A
male
age
30-35,
anonymous
writes:I have a college related issue and ive had good experience with aunts giving good responses, so ill ask here. I took an Art History 100 course this semester. Everything was going great up until the first of two exams in this class. All of the 10 question tests, leading up to this i aced no problem. Then literally 4 days before the exam she tells us its contents. To everyones amazement it is nothing like the previous tests, and the syllabus lacked any of the details she told us so we had no clue that these tests would be the way they were till days before. Her syllabus also rarely matches her actual class and has changed 5 times in and the semester is only half over. Making her syllabus a joke. It came down to several essay questions and a ton of straight from memory questions, several of which were not mentioned during the lecture or the book. This problem was compounded by the fact the prof was not even qualified to teach for this class. Several students looked into her, and found she was a Jewelry Making prof my college gave the position because they could not find a prof and gave her the job since she was a art related prof.Everyone in the class looks around like death had just walked in the room. Every test leading up to the exam in this level 100 course was multiple choice and so long as you had a grasp of dates and had key terms and details memorized you were fine. This test we were informed would be the polar opposite. And would cover all 356 pages we had read. Her lectures are not even lectures, i cant even count how many times she has been corrected by students in class, and her slideshow and lecture is her reading a summary of what was in the book, she knows no more then we do. If someone has a question, she has either let them ask and then ignored the question, danced around it, or given the wrong information. Why am i paying for this when i could of bought the book and taught myself? So i left the class panicked, as did the rest of the class. I went home for the next four days, taking off work and staying at home, memorizing and running over all of the chapters i could. I go to class, take the exam, and feel pretty confident.I come to class next time, she comes into class essentially yelling at us, saying the greater majority of the class failed the exam. Made us take notes on her lecture, which was essentially writing down the book. And tried to press the blame on us for failing the exam. Anyone that stood up to her got yelled at, and she would not acknowledge their argument. She hands us the exams and once again, the entire class fills with silence, which slowly drifts into people asking each other what they got. 2 people passed, out of 32 students. And they got 70% and 76%. I ended up, even after studying my weekend away, with a 40%. I felt like crying to be honest. I come into class, the next day, and she basically took another day off, messing up her syllabus again, to get hateful with us some more and try to press the blame on us, refusing to listen to what anyone had to say. I come back the next class, our 32 students shrunk to only 11. Everyone else had dropped the course. 2/3 of the class dropped the course because they bombed the test and had no hope of passing because if you fail one exam, its nearly impossible to pass the class.And in all, the workload for this level 100 course has been INSANE! Ive taken 300 courses with less work, and were easier. This leads into my problem. Im on financial aid, and i wish to drop the class but cant because if i do, i end up owing a lot of money back to the college, since the Pell Grant would have to be repayed. It could also make me get less financial aid money possibly, which i cant afford. But failing the class, if it drops my GPA could also make me loose my aid. Is their anyway for me to drop this, or still get the credit for this course because of how bad the prof is? And would dropping a course make me loose my insurance through my parents? Please, any advice or aid would be appreciated, im confused on what to do! Thanks Aunts!
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reader, anonymous, writes (7 November 2010): This is verified as being by the original poster of the questionaunt honesty, Everyone feels the same, Every day i come into class they are bashing here until she arrives. I know several students have confronted here either in person or email about her teaching methods and she basically argues illogically and refuses to accept she is doing a poor job.
kirra07, She has stated several times she refuses to curve the grades. When everyone failed the first exam except for two students, even those two students were asking and ultimately begging for a curve since they had done the best in the class at a 70%. The wont bend, she wont make an exception or any effort to fix this. She looks at the issue like its OUR fault and is making us all take the awful grades, when the cause is here poor teaching methods, inability to aid students, and her tests are poorly structured and she makes no effort to change.
The worst part of the exams she makes are the essays. She expects us to relate and memorize literally 100+ pieces of art per exam and the context in history that surrounds them, the tests are accumulative so by the end of the class we will have to off memorized 500+ chunks of art and history in detail, and connect them in your mind. This is a 500 page book and and each page has multiple art pieces and a ton of text, its a massive book. And we are expected to memorize the whole thing essentially word for word, its a joke. I have a good memory, and can usually memorize large amounts of info but this class even feels impossible to me.
Im going to take a visit to my advisors and see what i can do, and what they advise. Im studying for the exam thats coming up tomorrow right now. Her study guide she posted online has went from useful last semester, to a joke this semester. Her study guide last time, had a bunch of specified topics to study, this one is the chapter labels, and a some vocab words. I think she probably spent a total of 10 minutes putting it together. Its like she wants us to fail since this is all we have to go on from her as its our only example of what will be on the test.
A
female
reader, tennisstar88 +, writes (7 November 2010):
 I agree gather up what's left of the class, first do your homework and make sure she doesn't have a bachelor's or master's in what she is teaching..point out how she's not qualified and your $ is being wasted, especially those of you on financial aid..go to the counselors first, but most likely you're going to have to go over their heads and straight to the board.
However, if none of that works then they're going to have to send you back on your merry little way to drop the course. Which sucks because you'll have to pay for it..Or bite the bullet and take the grade. If you're on your parents insurance, you only have to be a part time student to still get covered. Your GPA is irrelevant.
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A
male
reader, SpiderMan120988 +, writes (7 November 2010):
Well, I'm an uncle! =D Anyway, if you are having a problem with a class, you should just drop it. This happened to me recently with a calculus class where the professor would go over the material in a very fast manner. Most of the students had a ton of questions and we would end up spending 80% of the class going over homework problems with the last 15-20 minutes to learn new stuff, which is frankly, impossible, unless you already know this stuff. Now when I was in this class, I did fine on the quizzes (10/10 scores) but the tests were the killer. It's not like I didn't know the problems it was very vague because the instructions practically said, do it however you can, so I sat there trying every technique and wasting precious time. These were integration problems and not simple ones either, or they did but they had variables mixed in to confuse you. Anyway I got a 50 on the first test but decided to stick to the second and got a 35. At this point, I had to drop, the best I could muster would be a D and I need a C for my major. I believe 6 or 7 people already dropped so do not worry about dropping a class, it's a very normal occurrence in college. I doubt you would get credit on the professor's incompetence so you may have to take it over again if it's a required course. I can't say anything about your insurance but check with the financial aid office to see if dropping a class has any effect, unless you already take 12+ credits, then it has no effect. Again, save yourself the misery and drop, no one will hold it against you.
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A
female
reader, kirra07  +, writes (7 November 2010):
You should be able to talk to the head of the faculty or the academic adviser for your program. You can talk to them about how the course is, how bad your prof is, and what you can do.
Generally profs can't fail the whole class. I've been in classes where the averages for some of the midterms have been fails. But then it gets bell curved up, because they simply can't just fail the class. They simply make it so hard so that not too many people do well, and the really really smart people get the 100, instead of too many people. So talk to them, talk to the prof, see if she will do this or if she's planning on failing everyone.
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A
female
reader, aunt honesty  +, writes (7 November 2010):
 I think you need to get the class together and see if everyone feels the same way as you do, and if they do i think all of you should aproach the head of the college and tell him the problem if he is not going to deal with it then get on to the head of education, it needs to be made aware that she is not a qualified proffessor and am sure the college can get in trouble for this, dont throw away your hard work because of this one women stand up with the rest of your class and get something done about it, go on strike if needs be.
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