Fuck You Shitty Teacher!

The BBQ Pit
1

My Discrete Math teacher…

Jesus Christ does he suck balls. I’ve had bad teachers in my life. I’ve even had bad teachers in subjects I easily understood that worked out differently, but this one particular teacher is so horrible that I am royally pissed off.

Now, I don’t know if anyone here even knows what Discrete Math is about. Hell, I barely do, but the point is that the shit isn’t easy. What does piss me off most of all, though, is the teacher makes no fucking effort at making things easier. In fact, he goes through steps that make things more difficult…

Thing number 1: He never lets you have tests. You take a test. Next class, he’ll hand them back to you for about 5 minutes, then you have to give it back. This means that he’s either A) lazy, and doesn’t want to redo his tests for other classes or semesters or B) he’s being a dick on purpose. Neither one is acceptable.

Number 2: He will put things on quizzes and never explain them. There’s never a point where he goes over the things on anything over which we’ve been covered. If it is touched upon later, then it is always cursory and confusing. Not expanded topics, mind you, but completely different concepts.

Number 3: This is the absolute worst. He assigns homework which is unsolvable given our present teaching. Our first assignment was about binary trees and other things that we still haven’t covered!

Number 4: He doesn’t go by any book…In fact he said, “You can buy any book you like.” I bought the book he recommended. So in order to get some clarification on some topic he’s covered, I have to go searching through my book. He never tells us what we could look at for next week. Most of the time the homework is a repeat of the last time with no extra information added. Essentially it’s, “You got it wrong last time, so…try it again and maybe you get lucky!”

Number 5: His approach to evaluation seems to be ridiculous. He grades on a sharp curve. All of his tests yield results below 60. His MO is, put it on the test, and maybe someone will know it. So yeah…his tests are likely to have things you probably can’t even begin to know.

I really like to compare this with my Programming teacher. That guy is awesome. He makes things as clear as possible, explains the proper context for each situation, thoroughly explains the homework, and…I can’t go on. He’s simply far superior.

So why am I really mad? Because I’m going to fail or make a bad grade? No…actually not. I did the best in the class on the first test (54), and third or fourth best on the second test. That’s not it. I am sure I’ll do okay, grade-wise in his class. No, I’m upset because I didn’t learn a fucking thing. Everything I learned, I learned from the book, which was a huge fucking chore because he couldn’t properly plan a class. He goes by his notes. They are some pages of a legal pad that look about 9 years old. That’s what we’re dealing with.
But honestly, I can’t hate the guy…I really like him as a person. He’s this greek guy with a really laid back attitude. But his laid-back attitude is fucking me over. I need regimented learning environments with this. I’m not asking him to hold my hand, but just to provide a fucking bit of sanity. That’s all I want…

2

I think it must be the subject.

I had a Discrete Math teacher who must have been “that professor” all the other ones warn you about that tries to fail you in any way possible. The average on the first test was a 66 (60 is outright failing, and that was the AVERAGE). The homework was near-impossible.

I retook the course, and of the 9 people nearest me in our discussion section, FIVE were retaking the course, and 3 had specifically not taken it having heard about it, the other guy just looked relieved that he had dodged a bullet. It was quite possibly the worst class ever. The retake was of completely normal difficulty, with no particular problems associated with it.

At least we had a textbook so theoretically we could pass.

3

That’s what dropping classes was invented for. Too bad it’s too late in the semester to do that, now. But I understand the “stick to it” mentality, the idea that you’ll have to slog your way through it sooner or later, so it’s best to get it over with.

I once had a statistics class with a remarkably bad instructor – all he did was mumble and scratch illegible crap on the chalkboard. At first he tried to have “meaningful” homework based on his lectures, but NO ONE could figure it out. I mean no one – there were some serious math geeks in there (unlike me, I always struggle with math) who were constantly pestering him to figure out the homework. About halfway through the semester he gave up on that and just assigned homework from the textbook and the tests were all open-textbook tests. So you really didn’t have to go to class at all; in fact, aside from getting assignments, it was probably better if you didn’t. Just read and understand the textbook, and you were home free. Mind you, the textbook was complete unreadable crap, so I barely eked by in that class.

In retrospect, looking at it years later, I should’ve dropped that class in the first week and found something else. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20!

