Failing students easier than expected
Professor Tom Prusa: Rutgers - EconomicsOf course he remembers your name, Tom.
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Professor Tom Prusa: Rutgers - EconomicsOf course he remembers your name, Tom.
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Tags: Economics, Rutgers University, Tom Prusa
June 8th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
I don’t see why any Professor should ever grade on a curve… and how does the multiple-choice option of “None of the above” make an exam so terribly difficult or tricky? If you know your material, you shouldn’t be thrown by that.
I’m not saying that economics is an easy subject; I don’t think it is. But based upon the student comments that I read, it appears to me - someone who knows none of the parties involved (I don’t attend Rutgers) and is therefore completely objective and without a personal agenda - that if a student comes to class, pays attention, takes good notes during lectures, participates in discussions, reads the text, and studies for exams (basically, all the things that a student should be doing), then there isn’t any reason why he or she shouldn’t do well in Professor Prusa’s (or anyone else’s) classes.
It also looks like for every student who did poorly in one of Professor Prusa’s classes, several others did well, proving that the latter is possible. Some of the students who failed exams or who found their courses extremely difficult even admitted knowing where they went wrong - and that always had something to do with cutting corners in terms of preparation… (”Attendance is a must”; “I wish I read the book”; “Don’t text or read the paper in class”; “E-mail him asking for help”; “Difficult but definitely, definitely possible to get an A. You just have to be willing to put in a lot of time and work hard.”).
If you believe that you really have been putting forth the effort and doing your best and you’re still struggling, that’s why professors have office hours - stop by and ask for additional help. If you know the course material but keep getting confused by questions of logic on exams (i.e. “There is not enough information given to answer…”), then spend some time brushing up on your logic skills. If you’re having trouble keeping up with your courseload in general, go to your learning center and get yourself a tutor who can help you to improve your overall study skills (effective notetaking, time-management, etc.). If you’ve bitten off more than you can chew; if, at the beginning of the semester, you recognize from reviewing the syllabus of each class you have that there’s no way you’ll be able to handle that much reading or that number of papers or that many exams all at the same time, don’t set yourself up for failure. Swap one of your reading-intensive classes for another, less demanding course that you need, or drop a class entirely. You can take it next semester, and you can meet with your faculty advisor pre-registration to get some help in choosing the rest of your classes such that you’ll be less likely to get in over your head again. You have access to the resources - you just have to be proactive in seeking them out.
You’re in college now. The standards and expectations are higher; even in 100-level courses, the workload is heavier and more difficult than what you were accustomed to in high school. That doesn’t mean that you can’t rise to the challenge.
Grades are earned - the F’s as much as the A’s. Take responsibility. Do the work.
June 9th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Why do you need your professor to grade on a curve? Is it just because the exams are hard enough that without the benefit of a grading curve, you would actually have to spend some time studying? Also, how does the inclusion of “None of the above” amongst the other answer options suddenly make a multiple-choice exam especially difficult or “tricky”? If you knew the material, that shouldn’t throw you off - you’d recognize “None of the above” as you would all other choices to each question; that is, as being either A) the right answer, or B) the wrong answer.
It looks to me that if a student comes to class on time, pays attention, takes good notes during lectures, participates in discussions, reads the text, and studies for exams (basically, all the things that a student should be doing), then there isn’t any reason why he or she shouldn’t do well in Professor Prusa’s (or anyone else’s) classes.
It also appears that for every student who did poorly in one of Professor Prusa’s classes, several others did well, proving that the latter is possible. Some of the students who failed exams or who found their courses extremely difficult even admitted knowing where they went wrong - and that always had something to do with cutting corners in terms of preparation… (”Attendance is a must”; “I wish I read the book”; “Don’t text or read the paper in class”; “E-mail him asking for help”; “Difficult but definitely, definitely possible to get an A. You just have to be willing to put in a lot of time and work hard.”).
If you believe that you really have been putting forth the effort and doing your best and you’re still struggling, that’s why professors have office hours - stop by and ask for additional help. If you know the course material but keep getting confused by questions of logic on exams (i.e. “There is not enough information given to answer…”), then spend some time brushing up on your logic skills. If you’re having trouble keeping up with your courseload in general, or your professor’s office hours are inconvenient for you, go to your learning center and get yourself a tutor who can help you to improve your overall study skills (effective note-taking, time-management, etc.). You have access to the resources - you just have to be proactive in seeking them out.
If you’ve bitten off more than you can chew; if, at the beginning of the semester, you recognize from reviewing the syllabus of each class you have that there’s no way you’ll be able to handle that much reading or that number of papers or that many exams all at the same time, don’t set yourself up for failure. Swap one of your reading-intensive classes for another, less demanding course that you need, or drop a class entirely. You can take it next semester, and you can meet with your faculty advisor pre-registration to get some help in choosing the rest of your classes such that you’ll be less likely to get in over your head again.
