Variance between Prof's drives me nuts

[Lazarus]

The unfortunate reality that a vast cavernous difference can exist between professors (or TAs) of the same subject and that this can have a tremendous impact upon success or failure (defined as that A) really drives me bananas.

I have been lucky in that I have been able to side step many of the potential land mines, but it just gets under my skin that this situation can exist when so much money is spent on these classes.

Has anyone else had similar experiences? I am also curious how different universities compare to one another.

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[badb100d]

Yep, it's definitely happened to me. My TA for physics I lab was atrocious, barely spoke English and spent all the lab period on her computer. On top of it all she graded solely on the accuracy of our results, which needless to say weren't very good using 60 year old lab equipment (note to school: it is not quaint, it is just old, please use my ungodly tuition to upgrade). I killed myself (and my poor lab partners, sorry) for a lousy B+. Meanwhile my TA for physics lab II was amazing and so was the grade difference (A+). He actually taught and graded based on our understanding of the material. He spent the lab period helping the student, can you believe that? It's even worse with TA's because you usually don't know who will be teaching. With profs you can at least try and avoid the bad/harsh ones. Thankfully I got graced with good TA's for my other science labs. So, long story short, you're not alone.

 

[CW 2010]

I completely agree with you, guys. Unfortunately, your professor matters.... It's not only your knowledge/intelligence, your study habits, your time and effort devoted to studying...
And, of course, ADCOMs don't care about it. They only see the grade!