stop asking questions in class

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RedSHIFT

RedSHIFT

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you're not attending a Nazi rally or being filmed in a Speed Stick Stain Guard commercial.

save your ignorant/deeply profound comments for the professor after class.
 
What exactly is the value of a live lecture if you can't ask questions? The acoustics? The spontaneity? The oh-so-comfortable chairs?
 
I HATE questions during lecture- they should be outlawed.
 
🙁 This thread makes me sad. I was really hoping most of these students would be weeded out somewhere along the way before med school... (bad LORs etc).
 
sexyman said:
I HATE questions during lecture- they should be outlawed.
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Word. It is rude imo. Some profs won't hide their irritation about it very well, and they shouldn't- we're not kids anymore. In HS, and even college, it's different, because you never want to squash what little curiosity kids these days have, but we are adults now, and we don't need to be patted on the back for taking an intellectual dump in the middle of everyone's recorded med school lecture. Save the tangential musings and individual comprehension problems for after class. Until then, on with the borophyll.
 
Do you seriously think that professors would rather lecture to a half empty lecture hall with nothing but blank stares and the sound of scratching pens and tapping keyboards? They might as well just coordinate with technology services, just get it over with once on video, and retire.

Sure, there are some reallly bad questions that are off topic, actually statements, or otherwise mindnumbingly stupid. But sometimes the lecture is really obtuse and nonsensical. Sometimes it is actually wrong. Sometimes, a little comedic relief is in order.
 
BigRedder said:
Do you seriously think that professors would rather lecture to a half empty lecture hall with nothing but blank stares and the sound of scratching pens and tapping keyboards? They might as well just coordinate with technology services, just get it over with once on video, and retire.
.
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Um, excatly. I think we're all for this idea. Actually our pharmacology department has done this with several lectures and they're by far the highest quality audio education that my school provides.

However there is, in my opinion, one legitimate question in lecture. If your professor starts going off onto a truely bizzare tangent (his research, the obscure details of viral protein interactions, his opionions on healthcare policy, etc) I have gotten some value from the kid who is brave enough to ask 'do we need to know this?'. I have been legitimately surprised at how often I will hear a straight yes or no answer.

Sometimes, a little comedic relief is in order.
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When you say this, I hear it in Michael Scott's voice.
 
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Agree with BigRedder. going to class sometimes has a few intangibles
 
BigRedder said:
What exactly is the value of a live lecture if you can't ask questions? The acoustics? The spontaneity? The oh-so-comfortable chairs?
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I'm not there to hear you.

1. if the professor does a stand up lounge act, I'm def. not coming to his performance ...err... lecture.

2. I'm talking about a class where the information is provided in a clear and concise manner yet students feel the need to interject/voice their concerns. And sometimes...they are dead wrong. For example, today someone in the front spent 3 minutes disagreeing with the fact that taking a drug like Advil DID NOT have any sort of placebo affect.

3. i think Benito has a question

Hitler_musso.jpg


don't be like these guys in class. everyone will hate you....at least eventually.
 
Last year I thought our school was absent of gunners...ah naive me. This year they have appeared in force and with a vengeance. I never understood the pointless, let me try and look really brilliant questions in class, but what really blows my mind are the people who ALWAYS have a question for EVERY lecturer after class--are they talking about the weather? Do they have a serious interest in every specialty?

Or does anyone have the constantly smiling girl in the front class her nods her head like a bobble-head every time the lecturer even starts to glance her way? I'm ready to start do a work-up on this chick--maybe she just has Wilson's and I'm totally misreading her 😀 :laugh:

If I wasn't so dam%ed ADD and actually got crap done outside of lecture initially I would never go to class...if only all our lectures were video recorded..... Until then, I will see the gunners out in force. :bang:
 
RedSHIFT said:
For example, today someone in the front spent 3 minutes disagreeing with the fact that taking a drug like Advil DID NOT have any sort of placebo affect.
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Taking a drug like Advil does not have any sort of placebo affect? Why not?
 
Ischiowhat said:
Word. It is rude imo. Some profs won't hide their irritation about it very well, and they shouldn't- we're not kids anymore. In HS, and even college, it's different, because you never want to squash what little curiosity kids these days have, but we are adults now, and we don't need to be patted on the back for taking an intellectual dump in the middle of everyone's recorded med school lecture. Save the tangential musings and individual comprehension problems for after class. Until then, on with the borophyll.
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I'm going to vehemently disagree with you. Some people have genuine questions and it's a hell of a lot easier to ask them when the powerpoint is up and the professor is talking about it right then and there. Most of the time, when one person asks a questions, a dozen or more were wondering the same thing. I'm so glad I go to a school where we're encouraged by our professors to ask questions. I'm a second year and I have yet to meet one who's annoyed by it.

