, the final and there was not an opportunity to drop that class in this curriculum. The final was one problem and it was take home. The problem ended up with this nasty equation with a lot of trigonometric and exponential functions. I converted the trig functions into exponentials with imaginary powers using Euler's identity and slogged through a lot of algebra to get to and equation I could identify as an integral I could look up and solve in the tables. Thirteen pages later I had the answer or so I thought. A neighbor who was taking the same course knocked on my door about 11PM that night and said that he had no clue how to solve the problem. I kindly let him review my work. We both made an A.

 

[Koolau]

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.

Wow, that's brutal.

When I was in school, the issue was completing EVERY credit in a maximum of 8 semesters (4 years.) One credit shy and you lost your 2S draft status. You could still sign up for classes, but if the draft board came calling your next gig was a McNamara Fellowship to scenic SE Asia. End of 3rd year, every male had to sit for an "achievement" test, failure of which resulted in "do not pass go, do not collect your 4th year, go directly to your draft board minus your 2S deferment." So even classes you were struggling with and that meant absolutely nothing to you became critical. It's one of those "you had to be there" and therefore, YMMV.

 

[2177V]

I am a UC Berkeley graduate in Mechanical Engineering and I got a B- in Diff Calculus and a C in quantum physics. I had no application in quantum physics and differential calculus during my professional engineering career. However that was not the point. The point was that if you are smart enough to get a passing grade in either of these classes, then you are smart enough to write a construction contract for a contractor to build a bridge.

 

[Bryan Barnfellow]

You had fern tip soup? Luxury!

Never tried the soup; but when I lived in Maine I would buy fiddlehead fern tips in early to mid-May and sauté them in oil with garlic and some sesame seeds. Yum! A seasonal favorite there.



-BB

 

[EastWest Gal]

Another course I found a real challenge was neuroanatomy in medical school. The structures in the brain sort of run together. We had a book with poorly done sketches and real cross sections of brain embedded in plastic as study tools. The problem was the professor. UCLA was in love with repeat visiting professors and raved about how wonderful they are. The professor was from Belgium. I could not understand him through his thick accent. In particular, he pronunciation of 3rd and 4th was the same. And he droned on and on about the 3rd and 4th ventricles. He made a straightforward topic of pure memorization nearly impossible.

 

[Gumby]

Wow, that's brutal.

When I was in school, the issue was completing EVERY credit in a maximum of 8 semesters (4 years.) One credit shy and you lost your 2S draft status. You could still sign up for classes, but if the draft board came calling your next gig was a McNamara Fellowship to scenic SE Asia. End of 3rd year, every male had to sit for an "achievement" test, failure of which resulted in "do not pass go, do not collect your 4th year, go directly to your draft board minus your 2S deferment." So even classes you were struggling with and that meant absolutely nothing to you became critical. It's one of those "you had to be there" and therefore, YMMV.

The other thing about my college was that I knew from the day I started that, upon graduation, Uncle Sam would send me wherever he wanted me to be, to do whatever he wanted me to do.

 

[finnski1]

Yet another ME here. I actually liked Diff Eq and all the Calculus classes I took. Managed an A in all of my math classes. Also as others have said, I really enjoyed Thermodynamics and steam table stuff Our weed out class was 2nd semester sophomore year Dynamics. This was a very stressful class for me as I was recently married(less than 8 months and no I was not 19, was actually 25 and had already gotten a bachelors degree in Biology before Engineering school. That's a whole nother story) and a had a lot of pressure to succeed. DW had already graduated as an RN and was basically supporting me although I did mange to work 15-20 hours per week at night.
Well the first exam shows up and I think I got something like a 43 on the exam (out of 100) and was stressing completely.
Little did I know that the entire class did similar and this score was scaled all the way up to a "C". The rest of the semester would continue the same and I manged to pass with a C. The other class I struggled with was of all things Creative Writing." Who knew analytical types weren't very good at "creative writing."

 

[Dawg52]

My brother majored in Mechanical Engineering and obtained a Master's as well. When he came home on weekends he brought a crap load of books and I could tell from some of his stories it wasn't for me. So I went the Accounting route. Statistics seemed to be the course that put the fear in most students but I did ok in it. I admit I was lazy and not the best student. Pretty much a B student. But once employed I gave it 100% and worked a lot of hours including lots of weekends. Thankfully I was able to ER and get back to my lazy ways.

 

[eytonxav]

I started at RPI in 1966. I came from a Western state, where calculus was generally not taught in high school. Certainly not in mine -- and in retrospect, I can't believe they admitted me.


Somehow, I managed to make it out alive. They just re-postponed the 50th reunion.

So you must know what the tute screw is

 

[Dalmore]

Diff EQ wasn't my nemesis, Vector Statics was. First day of class the Prof, the dean of the Engineering School, told us to look around the room and that one in four of us would fail the class. We then dove straight into 3 dimensional vector statics analysis. It was a nightmare. I had Thermodynamics, O-chem, 3rd yr Calc (might have been Diff-EQ, but I don't remember), Vector Statics, and Physics at the same time. There were three midterms and a final, all equal value. The first and second midterms, I was dead center in the middle of the bell-curve, which for his class was below an F. Needless to say, I stopped going to the class after that. Retook it the following semester with a different professor and got a B+.

