Looks like I'll be teaching myself this summer.

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ArkansasRanger

ArkansasRanger

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My chemistry teacher is all over the place. He won't shoot you a straight answer if you ask, and he bounces around from topic to topic like a kid with ADD. The first lecture period yesterday (1st day of class) we started working with moles. Today we bounded over to limiting reagents. We have a very rudimentary workbook to go along with the textbook. He doesn't use the text. He finds random questions out of the workbook, solves them, and says "any questions?" His lab proctoring skills also suck.

What makes me apt to judge? One, I'm a paying student. Two, I was a licensed high school science teacher, and I taught chemistry. It's just been so long without me reflecting on it that I've nearly forgotten it all.
 
get used to it... the burden is on you to learn and teach yourself in undergrad. all the gen chem professors at my school were absolutely terrible but people get through it.
 
To be honest, sometimes teaching yourself is a lot more effective than being taught it- although not always the rule. For example, I knew I'd start taking Orgo I in January and was also going to take the JAN PCAT so I taught myself most of the stuff for the PCAT chemistry and it turned out to be my best section. It required me to write and try my best to follow a fixed schedule but boy did it pay off.

It also helped me for my Orgo I class as well.

Good luck!
 
Does nobody else think it is BS that so many of us must resort to teaching ourselves? Education system = joke in some places. Some tenured profs can't teach worth anything.
 
Yea it can be quite annoying at times. I do, however, still respect them. It is a hard job I would never wish to pursue myself.
 
rxlea said:
Does nobody else think it is BS that so many of us must resort to teaching ourselves? Education system = joke in some places. Some tenured profs can't teach worth anything.
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Yes. I agree...I had to learn gen chem all by myself. Forgot it all before my PCAT....I got to learn it again lol
 
my chem I professor was similar, very unstructured skipping from topic to topic, her teaching style was to work out examples from the book and ask if we had questions on the homework.... i had to teach myself...but it wasn't too difficult because she hopped around within a chapter, so i'd read the whole chapter myself and then figure it out....but it's wierd that your prof is SO sporadic, what unit Chem is this? Does the department have a syllabus you can follow?
 
UNMorBUST said:
Yea it can be quite annoying at times. I do, however, still respect them. It is a hard job I would never wish to pursue myself.
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I only respect those that respect their students/colleagues and do their job. No matter how hard your job may be, you still have to do it. Some of these profs don't do their job. There are plenty of teachers/instructors/profs out there that are qualified and willing to do the job. But, sometimes we get stuck with the profs that just don't care about their students...and I think that is a real shame. What if doctors just didn't do their job? Yet, people went around saying how much they respect them anyway? I am not trying to pick on you, but seriously...when people get paid (sometimes a lot of money) to do something, they should do it. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to teach students general chemistry. Skipping all over the place, reading from the book, or just doing one or two example problems without properly explaining the concepts is NOT teaching, IMHO.
 
UNMorBUST said:
Yea it can be quite annoying at times. I do, however, still respect them. It is a hard job I would never wish to pursue myself.
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Why should I respect them? Because they took a hard road and decided to cruise while I'm paying several thousands of dollars a semester to educate me? Would you 'respect' a doctor who lazily missed a diagnosis which lead to some serious complication or perhaps even death?

You earn your respect with me, it's not given.

That being said I usually teach myself in classes. I take notes and such just to know what material is covered, but when I actually learn things it is on my own.
 
rxlea said:
I only respect those that respect their students/colleagues and do their job. No matter how hard your job may be, you still have to do it. Some of these profs don't do their job. There are plenty of teachers/instructors/profs out there that are qualified and willing to do the job. But, sometimes we get stuck with the profs that just don't care about their students...and I think that is a real shame. What if doctors just didn't do their job? Yet, people went around saying how much they respect them anyway? I am not trying to pick on you, but seriously...when people get paid (sometimes a lot of money) to do something, they should do it. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to teach students general chemistry. Skipping all over the place, reading from the book, or just doing one or two example problems without properly explaining the concepts is NOT teaching, IMHO.
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They are doing the their job. Just not up to standards. Many people feel as if doctors don't do their job up to par. Thats where seeking a second opinion comes into place.
 