4

I think it must be something about Discrete math-type professors. My Discrete Structures prof was AWFUL. On our exams, 2 out of three had a class average in the 50’s. Homework was done, but never corrected or collected, so you had no way of knowing if you did it correctly. A class pre-rec was a Java programming course. All his programming examples were in Maple (which none of the students had ever even heard of before). Our textbook was written on a math grad student level, and had replaced half the words with symbols that were vaguely defined in the middle of scattered paragraphs at the beginning of the book. A proofs class was not required before taking this class, but he still required us to write them, and when people used the same proofs (the ones he wrote on the board and told us to use them on the test), he accused them of plagerism (the slightest whiff of this can get you kicked out). He actually had to note on BlackBoard what you needed to get on your final to get a C in the class (CS and IS majors needed a C to as part of the secondary admit process to the school of Computing and Information Systems).

Not a single person could have told you what a discrete structure was at the end of the class. The worst part was that he was the ONLY professor teaching that class that year.

To make matters worse, there was a rumor going around that the bookstores were not buying back the books (they had been brand new, and cost about $250). I hated that book, and was planning on burning it (this is a big deal for me, as I adore books) if they didn’t buy it back, or maybe whacking the professor over the head with it, as it weighed about 10 pounds. However, I got to the buyback and got paid $22 for it. Best $22 I ever received.

The final kicker was hearing students that took the course the next year, and had no idea why so many people were in tears about it. “It’s not that hard at all! The book is easy to understand! Our professor gives us candy!”

5

My discrete math teacher didn’t show up for the first 4 weeks or so (various speaking engagements and conferences), so the class was taught by a couple of grad students. I got out of the class with a B, but only because I was part of a group of students who volunteered to assist the grad students by beta testing their programs instead to taking the final exam.

I can’t remember if there was an actual textbook for the class, or just a packet of materials purchased at the bookstore. Actually, I can’t remember much about the class at all.

6

I like to take this opportunity to describe the teaching style employed by my Descrete Math professor. I’d like to, but I can’t because I have no idea, cause I never under a word he was saying. Couldn’t understand a thing he wrote on the Blackboard either. He was Czech, and a very angry man.

The first five minutes of the first class.

Prof:ggdgdgdggd hghghghghgghh.
Class: Sorry?
Prof: ggdgdgdggd hghghghghgghh!

Class looking at each other: What?
Prof: ggdgdgdggd hghghghghgghh!!!
Class: We don’t understand!?

Prof while screaming and getting red faced:ggdgdgdggd hghghghghgghh!!! ggdgdgdggd hghghghghgghh!!! Runs over to the guy who first said sorry, and gets in his face ggdgdgdggd hghghghghgghh!!!

I just stopped going by the third day, and just did the assignments from the sylabus from the book, and throwing them in his mailbox. I think 2/3 of the class did the same thing.

7

Discrete math seems to be one of the worst taught classes in the CS curriculum. My prof wasn’t all that bad, but it was only with hindsight (that is, sometimes not until my upper level classes) that I truly got the material. It’s really unfortunate, because the stuff is so fundamental; I wish there’d been some effort to better tie it into advanced topics at the time.

I made the mistake of selling my Rosen book back to the bookstore after the class; I bought a replacement years later as a grad student (at a different university) from one of the sophomores that felt he had no use for it. And I’ve gotten it out repeatedly, if only to refamiliarize myself quickly with combinations/permutations, circuit design (Karnaugh maps), etc.

8

A 60% in my discrete math course would have gotten an A, easily. It was a huge pain in the ass, and most of the material was self taught and in study groups. I think one can get a lot out of learning like that, but it still pissed me off at the time.

9

I’ve just decided to switch our Friday schedule to Monday, which means that the test we take each Friday on what we learned during the week will now take place on Monday before we’ve learned it. But since today is Tuesday, it doesn’t matter in the slightest.

10

When I was in school, I realized that some professors were of a variety that I referred to as “flakes.” They can in two flavors, harmless flakes, like the sociology professor I had who would spend class going off on tangents like two days spent talking about the new Guns and Roses album. That was when he even bothered to show up. He however was harmless since he tested directly from the book. I didn’t learn crapth, but I managed to get a A and fulfill a core requirement.

Dangerous flakes were like the English prof I had who had seen "Dead Poets Society" one too many times. Besides trying to act cool, but not actually teaching, he had the annoying habit of taking two to three week to grade the weekly papers he would assign. So by the time students actually got their papers back, they had turned in two more. If you wanted to correct errors and make some level of progress in your writing, this made it very difficult. 