 

[Easy Rider]

Stochastic proccesses (probability theory part 2) was hardest for me, but mainly because I was taking 2 graduate classes for my MSEE while working full time and paid overtime back then. The professor taught it very abstractly without the practical knowledge that aids me when learning new concepts.

I remember it fondly since it denied me my perfect straight A's for all my other classes and sullied my record with a B+.

 

[Beachcomber]

Enjoy reading this thread and especially what the favorite courses were.

I was a preppie (prep school) and have to say creative writing was my favorite course - even in college. I also enjoyed calculus in the macro-economics course.

My dad was a certifiable genius with a degree in chemistry. He was a scientist and business owner who could recite the names in Latin of most chemicals that went into his products from memory- (30 years later)! Combine that with a dairy farm upbringing and 6 older (German) siblings and you have a recipe for success.

I could never out work him or out think him, so I just pacified him the best I could. "You could be right" was my favorite retort.

 

[athena53]

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 loved Fortran and used it for years in my work. Did you know that Hollerith was a brand name for a census tabulating machine? I saw one at the Ford Museum in Dearborn!

DiffEq- I got a C and did find it a challenge. My nemesis was Advanced Calculus. You had to take a year of either Advanced Calc or Applied Advanced Calc to get a BA n Math. Both courses were a mix of undergrad and grad students. I got a D one quarter and worked darn hard for it- the only D in my academic career.

I took Linear Algebra and enjoyed it- it was one sequence offered to Elementary Ed majors who were going to focus on Math. They had to take either that or "Baby Calculus" (an easier version for non-techies). I guess the word "calculus" scared them so the took Linear Algebra. All of them disappeared pretty quickly.

Has no one mentioned Inorganic Chem or did I miss it? I never attempted it but heard horror stories.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

Now, what about the worst course you ever TAUGHT in college or elsewhere...

Undergrad courses were not so bad, but the first time I taught graduate-level Quantum Mechanics took a fair bit of effort! Sometimes I was relearning this stuff just a week or so ahead of the lectures.... And then you assign a homework problem that you are sure you can do, but it turns out harder than you imagined....

 

[Gumby]

Now, what about the worst course you ever TAUGHT in college or elsewhere...

Undergrad courses were not so bad, but the first time I taught graduate-level Quantum Mechanics took a fair bit of effort! Sometimes I was relearning this stuff just a week or so ahead of the lectures.... And then you assign a homework problem that you are sure you can do, but it turns out harder than you imagined....

I think teaching law school would be the worst. Imagine a roomful of people, none of whom have a clue, but all of whom have an opinion.

 

[Scratchy]

Zoology in college. Soul crushing memorization of arcane taxonomy never to be encountered again.

 

[tryan]

Fourier Tranforms got me (it's a few courses after DIFF EQ ... as a math major). Flunked it ... then got a "B" the second go around.

The "F" still sits on my transcript. My son tells me if you make-up a class today you only see the HIGHER grade in your GPA. Times have changed!!

 

[NW-Bound]

Someone mentioned a class in stochastic processes. I enjoyed that graduate level class. The international standard textbook for this course is Probability, Random Variables, and Stochastic Processes by Papoulis.

I mentioned Analysis earlier. The international standard textbook for this is Principles of Mathematical Analysis by Rudin.

Math knowledge is necessary for higher engineering works. Understanding of stochastic processes is necessary in working with Kalman filtering and state estimation. Linear Algebra has applications in error correcting codes. Complex Analysis works well to develop the Fourier Transform.

PS. I cannot remember the book that was used in my Complex Analysis class. I am getting old! Went to my bookcase, and saw some books on this subject, but they were bought later for reference. Perhaps the prof just handed out notes for his class.

 

[NW-Bound]

Several posters mentioned a class in differential equations. I presume they were talking about ordinary differential equations (ODE), and not partial differential equations (PDE). An EE would deal primarily with the former, while an ME or CE would have to deal with the latter.

As an EE, one needs to work with ODE in linear circuit analysis. Thankfully, many of these problems can be worked out in closed-form solutions, although more complex situations would require a computer to solve using numerical methods.

As I took Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer (even EEs needed to take a class in this as part of the undergraduate engineering core back in those days), I recall seeing many problems that were set up as a PDE, which then could not be developed further or solved. PDEs were too tough!

I also recalled thinking to myself, it would be great to have a computer at his disposal to work these interesting PDE problems. This was back before the advent of the PC, even before the proliferation of the super-minis like the DEC VAX 780, or Data General's Eclipse. Univac 1100 and IBM 360/370 were all that were common, and access to them was not free.

When I bought my first IBM PC clone, I sprung for the 8087 floating-point coprocessor, and many of my coworkers also did. But at that point, we also had the use of megacorp's computing facilities, and there was no longer the need for a home computer to do some "serious" work. Some like myself did run SPICE (a circuit simulation tool whose basic engine is still in use today) at home for some personal projects, but that was not common. The rest just had the FPU, because it was nice to have. It was one of those things that we loved to have in our younger years, when the desire to learn and to stimulate our mind was still strong.