College student SC in class!

[Hobbs]

Wah, Lupo, you're datasets and stuff made my brain scared...

That said, I had a similar twatpumpkin in my history class, completely digressed our discussion to the point of wasting a half hour of my life.

[MannersMakethMan]

completely digressed our discussion to the point of wasting a half hour of my life.

Every lecture has them: The Front Row Club.

They sit on the front row of the lecture theatre to bask in the aura of the lecturer. Their mission in life is to go as far off on a tangent as they can, preferably referencing things a postgraduate wouldn't get, and generally sucking up to the lecturer in the hope of winning a fleeting moment of praise.

They will ask inane questions many times in a lecture. Eventually, it will get to the point that when the founder member starts to speak, the rest of the lecture theatre (about 400 students) will groan and moan until they shut up.

However, this will not deter them, and when in a lecture with such a person, expect at least half the time to be spent on a non-examinable topic, leaving you twice as much to read up on. Cue hatred and lynch mobs when the lecturer asks why you can't be more like them...

[Ironclad Alibi]

One of my most notable professors taught a senior level materials engineering class. He wrote the text book. His lectures consisted of him reading the text book to the class. Not just straight reading, but reading it by repeating the sentences in such a manner that made you think everyone was writing it down word for word. Which I guess we could have done if we weren't reading along in the book with him.

On the plus side, his howmework consisted of selected questions from the textbook. In the "lab" for the class the TA would work all the non-assigned questions from the textbook. And all the tests were made from the questions and examples in the textbook. The tests were also open book and open notes. Can anyone spell "easy A"?

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Every lecture has them: The Front Row Club.

They sit on the front row of the lecture theatre to bask in the aura of the lecturer. Their mission in life is to go as far off on a tangent as they can, preferably referencing things a postgraduate wouldn't get, and generally sucking up to the lecturer in the hope of winning a fleeting moment of praise.

They will ask inane questions many times in a lecture. Eventually, it will get to the point that when the founder member starts to speak, the rest of the lecture theatre (about 400 students) will groan and moan until they shut up.

However, this will not deter them, and when in a lecture with such a person, expect at least half the time to be spent on a non-examinable topic, leaving you twice as much to read up on. Cue hatred and lynch mobs when the lecturer asks why you can't be more like them...

My history teacher at the community college I attended didn't give his front-row club members that kind of treatment. At least not that I saw.

There was this one kid, Lenny (Not his real name) who would interrupt class several times a day to rehash things we had already gone over, or bring up irrelevant side points.

Teach generally took it in stride, until one day when he responded to Lenny's skywardly-spazzing hand and insistent "Professor...professor" thusly:

Aww dammit Lenny, what the hell is it this time? Can't it wait until after the lecture?

Lenny:
Rest of class:

Lenny didn't interrupt class quite so much after that.

[ditchdj]

I plan on going to graduate school this fall and I really hope I don't end up having to deal with any of these self-centered turds that I'm trying really hard to raise my two daughters NOT to be like.

[protege]

There was this one kid, Lenny (Not his real name) who would interrupt class several times a day to rehash things we had already gone over, or bring up irrelevant side points.

People like that piss me off. Back in high school, one of my classmates (oddly enough we nicknamed "Lenny") was like that. He'd constantly interrupt class with stupid questions. Usually, it was something like "was Antigone pretty" or other annoying things to waste time.

"Lenny" got his nickname after the character in John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men. Of course, that Lenny was mildly retarded. My classmate, was simply being a dipshit. Big difference there

[EricKei]

Can anyone spell "easy A"?

I'll see your "A" and raise you a large swath of stupid people. Back in school, the most popular course -- by a vast margin -- was Human Sexuality Today (gee, I wonder why?), usually taught by a guy named Dr King. Naturally, the running joke was "Have you had Sex with King?" ba-dum-bum-pssh. Anyhoo, this class packed the largest class auditorium to the gills day in and day out...and had an average FAILURE rate of over 50% (note: this means, 50% of the people who did not drop the course when they realized that there was to be a book to read at some point failed out). Very, very sad. Keep in mind that this was a class where, if you managed to stay awake most of the time, you got a B with no sweat...

[arete85]

Actually, I did this in all of my Accounting classes. And Principles of Management.