You’re in college now. The standards and expectations are higher, even in 100-level courses, and the workload is heavier and more difficult than what you were accustomed to in high school. You should have expected that, but even if you didn’t, that doesn’t mean that you can’t or shouldn’t be expected to rise to these new challenges.
To all those students everywhere who think that their professors suck and that they were treated unfairly because there was no grading curve, or there was too much reading, or the TA’s graded essays too harshly (What does that even mean? They took off points for poor grammar, spelling, structure, cohesiveness, and clarity? You should lose points for those things!), or writing assignments counted for too high a percentage of the class grade (Again, learn to write better), or the professor didn’t create practice exams for you or otherwise spoon-feed everything to you, or there was a mandatory attendance policy, et cetera, et cetera, ad nauseam:
Grow up. Stop making excuses. Stop pointing fingers at everyone else for your own mistakes and deficiencies. Grades are earned - the F’s as much as the A’s. Take responsibility. Do the work or don’t; it’s up to you, but if you end up with a poor grade, you have only yourself to blame.
June 10th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Your words mesmerized me.
June 12th, 2008 at 12:58 am
lol soo no professor is horrbile huh ?
June 17th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
I wonder if Jennifer understands the importance of solidarity. Certainly her teachers do. No wonder students are treated as badly as they are by teachers. No teacher would ever take the side of a student against another teacher because they “do” understand the importance of solidarity. Also I wonder if Jennifer has passed her Professional Ethics course yet because if she has she obviously didn’t grasp the meaning of the “informed consent doctrine.” If she had she should have understood that prospective postsecondary students should be warned ahead of time (before they pay so much money) about the massive amounts of homework given by postsecondary teachers. Perhaps when Jennifer grows up, gets a job and joins a union she’ll think back and realize how silly she was.
June 19th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Cathy, I wonder where you get the idea that there is some wort of battle of us against them (meaning students against teachers). Your reference to solidarity and siding with/against each other is ridiculus. There is not us against them. There are only student learning and professors teaching. Then again you reference growing up, getting a job and JOINING A UNION! I can guarantee when I grow up and get a job, it will NOT be a job requiring me to join a union. You don’t need a degree for one of those jobs, you can get that right now. When you grow up and get your job with the union, YOU will realize how silly you are.
June 19th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Whoa. Who gave Cathy the dictionary this time? Great; another verbose fool slinging words s/he doesn’t understand. Just to compound what Daphne said, solidarity–”unity or agreement of feeling or action, esp. among individuals with a common interest; mutual support within a group” (courtesy Oxford dictionary). Or, a Polish trading union. Either one. But either way, your comments manifest some severe handicaps in translating your thoughts/ analyzing a situation and drawing coherent thoughts. What is wrong with one student bashing another? If Jennifer wants to reprimand students for whining about tricky tests, let her go for it (just an example). Rarely have I ever seen eye-to-eye with my fellow students, so solidarity is hardly something with which I’ll trouble. It’s not like there’s a revolution crouching and waiting…. or is there?
June 25th, 2008 at 3:39 am
I had him. He was an okay teacher, didn’t really care about us (his students)!
June 25th, 2008 at 3:49 am
Also, he told us that he bought an ipod instead of buying his daughter a Wii.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
jennifer please take a ***** and shove it up your *** u crazy *****
June 26th, 2008 at 5:52 am
Yeah jennifer! shup up! u crazy freak! U think by doing that it will always work! yeah right! There are truly bad teachers!
June 26th, 2008 at 7:54 am
Some people are dumb. Therefore they can’t do school.. duhhhh..
June 29th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Daphne wrote
“I can guarantee when I grow up and get a job, it will NOT be a job requiring me to join a union. You don’t need a degree for one of those jobs, you can get that right now.”
Teachers unions are extremely powerful. Teachers have degrees. Duh
June 29th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
“Dana writes”
“Rarely have I ever seen eye-to-eye with my fellow students, so solidarity is hardly something with which I’ll trouble.”
Certainly solidarity is not something you’ll bother with, however your well organized and powerful teachers unions do. And if they don’t they get fined. How naive you are.
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Jennifer–
when u do bad in your college classes, I hope you’re not the one complaining that there isn’t any curve. In my organic chem class, the class average was 38%, so even if it wasn’t the teacher’s fault, you have to make it on a curve or else you’ll be in big trouble. So do us all a favor and shut the **** up, you conceited *****.
August 8th, 2008 at 1:46 am
I agree with most of the above, Jennifer is a ****.
August 15th, 2008 at 12:33 am
He reminds of that i love britney spears - chris? - guy from you tube.