^ see, freshman retake benefits people like this

5/1/2006 7:51:21 PM

is it okay for a professor to reduce the number of hours given to take a final exam? for example, can he/she change the time from 8am-11am to 9am-10am? i don't know if that is in the academic policies or not

5/1/2006 8:19:14 PM

^ If your exam should take well under an hour, I don't see why this would be a problem. But if it's going to take 2+ hours, then no they shouldn't be able to do this.

5/1/2006 9:05:29 PM

dead week: i think this needs to be revised. but at the same time, i like having that time to put the finishing touches on semester projects. i mean, if it went perfectly, only term projects and papers would be due, no quizzes, no homework due, definitely no tests. i know alot of my profs have still scheduled "weekly" assignments and quizzes that week. Another thing alot of my profs do if they want to move something to dead week, they'll poll the class (often informally) and unless an overwhelming majority raise their hand, they'll leave it as announced.

first year retake: i think this needs to be "up to 8 hours," and not just during the freshman year. i know i had to retake calc 2 (D+) first semester b/c i came up with calc 1 from a comm. col. and wasn't even ready after that for university level calc 2. and then screwed around and got a D in another class sophomore year, but couldn't retake that b/c i wasn't a freshman.

5/1/2006 10:34:34 PM

I'd like to see more female professors naked, there's not enough of this going around in my opinion.

5/1/2006 10:41:32 PM

Students First.

Research Not First.

5/1/2006 11:18:43 PM

Quote :

"is it okay for a professor to reduce the number of hours given to take a final exam?"

Think of the three hour exam time as a maximum. No exam can go over three hours. Reducing the exam time shouldn't be a problem because one of the things professors may test you on is the ability to complete a set of problems in a given time frame. If the time frame is 1 hour then the professor can't test your ability to complete the test within the set time if they allow you to sit there for three hours.

5/2/2006 9:11:36 AM

JT3bucky -

One thing that has always pissed me off is old exams. Lots of people say it is not cheating. To those people I'd say, if you are not gaining an advantage, why do you go out of your way to obtain these old tests. Obtaining old tests to study for questions that are very similar if not the same as the questions one will be answering can in no way be compared to normal test preparation or an adequate judgement of material retention.

Now I have no problem with a teacher supplying old tests online or even in a class handout, as long as it is available to everyone. Do I think NCSU lecturers should be skilled enough to create new questions every year? Yes. Do I really care if they do? No, unless you get into the matter of how different one section of the same class can be from another, but that is a whole different story. I DO CARE if the inherent advantage then available from the access to these old tests is not available to everyone taking the class. I have respect for the teachers who let their students keep old exams to study from, while constantly refining the question base for the coming semesters. I have learned that you can't expect this from everyone, so there is a simple solution. Make sure to have lecturers do one of two things:

1. Allowing students to keep exams is kosher if the teacher will not use those questions again.

However, I don't know how this can be enforced, and it does nothing for the tests already out there.

So, this is the best idea. In most cases, if a lecturer doesn't like this, they just don't care about teaching or the efficacy of the grades they assign.

2. For all classes up to and including 400 level, make lecturers post the old tests from the past 3 semesters online. If they want to use the same questions again, whatever, everyone has equal access to valuable study aids. If not, they will still never again have to hear, "so what is the test format going to be?"

5/2/2006 1:36:57 PM

Phsssssssss

Using old exams is just finding a loophole in the system to better something for yourself. It's not "cheating", it's intelligent. Trust me, you'll find loopholes in tax laws to take advantage of too, and you won't want the IRS saying you're "cheating".

5/2/2006 1:40:18 PM

^

So if you were given the questions for a test you would take the next day, not by a student but by the teacher, and instead of just asking or knowing the fellow student and asking nicely, you had to sleep with the teacher. Not the same, you'd probably get the A without having to show up, but essentially the same. If a loophole is a means to achieve an end in such a way that was not intended, you are finding a loophole to get a better grade. But I don't think many people would say sleeping around for that 4.0 is the tell-tale sign of an "intelligent" person.

5/2/2006 1:51:58 PM

they let people drop semesters far too easily. Someone yells depression and goes to the right office and gets everything dropped. But then i see others that have good excuses and can't manage to do it. It's just not a fair thing to do.

5/2/2006 2:05:15 PM

^^ any professor who has half a brain knows that the old tests are available to a large portion of the class. Besides, I'm happy to have people studying old tests, at least they are studying something. Honestly, at times I have given the test as a practice test and even told the class that was what I was doing and I still have people do horrible, horrible things on the test. If the course material is sophisticated enough there is no need to play games with the testing, instead the focus is on learning the material. Grades are more determined by hard work rather than intelligence in my system, of course the smarter students have to work less to get it, but everybody has to work. You could be Einstein but if you don't do the homework and spend some time working out problems it will be glaringly obvious that you are glossing over the course even if I give you my test ahead of time.