They were evening courses. I was working two jobs and taking a full course load, too. Sleeping and eating were nearly things of fantasy, to me. I had to show up for classes or be dropped due to excessive absences. For evening classes, if you miss more than one session, they would drop you. So, I'd show up, prep myself for 'learning by osmosis'* and zonk out. I couldn't do it now, even if I wanted to, but I was a master in my early 20's. Now, I wouldn't overload myself so much with work and school, plan time enough for sleep, and just be awake and alert for everything.

I felt kind of bad about it, as might the sleeping guy in your class, but I had to show up and I did get straight A's in all of those classes. The only person to score higher than me was a woman who was taking only one class at a time and spent 20 hours per week studying and doing homework for the one class. She got a 95 for each class, I got a 94 (95 was the highest possible score.)

*Learning by osmosis: Mostly sleeping through class but being aware enough that you dream about the material being presented. And, when the teacher asks you a question, you immediately sit up, rattle off the correct answer, and then zonk out again.

Heh. Due to a long and boring set of circumstances I won't use up your bandwidth with, I did the same thing all throughout my final couple of years of highschool. Students who struggled with the material would hate me, because I would answer questions promptly, having pulled myself out of a daze to do so. I ended up with a score in the 92nd percentile, two years younger than most other students, and won the prizes for best graduating English/Literature and Classical History student.

I should post something relevant later though...my ex was a tutor and I graduated university after a few trying years in the presence of special snowflakes.

I was especially hurt by the girl who would never read anything, came out with some of the most innane statements I'd ever heard in class, gossiped during most class-time and once used as her excuse for not having done homework the fact that she had to shop and pack for her upcoming trip to Greece.

The on-site tour which counted for credit points in your course, involved exploring some of the most famous and beautiful historic sites in the countries we were studying....and cost a few grand I couldn't come up with if my life (and it felt like it!) depended on it.

She got to go, and I didn't. I don't think I'll ever get over that, petty though it may sound now.

[Mamadrae]

My first class of the morning for my last two years of high school was Spanish, with Sra. Walsh-- or, as she preferred to be called, "La Bruja." ("The Witch.") You nodded off in her class, she'd pick up one of the many noise-making toys she had in her room, walk over to you, put it next to your head, and turn it on. Rarely did anyone fall asleep TWICE in her classes.

She would have hated my guts my senior year of high school. 2nd half of high school I was living on my own so to pay rent and such I had to work after school AND had a paper route at 5 in the morning. My day went like this usually.

1. Get up, eat toast while rolling newspapers.
2. Deliver papers (about an hour or 2 depending on the day).
3. Get home, sleep for 1 hour, get up, get dressed go to school
4. Survive school
5. Run/bike/catch bus right after school so I can be at work on time at 5pm.
6. Work till Midnight - 1am.
7. Go home, do homework till done...usually about 3 am.

This means I got exactly 3 hours of sleep before school.

Anyone care to guess where I got the other 5 hours I needed to function? Anyone? Bueller?

Did I mention when exhausted I can sleep through World War 3?

The awesome thing was that word got around and teachers knew I was working my arse off trying to make ends meet so some were very good about cutting me slack. Other's...not to much. *grumbles about bastard Chemistry teachers*

[trunks2k]

Every lecture has them: The Front Row Club.

They sit on the front row of the lecture theatre to bask in the aura of the lecturer. Their mission in life is to go as far off on a tangent as they can, preferably referencing things a postgraduate wouldn't get, and generally sucking up to the lecturer in the hope of winning a fleeting moment of praise.

heehee. I used to have one of those kids in a few of my Comp Sci classes. He is the epitome of what you describe. Everyone hated him. He was really smart, no doubt, but he constantly brought up totally unrelated topics that were well beyond the scope of the class.

One day we were discussing sorting algorithms.....

Prof: Lets say we have an array of these numbers, what's the best way to sort them?
Annoying Kid: What are these numbers used for?
Prof: It doesn't matter, we just want to sort the array.
AK: But what do the numbers mean?
Prof: It doesn't matter, we just want to sort them from lowest to highest.
AK: Why?
Prof: We just do.
AK: Well if we don't know what the numbers are for - maybe an array isn't the best place to store them.
(this back and forth goes on for several minutes)
Me (who is normally very quiet but just reached the end of my rope due to a few different reasons): OH SHUT THE F**** UP!!! GOD DAMNIT! WHAT THE F*** IS WRONG WITH YOU? IT'S A SIMPLE F****** QUESTION! JUST ACCEPT THE QUESTION FOR WHAT IT IS!
AK: Well, I just --
ME: NO! SHUT UP! I'M F***** TIRED OF YOU CONSTANTLY BRINGING THIS CLASS ON UNRELATED TANGENTS. YES, WE GET YOU ARE SMART AND KNOW MORE THAN WE DO. CONGRATULATIONS. BUT WE'RE TRYING TO LEARN. SO JUST ACCEPT THE F****** QUESTION!
*silence*
AK: Well that was an intelligent response.
Me: Well yours was a stupid, unrelated question trying to prove how smart you are. ( I think I mentioned something about how nobody likes him because he's such a snob, which wasn't a lie)
*silence*
*silence*
*silence*
Prof: okaaaaaaay. moving on.

