About two weeks ago I started noticing a pattern in my grades and am unable to determine whether it is based on one of two things. Here are my hypotheses.
Hypothesis 1: I am failing arguably my two hardest classes this semester, Economic Research Methods and Price Theory.
Hypothesis 2: I am culturally insensitive and failing only classes taught by Chinese Nationals with severe accents and barriers to cultural similarity.
Let me elaborate...
In the last week of September, we proceeded to take our first test in Price Theory. Class Average was a 60. The good doctor proceeded to claim that it was better than last semester's class who averaged a 50. When someone asked what the highest grade in the class was, she said someone had scored a 100. Some people stood up and immediately walked out to go and drop the class. Others asked if she thought it was too low and then she reiterated the "improvement" over last semester.
So, after receiving a dismal grade that was less than the average, she proceeded to indicate to the class that she was very tricky on the test, I was fuming but decided to stick it through at that point.
Then this week, she started preparing us for our next test and started talking about how the test was full of tricks and gimmicks. I promptly raised my hand and politely asked " So, if you're putting so many tricks on the test, why don't you teach us how to do these tricks?" She insisted that the questions were of the same difficulty as practice sets and that they just seemed harder to us because of the time constraint.
I pretended as if I agreed with her when the whole time I was envisioning myself giving her the middle finger. At this point she started talking about how teaching us through torture seemed to be the most effective way. That's when I realized that there is a whole cultural gap that separates our minds. She suggested that if some students drop to take another instructor, that he was much harder. I leaned forward to my fellow classmate and uttered " but at least I can understand 'em". He didn't respond... I don't know because he didn't hear me, or just thought I was a jerk.
I had decided it... I was going to drop that class to keep me from academic probation. Price Theory is required for my major and if I had made less than a C in it, I would've had to retake it anyway. I believe with the grading scale that I am still able to pull my grade up in Economic Research Methods.
So, am I culturally insensitive? Maybe... a few child evaluations performed in my youth indicate that I am not. However, when it comes to my education and my money going towards tuition, I will undoubtedly look up pictures and use pure prejudice on nationality and who I will take.
Am I certain that this will come back and bite me politically some day? Yes. If they get onto George W. Bush for making "C"'s at Yale, they surely wouldn't want some "C" student from a public TEXAS university to run for anything. My fiance's best friend is a Hong Kong National. While I love her company, I'm not sure I want her as a professor.
IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE READ THIS!
So when I went to drop the class today, I went to the Economics department to try and get a withdraw and convince my professor to not bestow a Withdraw-Fail (WF). Her office hours indicated that she would still be in her office, but after inquiring the secretary, she informed me that she had left an hour ago. Charming. She then asked if she could help me with anything. I let her know that I was planning on dropping Price Theory and flashed my form. She scooted her chair back, reached in her filing cabinet and pulled out a pre-filled form with the professor's name already signed and the department chair's signature with the "W" already circled (Thank Goodness). I just looked at her slack-jawed momentarily.
They were anticipating us to withdraw.
After getting information on procedures to drop, she had me sign a booklet to let the department know I was dropping a class. While signing, I saw that plenty of other classmates had dropped the course. I saw about 12 from my class and had noticed that our class had been reduced to about half capacity.
So anyway, it seems that Price Theory is a prerequisite for itself. My dad had always talked about the fabled course that was such a horrible weed-out course in each field. For him it was Statics. For me, it's Price Theory.
I'll be back at its throat again next semester. I will take no prisoners... I will also take EFL teachers. That is... "English First Language"... as long as I am able.
P.s. This is not about any kind of hate. I respect the Chinese culture immensely. I just do not respect my professor in the least.
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