In short, figuring out old test amounts to learning the material ( for the most part ).

I can't say the same about sleeping with the student.

5/3/2006 11:13:08 AM

Things I want to see changed- This was LadyWolff not Kylekatern. Damn Kylekatern's computer

Freshman repeat changed to a set # of hours total over your time here.

Max hours for multiple majors fixed to take both majors into consideration, not just percentages.

Dead week rules enforced.

Dead week rules changed to include no homeworks, weekly assignments, other BS may be assigned during *or* previously assigned to be due during dead week. Only semester long projects/papers may be allowed.

Semester drop rules changed- Too many illegitimate reasons get passed, and legitimate ones get turned down. Additionally, partial drops should be allowed. Real life example-

Friend took 5 classes, and wound up having several medical problems throughout the semester, had them documented and everything. She managed to keep up with 4/5 classes and make As/Bs, the other one she could not make up the work and failed- however she had to either drop all five classes, or take the F. I dont think that's fair at all considering all the documentation she had going.

[Edited on May 3, 2006 at 11:42 AM. Reason : .]

5/3/2006 11:42:23 AM

One of my biggest gripes:

"Credit Only" courses should be an "either/or" setup, like this:

I take a 100-level PE, and should my final grade *help* my GPA, I get the letter grade. If it is lower than my current GPA, it gives me an "S" or a "U" based on whether I scored above a 70 or not. There is no downside to this. It encourages me to strive for an "A" in a 100-level PE, yet doesn't fark up my GPA at all should I get a 75. Why this isn't the rule I have no idea...

5/3/2006 5:21:28 PM

I think the academic policies should be like this:

1) Whatever helps my grades can stay.
2) Whatever hurts my grades may leave.
3) If I disagree with a teacher, I am right.
4) They are wrong.
5) If I have any excuse, whatsoever, it's acceptable and the teacher has to make compensations for this.
6) I'm not responsible for anything I don't want to be.
7) Everyone gets a hug and a kiss and a little gold star at the end of the semester. And we all go on our merry little way.

5/3/2006 5:26:12 PM

here is the thing with all academic policies ... at a big or even moderate size school ... people will bend the rules, get away with stuff, drop when they probably shouldn't be able to, not be able to drop when they should be able to, get shitty teachers, get great teachers, get screwed, get lucky, etc etc ... no matter what, at a school like NCSU, like Harvard, or like Wake Tech, the number of people out to learn is terribly terribly low compared to the number of people doing whatever they can to play the game and get ahead, whether in gpa or resume builders, or whatever ... minimal effort for maximum percieved results is what counts, because that is what our society rewards, and until that changes, we can ask for any rule changes we want, it's not going to matter because it's all relative

5/3/2006 5:41:19 PM

i like the +/- system but i think an A should be an A. I'm sure a lot more people get screwed over by a A- then put it the exponential effort to get an A+.

As far as retake i say you be allowed to retake one course per academic year. everyone will have the professor that they don't click with or make a mistake. People complain about it watering down your education but on the other hand u have to put in the xtra effort to retake the class and your other classes if you want to graduate on time. or u got to pay for an extra semester.

Get rid of attendance policies. If i can skip class every day and still get an A then what is the problem? I understand the rule was created to encourage younger students in the 100/200 to go to class to help grades. However, it is their own fault if they do not have enough maturity, responsibility, and work ethic to make it to class or learn the material independtly. We are in college not high school

[Edited on May 3, 2006 at 5:51 PM. Reason : /]

5/3/2006 5:42:56 PM

Quote :

"the number of people out to learn is terribly terribly low compared to the number of people doing whatever they can to play the game and get ahead, whether in gpa or resume builders, or whatever ... minimal effort for maximum percieved results is what counts, because that is what our society rewards, and until that changes, we can ask for any rule changes we want, it's not going to matter because it's all relative"

This is incredibly accurate.

Quote :

"I'm sure a lot more people get screwed over by a A- then put it the exponential effort to get an A+."

This has always pissed me off. I've received a whole lot more "A-'s" than "B+'s" and only two A+'s my entire college career. I'd have darn near a 4.0 if we did it like ECU and made anything 90+ an "A". The +/- system truly hinders the typical "good/great" student that can constantly get ~90s yet only really helps the lackluster students who hover around in the 70's anyway.