What I can't stand are the holier-than-thou students who show up to class to meet some sort of obligation and all they want is for everyone to shut up and listen like robots, so they can go back to texting/talking without having to listen.
 
Good lord. First the 'stop acting like you're a saint thread', and now this one.

You (not just the OP) should know from your first pre-med class that there are a huge amount of tools in medicine. I don't understand why everyone is getting worked up over what their peers are doing.

If some prick wants to ask a question that has no relevance, then by all means. They've just identified themselves as a prick, and now you dont have to be surprised when they steal your patients or something third year. Believe it or not, someone might ask a question that actually is thought provoking or brings up a good point.

Everyone needs to drink a big glass of calm down juice.
 
There's a difference between the professor who starts rambling or being incoherent and someone going "wait can you clarify" and the Dbag who likes to hear his own voice being like "well actually, I read in some obscure medical journal that only a few people know about that on a full moon on the second tuesday of the month during a rain storm in Guam, that those molecules actually move in reverse."
The latter people can often be found sitting in or near the front row taking notes when the professor is talking about what he did over the weekend or who won last night's basketball game.


If you have never experienced "that guy" and been really annoyed by him or her, then guess what...you ARE that guy
 
Two biggest question categories that piss me off:

1. Something that is obviously outside of the scope of the class.
This means one of the following:
a)that this person is just trying to show off his/her knowledge of the subject
b)that this person knows that it is outside of the scope but doesn't care if the rest of the class has no interest even though this is mutually shared time and doesn't want to ask on his/her own time. This is called "selfishness."
c)has no freakin' idea what is going on and thinks it actually might be on the test.

2. Something that was just clearly stated but was asked about anyways.
a)obvious, student was not paying attention, so let's waste everyone's time who was paying attention
b)exception is if the professor is incoherent or terribly explained something


Feel free to add to these categories of questions that piss you off.
 
red10 said:
There's a difference between the professor who starts rambling or being incoherent and someone going "wait can you clarify" and the Dbag who likes to hear his own voice being like "well actually, I read in some obscure medical journal that only a few people know about that on a full moon on the second tuesday of the month during a rain storm in Guam, that those molecules actually move in reverse."
The latter people can often be found sitting in or near the front row taking notes when the professor is talking about what he did over the weekend or who won last night's basketball game.


If you have never experienced "that guy" and been really annoyed by him or her, then guess what...you ARE that guy
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Haha, I know what you are talking about. We had one guy in particular that did that randomly throughout first year. My point is that its not that big of a deal.

Also, I sit in the front row because it helps me concentrate. Seeing everyone's computer screen surfing the net when I sit in the back rows is distracting.
 
I also look at this thread as referring to THAT GUY. Everybody knows him. He just raises his hand so he can hear the sound of his own voice echoing in the lecture hall. Nothing he says/asks is legitimate/necessary and it doesn't add anything to the lecture as a whole.

Of course legitimate questions are welcome, especially when it clarifies the information for someone else and helps out the rest of us.

And then there's the "IS THIS GOING TO BE ON THE EXAM?!" crap - couldn't you have just sent an e-mail? Jesus.
 
I don't mind when people ask questions. If nothing else, then you just get a little clarification on something that can help you look at it in a different way.

I think the gunners in our class function by e-mail, rather than the stupid questions in class, because I can't think of a time when we had a really stupid question in class. Had them all the time in undergrad, but not so much anymore. I guess we'll see as the year progresses.
 
Heh. In path earlier this week one chronic question-asker had a five-minute debate with the prof over whether anabolic steroid use causes physiologic or pathologic hypertropy of skeletal muscle. Utterly pointless; ended up turning into a philosophical debate over the definition of pathology. 🙄
 
The time when question asking really starts to bug me is when we have a patient in with some condition as a "clinical correllate," and the session has already gone 20 minutes over the scheduled time, I have somewhere else I have to be and the same person has asked the last six questions. You know, the kind of questions that take someone a minute to outline and leave the patient blinking, wondering what the actual question was.

Example: "First, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to come in and talk to us today. You're really making a difference in the education of myself and all of my classmates. So, you have arthritis, and have since you were 35. Can you describe, in detail, exactly what sort of pain you have, how you deal with it and what medications you take for it. Does positive thinking help? When you're stressed out, what do you do, and does the pain get worse? Do you hate your doctors? Thanks so much for answering my question."
 
I don't see the big deal. Unless your classes have vastly more douchiness than mine. Professors actually encourage questions if you don't understand something. Sure every now and then we get someone asking a question or making a statement that seems to be an exercise in flexing their mental guns, but the majority of the questions are legit and beneficial to other classmates. Even if the questioner is a raging douchebag, what do you care? Take a mental siesta for a minute. We have bigger problems.
 
