Being that I am a fifth-year senior in college now, I feel I'm quite able to judge the varying degrees which go into any given class curriculum.
Now I could be mistaken with this notion, but I think the difficulty of a 100-level class by comparison to 200- to 400-levels should obviously be less rigorous.
That is, 100-level classes should be easier than the higher ones.
This is the reason I raise concern for the current 100-level class that I'm enrolled in. Several factors contribute to this class being far too strenuous for its 100-level reputation.
In fact, the professor seemed somewhat delighted to express to us on the first day that the class was unusually difficult, and that the average grade over the years has been a C.
He exclaimed on the over head that "... the average grade for the midterm was a 65 percent. Five percent higher than last year!" Should Geo Sciences 102 really be this hard?
There is an extensive amount of mathematical material in the class. And I'm not talking about your average type of math here. These are equations that my two engineering major buddies couldn't even figure out.
Now this is truly saying something, considering that when I hear these guys talk about the material they're studying, it sounds like a different language. Basically, they are smart in the ways of math, yet couldn't get the answer to a math question in a 100-level lab assignment.
For mathematically challenged individuals such as myself, this poses a problem. This is especially true when a large amount of such material is expected to be done.
Then, on the midterm, I found another aggravation. One of the questions on the test was: Who figured out the circumference of the earth first?
This is a fair question. But when the test gives two options with the same right answer and then asks us whether the guy was Greek (c), or Persian (d), I find it rather deceitful on the professor's part.
We are enrolled in this class to enrich our minds in the ways of Geo Sciences. How are we to be expected to know the nationality of Eratosthenes? Isn't it enough that we know who the guy is? This is not Cultural Anthropology where we'd be expected to know someone's homeland; this is Geo Sciences, where we should be expected to know things about the Earth.
My last concern begs for a call of justice. While strolling to the back of class to take this midterm, I glanced to the clock.
The proctor had started the test approximately six minutes late. Now this would have been all right if he'd still given us our full amount of time to take the test. But he proceeded to prompt us toward completing the test by :50 after, cutting the remaining students a full six minutes of valuable test taking and all the while telling us, "You've got 10 minutes left," and, "Okay, you should start to wrap it up now."
This class has already been made exceedingly difficult for its 100 level, but with time unjustly being taken away from this important midterm, the bar significantly gets raised. Cutting time short in a midterm has got to be against policy somehow.
In recognition of this injustice, I took this complaint to the professor. He told me that he was happy I had come to him, but that there was nothing that he could do for me or the other students who got shammed.
So I went to the head of the Department of Geo Sciences. He basically informed me that nothing was out of the ordinary with what was going on in this class. In fact, he told me that if more time had been given to the students, or if extra points had been given in light of the instructor's fault, then he would have been upset.
When time is cut off of a midterm, that we (the students in this class) were expecting to have, it results in a poor reflection of what the students truly know about the subject.
Couldn't six more minutes reasonably be seen as having resulted in a higher grade for some of us?
It's quite apparent that the general difficulty of this class far surpasses the normal low-level 100 class. My lab instructor and the professor himself have admitted to this.
That being the case, I think a little more slack can be cut to us students here. The goal in every class should be to educate the students, not challenge them beyond the point of what is reasonable.
The latter technique turns kids off, disengaging them in a subject matter that should be made interesting. This class is full of freshmen, and so they're not exactly sure what to expect yet by way of college level courses.
However, I do know what to expect. And I will not stand by and take this sort of treatment with a grain of salt. Something is going to be done about the ways we're being manipulated.
Ryon Nicholson is a senior in philosophy. The opinions in his guest column do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Barometer staff.