Or the archives professor I had in Grad school who piled on the out of class readings, and extra work (the University actually had to tell him that his work load was too heavy for a masters level class). While we got to read plenty about the theory of archives, we learned very little about finding aids, filing, and preservation. The things that the catalog said the class was supposed to be about. The funniest thing was when two weeks before the final, the Professor, who had done little to hide his disdain for librarians, said "it just recently came to my attention that most of the people in the class don't want to become archivists, but librarians." 

 Gee, perhaps the sign on the door of the "School for Library and Information Science" could have been your first clue?
11

Holy shit, I am so far removed from Math that I thought “discrete math” meant something entirely different.

Anyway, bad teachers happen, and sorry you got one, but I have to say I don’t have a huge problem with not letting students keep tests. Especially on college campuses, where tests have a way of finding their way to other students’ hands. 2, 3, 4, and 5 I can’t defend, though.

12

:slight_smile:

Heh. I had a couple like that. One was a guy who was supposed to be teaching us Econometrics but spent each class talking about how he uses econometrics to predict the quality of wine. The one day I get fed up and skip, he teaches everything we need to know for the semester.

Then there was the sweet old guy in policy school who was supposed to be teaching us political analysis but kept reliving the policy behind space flight, complete with tiny drawings of the space ships on the blackboard. He was so sweet, he accepted almost anything as a valid paper.

13

Your prof must also teach Differential Equations cause I had him 4 years ago.

14

Well, let me put it another way. It’s Mathematics. It’s not easy to cheat like that. What are you supposed to do? Memorize the whole sequence of numbers and notation? Nobody can do that without making some kind of sense of it, and if you actually do make sense of it then you understand it!

Point being, reusing test isn’t as open to abuse in Discrete Math as it would be for say, a History test. You still need to know what you’re doing even if you knew from beforehand what the problem would be.

But sorry, Why the hell not let us have them? Is it THAT hard for him to do it? I’m fairly certain that this is the only discrete math class he teaches at the moment. I think he doesn’t feel like making a new one each semester

I can’t dislike the guy though. He’s so genuinely pleasant in general that it makes it difficult to hold a grudge for too long.

I am not afraid of failing either. I think I’ll do okay on the grades in the end. I am just a bit disappointed that it sucked to have him. He obviously puts no effort into teaching. He is garbage compared to my C++ teacher. That guy is a machine. He’s amazing. He’s probably cracked about 2 jokes the entire semester, but I really like him.

15

In Ye Olden Tymes, Discrete Mathematics was a mixture of topics:

Axiomatic Point Set Theory
Boolean Algebra
Introductory Logic - Proofs, Deductive, Inductive
Some Very Basic Graph/Path Theory
Some Very Basic Combinatorics
Some Basic Algorithmic Structure and Logic

16

I see you are in Dallas–was this at UTD? Did he say “er” and “um” a lot? Like, 40-50 times a minute? I had that class. I DID drop it. This would have been in 1995 or 1996. Ended up changing schools and never needed stats.

17

Yeah I have the 5th edition of that book. Actually, I have two of them, still want one? :stuck_out_tongue:

Discrete Mathematics and It’s Applications, Fifth Edition, Rosen.

I have two because somehow one of my friends decided to give me his, and they weren’t buying them back, so I kept them.

I found the book to be fairly easy to understand, and my SECOND teacher, whether by virtue of the fact that I’d seen the material before, or he was just better, was fine. I got, I believe, a B with little effort in that class.

18

Well, like I said, I know less than nothing about anything above college algebra these days…the higher math skills (AP Calc student here) atrophied a decade ago. So I’ll take your word on that, except to say that…yeah…you’d be surprised what people can get away with…! I honestly thought the whole “answers printed on the pencil” thing was a creation of Hollywood, but I’ve confiscated them…!

19

What did you think, it was math that knew how to keep its mouth shut?

(I have a cryptography final next week)

20

All this hating on things discrete!

The professor I had for Combinatorics and for Algorithms (I would consider both to be Discrete Math) in college was one of my best ever.

Another was the one I had for Combinatorics and for Graph Theory (which is also a branch of Discrete Math) in my semester abroad.

(FWIW, Both were Hungarian.)

I also took a Graph Theory course in grad school that I really liked. (This guy not Hungarian.)

Maybe I should mention that for the first year or two of grad school, I wanted to study Discreet Math…