THAT guy. He is the guy who is constantly asking questions every other lecture. He isn't simply asking one random isolated question that may or may not be stupid, he asks more questions than everyone else in the class put together. He attempts to interject with some random fact he read off of wikipedia that is completely irrelevant, or he looked a slide ahead and tries to sound smart. Everyone including the lecturer groans when you hear him open his mouth, and when he asks a question, everyone loses. He contributes nothing except extending the lecture with some worthless garbage that he could either keep to himself, ask the lecturer after class, or e-mail. He is a lipoma on the anus of the medical school and no matter how many times you cut him off, he keeps coming back.
 
Hoju said:
I don't see the big deal. Unless your classes have vastly more douchiness than mine. Professors actually encourage questions if you don't understand something. Sure every now and then we get someone asking a question or making a statement that seems to be an exercise in flexing their mental guns, but the majority of the questions are legit and beneficial to other classmates. Even if the questioner is a raging douchebag, what do you care? Take a mental siesta for a minute. We have bigger problems.
Click to expand...

You obviously don't have one of those guys in your class, or if you do they haven't spoken up yet.
 
Kid in my class keeps asking stupid questions. AKA stuff that is spelled out black and white in the book...

Sigh
 
BBender716 said:
Two biggest question categories that piss me off:

1. Something that is obviously outside of the scope of the class.
This means one of the following:
a)that this person is just trying to show off his/her knowledge of the subject
b)that this person knows that it is outside of the scope but doesn't care if the rest of the class has no interest even though this is mutually shared time and doesn't want to ask on his/her own time. This is called "selfishness."
c)has no freakin' idea what is going on and thinks it actually might be on the test.

2. Something that was just clearly stated but was asked about anyways.
a)obvious, student was not paying attention, so let's waste everyone's time who was paying attention
b)exception is if the professor is incoherent or terribly explained something


Feel free to add to these categories of questions that piss you off.
Click to expand...

Who can forget category #3: The question that neither the professor nor the rest of the class can figure out what the person is trying to say, so they try to rephrase it in as many ways as possible until they give up.

In regards to questions in general, I don't ask them during class out of principle: If everyone asked a question, lectures would never end.
 
jordhen86 said:
Who can forget category #3: The question that neither the professor nor the rest of the class can figure out what the person is trying to say, so they try to rephrase it in as many ways as possible until they give up.

In regards to questions in general, I don't ask them during class out of principle: If everyone asked a question, lectures would never end.
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:laugh: I know exactly what you're talking about. How could I forget! :smack:
 
If you ask the two people on either side of you in a whisper and they don't know, then raise your hand to ask the professor.

True exchange from class:

Prof:: "When doing the digital rectal exam, ask often how the patient is doing. This is NOT a typical experience for them."

Class Riddler: "What do you mean it's not a typical experience?"

Prof: "Well, how often do you have a finger stuck up your rectum?"

:facepalm:
 
red10 said:
There's a difference between the professor who starts rambling or being incoherent and someone going "wait can you clarify" and the Dbag who likes to hear his own voice being like "well actually, I read in some obscure medical journal that only a few people know about that on a full moon on the second tuesday of the month during a rain storm in Guam, that those molecules actually move in reverse."
The latter people can often be found sitting in or near the front row taking notes when the professor is talking about what he did over the weekend or who won last night's basketball game.


If you have never experienced "that guy" and been really annoyed by him or her, then guess what...you ARE that guy
Click to expand...

ThaliaNox said:
The time when question asking really starts to bug me is when we have a patient in with some condition as a "clinical correllate," and the session has already gone 20 minutes over the scheduled time, I have somewhere else I have to be and the same person has asked the last six questions. You know, the kind of questions that take someone a minute to outline and leave the patient blinking, wondering what the actual question was.

Example: "First, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to come in and talk to us today. You're really making a difference in the education of myself and all of my classmates. So, you have arthritis, and have since you were 35. Can you describe, in detail, exactly what sort of pain you have, how you deal with it and what medications you take for it. Does positive thinking help? When you're stressed out, what do you do, and does the pain get worse? Do you hate your doctors? Thanks so much for answering my question."
Click to expand...
:slowly clapping at these 2 posts: Brilliant. 👍


LossForWords said:
If you ask the two people on either side of you in a whisper and they don't know, then raise your hand to ask the professor.

True exchange from class:

Prof:: "When doing the digital rectal exam, ask often how the patient is doing. This is NOT a typical experience for them."

Class Riddler: "What do you mean it's not a typical experience?"

Prof: "Well, how often do you have a finger stuck up your rectum?"