[Alpha Strike]

Every lecture has them: The Front Row Club.

They will ask inane questions many times in a lecture. Eventually, it will get to the point that when the founder member starts to speak, the rest of the lecture theatre (about 400 students) will groan and moan until they shut up.

However, this will not deter them, and when in a lecture with such a person, expect at least half the time to be spent on a non-examinable topic, leaving you twice as much to read up on. Cue hatred and lynch mobs when the lecturer asks why you can't be more like them...

Had an experience with this in a Politics/History course I took in high school - in this case The Front Row Club was more like the Lazy Jock Club but the idea was the same.

Anyway, our teacher assigned us a project, which consisted of research paper and a class presentation, followed by questions from him and the other students. All 24 or 25 of us had to do it and each presentation typically took between 10-20 minutes, depending on the length of the presentation itself and how many questions were asked of the presenter.

Prior to the presentations we were all told what order we would go in, but since the amount of time each presentation took could affect how many presentations were given each class (which ran an hour), there was no specific schedule as to the day we'd go up. So the Lazy Jock Club, taking advantage of our pushover teacher, decided that if they asked enough questions - relevant or not - that they could delay their presentations by a few days.

That meant that every person who came up was just peppered with questions, some actually thoughtful but mostly just designed to eat up time and (hopefully) embarrass the presenter as well.

Fortunately, we were able to get a bit of revenge on the Lazy Jock Club. By some unspoken agreement we all returned the favor when LJC members finally did their presentations. However we each made damn sure that we not only asked a ton of questions but also relevant ones. We'd often catch these jackasses off guard, highlighting how little work they had put into their research and how poorly they knew the subject material. And I'm sure it didn't help their grade for the teacher to see them hemming and hawing, stammering through a question they should have been able to answer easily.

[i4wolves]

I used to work at a large Petstore, now I am an academic advisor for a large college. Some days I feel like I am doing returns. I swear most of my students are SC. They do not understand that just because you did your assignements that does not mean you will pass.

[protege]

They do not understand that just because you did your assignements that does not mean you will pass.

...and I'll bet they also blame the professor when they fail the class. Quite a few of my college classmates were like that. They wouldn't do the work, or half-ass it; they wouldn't go to class; they wouldn't study, etc. Then they'd blame the professor for it.

When I was still in school, I got to hear one of my friends say something along those lines. She'd failed an essay test, because she didn't answer the questions. Well, from *her* point of view, she did, but not from the prof's. I don't remember the event in question (), but whatever it was, went right over her head. Most of her answer defined what the event *was,* rather than why it was *important.* Needless to say, when I pointed that out...she was a bit pissed.

[valhar2000]

It's amazing what some people think college/university is! There was apparently a survey done on students in my area who think that just showing up to class should allow you to pass. As in, not doing assignments, or not doing them well, but being there everyday should be enough for the teacher! You're, usually, doing this to start a career!

Unfortunately, that attitude has influenced schools already. It seems that many colleges, including prestigious Ivy League colleges, now engage in grade inflation due to the constant complaints from the student body, and, furthermore, any teachers who attempt not to do this are punished by the administration until the inflate the grades: http://sandwalk.blogspot.com/2009/02/for-effort.html

[valhar2000]

I used to work at a large Petstore, now I am an academic advisor for a large college. Some days I feel like I am doing returns. I swear most of my students are SC. They do not understand that just because you did your assignements that does not mean you will pass.

I'd take further. Steve Dutch, a professor of geology at the University fo Winconsin Green Bay says this in answer to students who think they deserve a grade because they pay tuition:

Students are also products, and employers outside the University are also our customers. These customers have a right to complain if our graduates are lacking in skills, knowledge, and motivation. They have a right to complain if we certify someone as being a potentially good employee and that person turns out to be unqualified.