SNEAKY professors?!?

[Doc.Holliday]

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at the end of my most recent molecular biology test, my professor decided to inform us a little bit about the structure of our exam coming up. During his description he sincerely told us that he was almost too embarrassed to give us the exam b/c it was so easy. this actually seemed rather probably since we were a bit behind schedule due to cancelled classes thanks to hurricanes etc. that and the fact that at the end of every lecture he says that most of the info is unimportant becuase all you have to do is buy a kit, b/c mol bio is just like csi. ..

so when i walked in to take the test today i was a little surprized at the difficulty of many of the questions. turned out this was the hardest exam i had ever taken. i admit i did slack off a tiny bit in my studies after hearing him say it was going to be easy, but i did study quite a darn bit, and it wasnt just that molecular biology is a complicated subject, he asked some of the most nitpicky questions imaginable, and i guarantee that if i aked him some of the stuff he asked us he would be absolutely clueless.

anyway, ive tried to figure out his point in telling us it was such a simple test. sneaky old bastard. anyone else have teachers who have done similar things?

 

[stoic]

maybe it was a simple test that you simply didn't understand well

 

[Doc.Holliday]

maybe it was a simple test that you simply didn't understand well

INCONCEIVABLE!!!

 

[skiz knot]

... he asked some of the most nitpicky questions imaginable, and i guarantee that if i aked him some of the stuff he asked us he would be absolutely clueless.

Do you realize how incredibly stupid this statement makes you sound? I can pretty much guarantee that if you asked him ALL of the stuff he asked you, he would have a pretty firm grasp of the concepts. I mean, he did write the ****ing test!

anyway, ive tried to figure out his point in telling us it was such a simple test. sneaky old bastard. anyone else have teachers who have done similar things?

You can probably stop trying to figure out why he told you it was going to be an easy test. Rest assured he thinks the test should have been easy. The fact is he may not have been that good of a teacher (or you were not that good of a student), and he did not properly assess the readiness of the class. If the test was as nitpicky as you say it was, then everyone will have had difficulty on the exam, and the curve for the class will adjust accordingly.

 

[NubianPrincess]

I've had professors say that a test would be easy "as long as you know the material." I consider sneaky to be stating that specific concepts will not be tested, when they will be. Anway, easy and difficult can be relative, so it's best to just prepare and not risk getting slaughtered by a false sense of security.

 

[Hildergard]

The test might have been easy for "him" as a professor but it might not have been for "you" as a student. Seiously, I have never trusted any professors who claim that their tests are easy. 🙄

 

[txguy]

I've had professors say that a test would be easy "as long as you know the material." I consider sneaky to be stating that specific concepts will not be tested, when they will be. Anway, easy and difficult can be relative, so it's best to just prepare and not risk getting slaughtered by a false sense of security.

Great advice!

I always end up over-preparing, but at least I have confidence going into the exam 🙂

-tx

 

[phleebie]

maybe he changed the exam after finally deciding the old version was too easy. he could have done this the night before it was given--i mean, theres nothing that says he cant do this, and he doesnt necessarily have to give you guys updates whenever he "tweaks" an exam.

 

[Skaterbabe74]

I've had professors say that a test would be easy "as long as you know the material." I consider sneaky to be stating that specific concepts will not be tested, when they will be. Anway, easy and difficult can be relative, so it's best to just prepare and not risk getting slaughtered by a false sense of security.

I agree with this. I had a professor just last week telling us, in writing and verbally, that an exam would consist of part objective questions (mc, t/f, matching, fill in the blank), and part short essay (75 words or less), then we walked into the exam and found it to be 10 identifications of 75 words or less and 2 long essays of 80-200 words!!!

To the OP I've had a few professors telling us it would be easy because in their mind it was, but in reality it wasn't, but that isn't really sneaky, just annoying. Hope you did better than you thought you did!

 

[stoic]

Dude, there's nothing wrong with bombing a test. It happens to the best of of.

 

[tupac_don]

at the end of my most recent molecular biology test, my professor decided to inform us a little bit about the structure of our exam coming up. During his description he sincerely told us that he was almost too embarrassed to give us the exam b/c it was so easy. this actually seemed rather probably since we were a bit behind schedule due to cancelled classes thanks to hurricanes etc. that and the fact that at the end of every lecture he says that most of the info is unimportant becuase all you have to do is buy a kit, b/c mol bio is just like csi. ..

so when i walked in to take the test today i was a little surprized at the difficulty of many of the questions. turned out this was the hardest exam i had ever taken. i admit i did slack off a tiny bit in my studies after hearing him say it was going to be easy, but i did study quite a darn bit, and it wasnt just that molecular biology is a complicated subject, he asked some of the most nitpicky questions imaginable, and i guarantee that if i aked him some of the stuff he asked us he would be absolutely clueless.

anyway, ive tried to figure out his point in telling us it was such a simple test. sneaky old bastard. anyone else have teachers who have done similar things?

I had a teacher like that. Sneaky old school teacher. He would say, oh you don't have to memorize this. So right away all studenst were like oh good, won't even look at it. But what he meant was you should understand it. Which involves even deeper understanding then memorization. But I figured him out, so everytime he said not to memorize something I knew it inside and out and I cashed in.

 

[WilliamD]

Well I have had two memories. In high school, my class was taking a college level anatomy class (taught by someone that taught anatomy to Pre-Meds at UAB). Well her tests were generally not too bad, except for one test that was just awful. She admitted near the end of the semester that test was actually one she had given her college level class and had not dumbed it down for us juniors, in fact had made it harder, because we had ticked her off the day before by talking too much in class.

In Organic Chem last year one of the students went up to the professor a few days before the exam and pronounced that she thought it would be an easy exam. He went back and rewrote it to make it much harder. Interestingly enough though, our class still had the best average on that particular exam than any class he ever had. Go figure. But his tests are the ones that unless you know the material you would really need another half hour to complete.

 

[tllajd]

With three tests completed in Organic Chem, I noticed that the third was much more difficult than the first two. I can only guess that a comment made to the teacher by one student as to --- "you can use my test as the key if you want..." had a dramatic effect on the level of the exam. 👎 😡