:facepalm:
Click to expand...
It's people like that who make this world a miserable place.
 
Stop being so easily annoyed.

I mean, I asked maybe three questions all of first year, if that. But still.
 
I just think it's funny how our cell prof stops the lectures every few slides to ask, "any questions?" then some over-acheiver will ask a question and the teacher will say, "you know what, i don't know. i don't think anybody knows." Every dang time this happens. I kinda think lectures would be more fluid if people caught on to the fact that this prof doesn't know more than what's on her slides and stopped asking questions! lol
 
LossForWords said:
If you ask the two people on either side of you in a whisper and they don't know, then raise your hand to ask the professor."

Exactly!!! This is a definite and easy solution to all problems.

And since this site is full of THAT guy, its obvious why half the people here can't understand what the problem is with "just one more question". When even your lecturers point out the number of questions you've asked in a given hour, its too many! When everyone in the back laughs or moans when your hand goes up, its too many!
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Lectures in general seem slower than just reading a book.
 
I don't think there's anything wrong with asking legitimate questions, especially when the lecturer is a piece of **** or when you need to clarify something. Asking questions for ****s and giggles though, unless the class is over, is a huge no-no.
 
This is becoming a pet-peeve of mine, too, particularly when the lecturer is already a lecture behind, and we are responsible for all of the material whether he/she gets through it or not.

Please keep your random, irrelevant, half-baked questions about Brownian motion and how that relates to activator proteins for the emails, or office hours. Please.
 
Setting: Anatomy lecture, subtopic is immunology


A hand is raised! Gasp!

Professor (with heavy Russian accent): "Yes, yoo hahv a qvestion?"
THAT guy: "--[inane question]---"
Professor: "Did you read ze boook?"
THAT guy: "Yes."
Professor: "Did you read ze immuuunology boook?"
THAT guy: "Uh, no."
Professor: "Thank you for participating."

lecture continues...
 
I think the issue is not so much with the questions of clarification but the "what about some obscure unrealistic situation" or similarly related things that are designed simply to show how much extra knowledge they have outside of what is being taught or whatever BS reason they had in mind.
 
illegallysmooth said:
Setting: Anatomy lecture, subtopic is immunology


A hand is raised! Gasp!

Professor (with heavy Russian accent): "Yes, yoo hahv a qvestion?"
THAT guy: "--[inane question]---"
Professor: "Did you read ze boook?"
THAT guy: "Yes."
Professor: "Did you read ze immuuunology boook?"
THAT guy: "Uh, no."
Professor: "Thank you for participating."

lecture continues...
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F*cken brilliant.
 
We once had a professor answer a question with the following:

"Now I normally say there's no such thing as a stupid question, but that comes pretty close."

Nobody dared to ask him another question after that. :laugh:
 
What if you always answer questions in class (questions the prof. asked, not the inane ones your colleagues asked). I tended to do this because I hate the 20s silences that followed every question. (yes my school has few gunners)
 
durfen said:
What if you always answer questions in class (questions the prof. asked, not the inane ones your colleagues asked). I tended to do this because I hate the 20s silences that followed every question. (yes my school has few gunners)
Click to expand...

I usually do but only so I don't hear 30 seconds of crickets chirping. I don't see anything wrong with answering a profs questions.
 
We had one in my class. We in the back started a pool in each lecture where students chipped in a quarter to a hat and named a time to the minute where she would raise her hand. The winner would of course take home all the quarters. After a few days the number of participants in the lottery grew to such a point that her hand raising would elicit may groans and one positive display of emotion. She stopped asking questions and the lottery went away.
 
mjscal said:
We had one in my class. We in the back started a pool in each lecture where students chipped in a quarter to a hat and named a time to the minute where she would raise her hand. The winner would of course take home all the quarters. After a few days the number of participants in the lottery grew to such a point that her hand raising would elicit may groans and one positive display of emotion. She stopped asking questions and the lottery went away.
Click to expand...

Absolutely hilarious! :laugh: 👍
 
mjscal said:
We had one in my class. We in the back started a pool in each lecture where students chipped in a quarter to a hat and named a time to the minute where she would raise her hand. The winner would of course take home all the quarters. After a few days the number of participants in the lottery grew to such a point that her hand raising would elicit may groans and one positive display of emotion. She stopped asking questions and the lottery went away.
Click to expand...


I used to do something similar in one of my undergrad classes, except our bet was on how many questions the person would ask during the lecture rather than time to the first question. It made the lecture so much more exciting 😛
 
And when the brilliant question comes after the scheduled end of the lecture, please go the professor individually and don't hold up the whole class from going to lunch. Please don't think that we are so hungry for your words of wisdom that we'd forgo lunch for even a second.
 
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