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JL235
Created : 28 April 2010
 
System : Windows

Just went to see a lectuer...
Just spoke to one of my lecterers about an assignment I lost marks on because it was "too complicated". That was all the feedback he gave, nothing more. I found all of the optimal solutions and altered the algorithm to lower the memory usage by over 80%. I felt it was unfair that I was marked down for improving the algorithm, for making it more complicated. So I went in order to ask for an explination.

He said the assignment was "trivially simple" because our education system has been dumbed down significantly, that he has been writing assembly since childhood, that programming was deemed "too simple" for him when he went uni and that the assignment is nothing compared to the work he had to write for his assignments. At one point he was even going to show us his work; most of his explination was about how much harder uni was for him.

When I pointed out the improvements I made he said my work was at the level of a child. I asked what he meant by it being "too complicated" and he said he actually meant that it showed "no flair" or "impact" on solving the problem. Bearning in mind he also said this was "trivially simple".

I don't have a problem with lecturers marking me down for work, or disagree about any complaints I have. Happened many times before and they always had a good and justified reason to do so. However this is first time a lecterer just talked down about how childlike my course is compared to their experience at uni as their defence.

Finally at one point he started on our placements, so I mentioned I received 91%. He knows nothing about my placement yet said the mark was a joke.

 

Comments
Wednesday, 28 April 2010, 12:05
HoboBen
 		Sounds quite odd, he seems to have got his ego in the way. I believe in the UK you're always allowed to request a remark for officially-graded assignments though (but you /may/ have to pay for it, I'm not quite sure on the procedure).
Wednesday, 28 April 2010, 12:15
JL235
 		I really don't care about the mark, that's not the issue for me. I just found the way he spoke to me completely unacceptable.
Wednesday, 28 April 2010, 12:59
HoboBen
 		yeah :/ I think I'd have probably lost my cool and started arguing at that point. What was your reaction?
Wednesday, 28 April 2010, 13:16
JL235
 		I didn't lose my cool and just continued to be polite. However I am planning to complain about this. He also made some comments about there being too many German students and it being a 'national outrage'.
Thursday, 29 April 2010, 13:07
Mog
 		Seems a common occurrence nowadays - Elitist prick professors who will slag on and on about 'how back in my day, I had to endure hell to do what you modern idiot children take for granted'. A friend and I were discussing his engineering professor, and instead of actually doing work or lectures, He simply goes off about how diluted everything is now, and will basically mark you down for not thinking in his old, outdated way.

I would be livid, in honesty. When people start using the word 'Childish' and 'Trivial' when speaking to me, It really sets off the 'FFFUUU stop condescending to me, ass' alarm
Friday, 30 April 2010, 04:17
JL235
 		It's a computer science degree, of course I don't need good spelling or grammar.

There are other lecturers here who think similar, that the education system has gotten worse over the years. That is not the issue I have and many of those lecturers I think very highly of.

That is separate what happened in regards to the lecturer above. They have no right to talk down to students and then insult them and their work.
Friday, 30 April 2010, 04:54
Jayenkai
View on YouTube

It's that annoying.
Whether or not you know something shouldn't be the point of the teacher to tell you. It should be the point of the teacher to teach you, not to bitch and whine about how "You can't even drive!!!"
Friday, 30 April 2010, 08:02
steve_ancell
 		A friend of mine just failed her driving test on the grounds of being over cautious, I guess the examiner didn't get her oats the night before !

Looks like you got screwed-over real bad DD.
Friday, 30 April 2010, 17:09
Evil Roy Ferguso
 		There's a professor at my school with a tendency to stop grading exams after he notices an error -- as in, he notices an error and assumes the rest of the exam was wrong. He also has a tendency to mark correct answers as "missy" (the true meaning of which is an unexplained mystery) and mark off random numbers of points -- occasionally in excess of the point value of the problem.

He is also on the record as stating that ALGOL 68 is, to date, "the only complete language," and that all other languages have "devolved" from it, or otherwise "gotten things wrong."

"I am very disappointed in you," is kind of like his catchphrase.

Try not to let it get to you too much. CS departments seem rife with this kind of problem. He was definitely way out of line, regardless of whether or not he was correct in any way.
Saturday, 01 May 2010, 20:47
Cower
 		I had a smart and incredibly nice CS instructor who was always encouraging people, but he was the only one I had, so I don't know about how common it is (in relation to what eel said). I think it's pretty obvious that this guy was off his rocker. Hopefully the department follows up on your complaint, since letting that go unpunished would be wrong.
Saturday, 01 May 2010, 23:11
JL235
 		I didn't mention it above, but there was actually a second person there during the incident. They fully agreed they found him very offensive.

I would also add that this guy is a one off. Everyone else in the department is great.
Sunday, 02 May 2010, 08:50
steve_ancell
Agent
I'm with the lecturer. It shocks me that a student with such a manifestly poor standard of spelling and grammar can even gain admittance to a british university in the first place, much less be allowed to graduate.


I know someone from high school who's spelling was comparable to that of a 5 year old, he even wrote the word "fuel" as "fule" even though I was constantly pointing out his spelling mistakes.

On leaving school at 16 he went on to college, then university. He first landed a job at the university where he studied, then went on to do quite a few software development jobs, he even ran his own computer consultancy business at one point.

Quite a while back he got bored with computers and decided to have a go at his own plumbing business. He has now gave that up, and bought a smallholding in Wales (somewhere between the black mountains I think he said), and now farms pig, chickens and geese from there.

The point is, someone who is illiterate or dyslexic can still achieve lots of things, yet someone could spell every word in the dictionary and still be as thick as 2 very short planks !