5/3/2006 6:06:04 PM

Quote :

"Get rid of attendance policies"

^

the only A+ i have receive just so happened to be PY 205, i skipped this class every time except for tests.

5/3/2006 8:55:26 PM

I'd like to see policies asking that you know all your grades minus the final at least 24 hours before the final.

In all three of my classes (graduating senior), I still don't know over 50% of my grade right now.

I had a final today and one in the morning. For both classes, we had major papers due Wednesday of dead week. Both professors have already announced they are not done grading the papers they assigned and they hope to have them finished over the weekend. So they're definately not planning on submitting grades soon after administering a final. If it's going to take them a while to grade them - ask for them before dead week!

5/3/2006 9:31:11 PM

Ehhh...you should know pretty well by now if you're going to pass or fail. You may not know if it'll be a A- or a B+, but I mean if you even remotely kept up with your progress, you should know.

5/3/2006 9:45:21 PM

I know I'll pass, but I think that, in general, academic policies have little to say to those of us who "know we'll pass".

5/3/2006 11:04:15 PM

I want to see a policy that professors have to post the textbooks before tuition is due.

Those last minute announcements so you can't buy books online? Total bullshit.

5/5/2006 3:05:10 AM

^that would be insanely wonderful.

5/5/2006 3:49:58 PM

^^ you could just ask the professor. They probably just haven't gotten around to filling out the requisite paperwork for the bookstore.

5/22/2006 10:38:06 PM

^ Yeah...it's totally cool that they can put their teaching related duties in last place.

Thanks Research One!

5/22/2006 10:44:41 PM

the A+ is fucking stupid. make it a 4.0 scale.

save the a+ for middle school, the last time I saw it.

5/30/2006 4:13:57 PM

A teacher shouldn't be able to pass out a syllabus and change it unless it helps the students. For example I had a prof. that gave us a project to do. The prof. didnt like the projects so he decided at the end of the semester he wouldn't count the project(which was 15%) and make the final 50%

5/30/2006 6:02:37 PM

Quote :

"A teacher shouldn't be able to pass out a syllabus and change it unless it helps the students"

What helps you doesn't necessarily help someone else, and it works the other way.

I hate projects...I'd have rejoiced at a decision like that.

5/30/2006 6:12:49 PM

Quote :

"actually enforce the "get a grade before drop/add date" policy"

Agreed. I hate getting my first test grade back two weeks after I can't change to credit only or drop. Kind of annoying.

5/30/2006 6:48:31 PM

i want a new policy

everything else must be graded
and ready for students to pick up
at least 24 hours before the final exam

5/30/2006 9:50:29 PM

Quote :

"it needs to be easier to switch out of engineering. i realize im not gonna be able to cut it in engineering but am having a hard time switching to business since my gpa took a hit in engineering when i could have gotten into the college of management out of high school easily"

That isnt going to change, if anything, it will get harder to get into the COMl(they will keep upping the GPA requirement). Once all the remodeling etc was done, the COM had to do something to tide the flow of Engineering students. Since the GPA requirement was so low, almost every one that wanted to get in the school could. Now they want to improve the image, it is still a baby business program(got certified when I was at State). They want students that actually wanted to go into Business, and not failed engineering students. I believe(at least when i was there) that it is the fastest growing college They have to make it harder to get in because they simply dont have the staff. I thinking they should go up to a 3.5 transfering(eventually it will be) It is just going to get tougher to get into the COM Alot of people dont look into that and are shocked to find out it isnt easy to transfer into. That is why you need to double major in business when you start out.



[Edited on June 1, 2006 at 4:19 AM. Reason : w]

[Edited on June 1, 2006 at 4:21 AM. Reason : w]

6/1/2006 4:16:45 AM

I paid my Summer II tuition. Now where's my required textbook list?

6/12/2006 12:53:24 PM

i've heard of people not getting financial aid money until after class, and if they dont pay by the first day, they get their schedule dropped

it'd be nice if like those times could correspond so that didnt happen to anyone anymore

6/13/2006 1:19:28 AM

Quote :

"i've heard of people not getting financial aid money until after class, and if they dont pay by the first day, they get their schedule dropped"

then either
1) They misrepresented things to you about what money they were waiting on
2) They didn't do their part.

If OSFA has money for your tuition, you will not be dropped for nonpayment, if your expected aid covers your tuition and fees. There is nothing a student has to do in this case to keep from being dropped.
If a student is expecting an outside scholarship that won't come in until classes start, there's a postcard that OSFA mails out that you fill in and mail back to them to keep from being dropped.

6/13/2006 8:00:06 AM

^it woulda been off the meat rack to have misha in my history class too

6/13/2006 12:30:01 PM