UNMorBUST said:
They are doing the their job. Just not up to standards. Many people feel as if doctors don't do their job up to par. Thats where seeking a second opinion comes into place.
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ah, but therein lies the problem. If you're paying a specific individual to teach a specific class, how can you get a second opinion
 
UNMorBUST said:
They are doing the their job. Just not up to standards. Many people feel as if doctors don't do their job up to par. Thats where seeking a second opinion comes into place.
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wtf are you talking about?? If they are not doing their job (or not doing their job up to par) you can't just go to another teacher like you can for a doctor's second opinion. Once you are enrolled and it is past the drop date, you are stuck...unless you want to withdraw and lose your tuition money. I think you missed the point. Reading powerpoint slides to a class is NOT teaching...so, no, they are not doing their job.
 
Well then i believe we will agree to disagree. Fair enough?
 
ArkansasRanger said:
He finds random questions out of the workbook, solves them, and says "any questions?"
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Then ask questions on what you don't understand. Students are too afraid to ask questions for fear of appearing stupid. Most likely, if you don't get something, someone else in the class doesn't get it either. I bet the professor would appreciate any questions you might have.
 
nexus14 said:
Then ask questions on what you don't understand. Students are too afraid to ask questions for fear of appearing stupid. Most likely, if you don't get something, someone else in the class doesn't get it either. I bet the professor would appreciate any questions you might have.
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Believe me. I'm not afraid of asking questions, and I've asked some. He actually seems surprised by it and unprepared to answer. Confrontation has been an exceptionally large part of my career for the last several years. I don't mind it one bit.
 
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So from 2pm to 10 pm I studied chemistry. Subtract from that enough times to walk outside (twice), find the neighbor's dog laying at my door, pet her, took a 20 minute run around 8:30, and the time to eat hamburger helper while I read the textbook.

I'm dead in the water...hit by stoichiometry. I understand what the point to it is. Maybe it's because I've been doing it all day, but when it comes time to apply the crap to a problem I just sit there looking at it not knowing how to set it up. I've been hung up with it for about two and a half hours. Quiz over it tomorrow at 11 am. Looks like I'll be making a big ZERO.

See my avatar. See how the piggy is all red with steam coming out his nose. That's how I feel right now. I just took some benadryl. I'll be asleep within an hour.


🙁
 
I taught myself in college. The majority of professors simply reiterated what was in the textbook. The only thing I gained from lectures where the topics that would be on the test. Figure out what works for you.
 
JBudege said:
I taught myself in college. The majority of professors simply reiterated what was in the textbook. The only thing I gained from lectures where the topics that would be on the test. Figure out what works for you.
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Well, college isn't new for me. I graduated college seven years ago and have since taken several other undergraduate and graduate classes. I appreciate the thoughts though.
 
What is the problem you're staring at? It's just a series of conversions. Always start with what they give you (like 3.85 g of whatever) and then change it into moles, then do the mole to mole ratio and blahblah
 
ArkansasRanger said:
I've been hung up with it for about two and a half hours. Quiz over it tomorrow at 11 am. Looks like I'll be making a big ZERO.

🙁
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If you manage to stay asleep, I will be happy to help. I have nothing planned for summer until I start school again in August. My boss won't give me more hours and my planned cruise trip with friends canceled.
 
nexus14 said:
If you manage to stay asleep, I will be happy to help. I have nothing planned for summer until I start school again in August. My boss won't give me more hours and my planned cruise trip with friends canceled.
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I may just take you up on that.
 
rxlea said:
What is the problem you're staring at? It's just a series of conversions. Always start with what they give you (like 3.85 g of whatever) and then change it into moles, then do the mole to mole ratio and blahblah
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So I just read this and....

You ever see movies where somebody totally cracks up and just starts laughing all crazy for no reason?

That's me right now.
 
rxlea said:
Does nobody else think it is BS that so many of us must resort to teaching ourselves? Education system = joke in some places. Some tenured profs can't teach worth anything.
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+1

In my OChem I class, my professor would have notes on a powerpoint and read it to the class. Hell, I've been in school for so many years I think I can manage to read on my own.
 
Won't be on much longer tonight, but you can PM me if you have chem questions.

I've done quite a bit of chem tutoring in the past few years from intro gen chem up to 2nd sem ochem + just finished a BS in chem a few days ago.
 
