"I decided we would do an oral exam* because it's a great way to see if people have actually learned anything from my course and aren't just parroting notes. Because I can ask them to elaborate on their answers."
Yeah and it's also a great way to get otherwise good students to go blank because it isn't possible to absorb every bit of complex information you spent 12 weeks rushing through, Barbara.
This "gotcha" style teaching fucking pisses me off. There is no time in the real world people are not going to be able to look up their notes. Fuck, half the time I'll ask a professor something and they'll be like "I'll have to look that up later and get back to you." Why? BECAUSE THEY'RE HUMAN AND THATS HOW BRAINS ARE.
This type of teaching only favours students that already had experience with the subject beforehand and freaks with amazing memories. This kind of understanding of the material only comes from experience and repetition, something that the traditional 12 weeks of rushed lectures/labs that discard each topic quickly to fit all of them in don't do.
I fucking hate how much I am going into debt to be taught only the vaguest concepts but doing most of the teaching myself in my own time. Education under capitalism is a joke.
*An oral exam is an exam where instead of answering questions in a quiet room on paper, you have to answer questions on a live video call with your instructor.
Damn, harsh. I very much look up to those Soviet scientists.
I guess they got to try the class as many times as they wanted, and it was probably far cheaper too which is at least an upside. I think half of my anxiety about University comes from the fact that I'm financially struggling while going in to debt haha
how much is it in Australia? over here you get paid by the government for being a uni student (20 dollars a month to some shawerma)
It's like 20k a year in debt
You get an allowance but it's like, below poverty line stuff.
Yeah I can imagine how a poorly taught class/university would not sufficiently prepare their students for this kind of exam.