At Stanford, all we did was teach ourselves. The professors were far too busy publishing or perishing, and they sent their terribad Ph.D candidate lecturers. We'd walk in, where we'd discover, on the board, our current chapter assignments. Underneath them, the words, "Due next class period, have a nice day."

Yep, paying (What was then a lot of money) this much to teach myself the material. It's dumb but the piece of paper is what you need, right?

As far as Chem goes, mols to L.R. seems OK to me, since you need to always convert to mol when discerning L.R. in something like a combustion analysis or something, although I'm sure it was much worse than that and we all had to be there to truly appreciate the madness.

I was known as The Legend in Chem 1B. I did so well, I didn't even need to take 2B (Honors 2nd sem) and went right into Organic. General was my biatch. I'm totally willing to give you pointers especially on Stoich. I love thermochemistry now too (After having to deal with a Thermo loving Prof for 1A) so... just let me know.
 
I'm not really following here...

What's the problem with teaching yourself (i.e., learning yourself) as it was defined here? Isn't that kind of an expected goal in higher education? Y'know, becoming independent lifelong learners?

It's not uncommon that people don't understand everything presented during lecture at that pace. It takes time and independent thinking/practice to internalize the information. There's nothing wrong if the slides are read as long as the slides are comprehensive and self-explanatory. It sure does beat reading the textbook yourself.

In some subject matter, it's better to just see problems worked out after briefly introducing the concept. The details could be sorted out using the textbook before/after lecture and then reviewing those problems. Stoichiometry falls under this category; it literally takes several minutes to lay out the concept of moles and limiting reagents and the most difficult part (getting familiarity and making use of the concepts) gets resolved by doing problems.

Isn't it the ideal situation that a professor bases the content on the textbook, a supplement? In that case, if you miss something or didn't attend lecture for whatever reason, you're not screwed...
 
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Passion4Sci said:
At Stanford, all we did was teach ourselves. The professors were far too busy publishing or perishing, and they sent their terribad Ph.D candidate lecturers. We'd walk in, where we'd discover, on the board, our current chapter assignments. Underneath them, the words, "Due next class period, have a nice day."

Yep, paying (What was then a lot of money) this much to teach myself the material. It's dumb but the piece of paper is what you need, right?

As far as Chem goes, mols to L.R. seems OK to me, since you need to always convert to mol when discerning L.R. in something like a combustion analysis or something, although I'm sure it was much worse than that and we all had to be there to truly appreciate the madness.

I was known as The Legend in Chem 1B. I did so well, I didn't even need to take 2B (Honors 2nd sem) and went right into Organic. General was my biatch. I'm totally willing to give you pointers especially on Stoich. I love thermochemistry now too (After having to deal with a Thermo loving Prof for 1A) so... just let me know.
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You wouldn't be saying that if you took pchem thermo...
 
b1234 said:
You wouldn't be saying that if you took pchem thermo...
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WORD! Physical Chemistry (Thermo) was the bane of my existance. My P-Chem professor at Purdue (He taught Quant and Thermo) was one of the editors of JACS and our exams were absolutely insane. He knew enough about the concepts so he didn't recycle old exams and they were an exercise in futility. Point being, thermo in General Chemistry is 1/1,000,000th the material that you actually learn in Physical Chemistry.
 
nexus14 said:
Then ask questions on what you don't understand. Students are too afraid to ask questions for fear of appearing stupid. Most likely, if you don't get something, someone else in the class doesn't get it either. I bet the professor would appreciate any questions you might have.
Click to expand...

WORD! Take personal responsibility for your education and ask questions. When I would TA Chemistry, I'd have people explain steps to me in order to gauge their understanding of the material. If your professor is a massive tool, the onus is on him. However, if you ask questions and can show that you're taking initative, it's better than flying blindly into the night, hoping that you can somehow rationalize the thought process that the professor is using to solve problems.
 
I don't get people who think that the professor should teach them everything they're supposed to know. Most of my professors read Powerpoint slides; they just give you a general overview of the main things you should know. It's up to you to read the textbook and do your homework. You're not paying the professor to teach you. He gets paid by the university. You're paying to get your credits and move on towards your degree. My $.02.
 
MiataMike said:
I don't get people who think that the professor should teach them everything they're supposed to know. Most of my professors read Powerpoint slides; they just give you a general overview of the main things you should know. It's up to you to read the textbook and do your homework. You're not paying the professor to teach you. He gets paid by the university. You're paying to get your credits and move on towards your degree. My $.02.
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:laugh:

A teacher is supposed to TEACH. We pay the university and the university pays the teacher. The teacher isn't supposed to teach us everything we are supposed to know but he/she is required to teach the basics/foundation...otherwise, like I said, they are NOT doing their job. If you are fine with having a prof read off slides to you and you are fine with essentially paying for a certificate, that's youre prerogative. But, some of us really enjoy learning/the learning process including in class discussions. Pumping and dumping isn't everyone's style 🙂
 
MiataMike said:
I don't get people who think that the professor should teach them everything they're supposed to know. Most of my professors read Powerpoint slides; they just give you a general overview of the main things you should know. It's up to you to read the textbook and do your homework. You're not paying the professor to teach you. He gets paid by the university. You're paying to get your credits and move on towards your degree. My $.02.
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hmmmmm

tuition –noun
the charge or fee for instruction, as at a private school or a college or university: The college will raise its tuition again next year.
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MiataMike said:
I don't get people who think that the professor should teach them everything they're supposed to know. Most of my professors read Powerpoint slides; they just give you a general overview of the main things you should know. It's up to you to read the textbook and do your homework. You're not paying the professor to teach you. He gets paid by the university. You're paying to get your credits and move on towards your degree. My $.02.
Click to expand...

Maybe you are only paying for your degree, most of us are paying to learn.

chemguy79 said:
WORD! Physical Chemistry (Thermo) was the bane of my existance. My P-Chem professor at Purdue (He taught Quant and Thermo) was one of the editors of JACS and our exams were absolutely insane. He knew enough about the concepts so he didn't recycle old exams and they were an exercise in futility. Point being, thermo in General Chemistry is 1/1,000,000th the material that you actually learn in Physical Chemistry.
Click to expand...

Yeah, thermo... I had 50% or lower on 2 out of 4 thermo exams. Still did fine on the ACS thermo final and managed a C in the class. Oh well, I don't plan on having to derive any more Maxwell's or worry about bomb calorimetry anymore...
 
ArkansasRanger said:
hell no it's not. that was part of A&P.

actually, I don't like any kind of lab activity, but the bomb bombed. 👎
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You don't like labs at all? :laugh:

I enjoyed chem lab when I was in college. Maybe that makes me nerdy :laugh:

There aren't too many labs in pharmacy school, so I think you'll enjoy that part.
 
rxlea said:
I liked o chem labs better than gen chem labs. Making esters and luminol was pretty cool. We also made acetaminophen.
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crazybob said:
You don't like labs at all? :laugh:

I enjoyed chem lab when I was in college. Maybe that makes me nerdy :laugh:

There aren't too many labs in pharmacy school, so I think you'll enjoy that part.
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I found Ochem labs to be extremely boring - a lot of distil, reflux, sit and wait, sep funnel, roto vap, over and over again. You're also following very well tested easy experiments with high yields so it's very rare that you see anything actually go wrong. In our advanced lab classes we had procedures that weren't as well tested or as detailed and we had things go wrong and had to figure out how to fix them and make modifications to our experimental procedures on our own. More fun and we learned more - but can be very frustrating at times too - like when you spend several hours a day for a week in the lab only to get next to no yield and have to do it all over again...
 
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crazybob said:
You don't like labs at all? :laugh:

I enjoyed chem lab when I was in college. Maybe that makes me nerdy :laugh:

There aren't too many labs in pharmacy school, so I think you'll enjoy that part.
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Me too. I'll be disappointed in that part. 😛
 
crazybob said:
You don't like labs at all? :laugh:

I enjoyed chem lab when I was in college. Maybe that makes me nerdy :laugh:

There aren't too many labs in pharmacy school, so I think you'll enjoy that part.
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Nah, I never have. I'm not sure why. I didn't even like doing "labs" when I was in elementary school science. I couldn't even stand proctoring labs the the short yet excrutiatingly long two years that I was a H.S. teacher.

Student: "Mr. Arkansas, can we do a lab today?"

Me: "No."

Student: "Please."

Me: "No, let's watch another video instead."

Student: "I'm tired of Bill Nye."

Me: "Hush." (imaginary b**ch slap)

One can never tire of the Nye. 😀
 
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