onebloodonelife
Blue Crack Addict
- Joined
- May 20, 2005
- Messages
- 15,106
Yeah, it was cool...it did get fixed though.
achtung_girl said:^right, RWTH !
Ok, so I guess I chose the wrong subject. At the beginning of the semester the prof said, ok I know this class is gonna be very voluminous and I know that 70% fails this class, so we decided that you can write term papers every 3 weeks, and it'll step up your grades!And I thought, ok better than nothing! But they didn't pose a term paper till now, cause it's too much work...etc.
-Great!
Vincent Vega said:
Hm, if they said so they should do so.
Generally, I won't blame Professors for keeping it with exams as they are normally very committed and got a lot of stuff to do. Professors are required to teach 50% of their time, and do research the other 50%, and from the Professor I work for I know that this often involves working late into the night.
And at least here in Berlin Professors often work for more than one institution, and have to attend conferences as well.
So, they generally don't have the time to evaluate several term papers and, if a term paper or "combined examination" isn't required normally stick with the rather easy to evaluate exams.
Vincent Vega said:Well, and other Professors, being Beamte and making 60,000€ from that alone simply don't care to do anything more that what is required, but I think, like always, those are the few black sheep that make the others look worse, when in fact many of them really are very committed
Liesje said:
Do you have TAs (teaching assistants) in Germany? I went to a very small school (liberal arts style, most classes we seminars with 30 students max) and I was a TA for one professor.
achtung_girl said:
30 students at max! sounds like heaven on earth!
Vincent Vega said:
I really like the way you are studying, onebloodonelife, and am really looking forward experiencing this kind of studying later this year.
Looks like I should go buy myself some bags of popcorn to be prepared.
Liesje said:
It has its pros and cons. For one, attendance is mandatory. In big lecture classes, you don't actually have to go to class. If you skip seminars, your grade will suffer no matter how well you do on exams and papers. That also means you can't really study at your own pace. If you're busy, you can't put off learning the material until before the exams because you are also graded on your participation during every class period. It's possible to do poorly or even fail a seminar class even with straight As on the exams. You can't zone out or be a fly on the wall. The nice part is that you get to know the other students and the professor. Sometimes I find lecture classes a waste of time and a total bore. We did that stuff for 4 years in high school; IMO at the college level people should be taking their education seriously enough to actively participate. I don't want to pay big bucks just to sit with 200 other students and listen to someone younger than me read from the textbook for two hours. Many of my courses were large lectures, but that was mostly freshman stuff. Once you choose your program, it's mostly seminars. Lots of discussion, group work, large projects, internships, etc. Learning the textbook is done on your own time and generally tested with 3 large exams each semester. The rest of the grade you earn doing in-class participation, formal presentations, peer reviews, etc. Now the REALLY huge classes had objective exams that were graded by computer software or Scantron equipment, so no TA or Prof was needed for grading. For example when I took Accounting, all of the accounting sections took the exam at the same time, but since it was math problems and charts it wasn't difficult to grade a bazillion exams.
Liesje said:
It has its pros and cons. For one, attendance is mandatory. In big lecture classes, you don't actually have to go to class. If you skip seminars, your grade will suffer no matter how well you do on exams and papers. That also means you can't really study at your own pace. If you're busy, you can't put off learning the material until before the exams because you are also graded on your participation during every class period. It's possible to do poorly or even fail a seminar class even with straight As on the exams. You can't zone out or be a fly on the wall.
achtung_girl said:
yeah I think that's what I was talking about! He said that we should buy his books and we could better study at home!Once I was at his lecture he was mostly reading out his book And the thing I'm mainly worrying about is, that all from earlier yrs got the chance to do those working sheets...!
btw, what are you doing 'later this year' ?
Vincent Vega said:I really prefer the rather small seminars, where you get into better contact with the professor/teacher and can discuss the topics, like we did in political economy this semester. It's encouraging you to participate and time flies by very quickly. I also loved my corporate law courses because the teacher, himself a corporate lawyer, had a really great way of explaining law, and even better when he discussed actual cases. He speaks his mind and isn't shy to show that sometimes he is just puzzled by the stupidity that goes on.
sulawesigirl4 said:Koln....mmm, happy memories of horribly fattening potato pancakes and applesauce.
Vincent Vega said:
I will go to the University of Montana for one semester, and either try to do an internship right after that or extending it for one more semester.
What's the actual difference between study abroad and exchange program? Basically, I'm just spending one (or maybe even two) semesters at the other University visiting the courses offered there. I guess it's rather an exchange program, since a student from Montana is offered to go here for one semester.
It's really cool as the University in Montana is offering such courses as economic development, environmental economics, world trade theory etc. And there is a ski area just thirty minutes by car.
Irvine511 said:
yes. and discotheques. what i remember about Koln was drinking and clubbing. and the most beautiful people in Germany all seem to live there.
onebloodonelife said:
Awesome! I suppose an exchange program is more common when students are in high school here, then the foreign student comes to live with the family and vice versa. They're basically the same though.
You're an economics major, I'm guessing?
What's the actual difference between study abroad and exchange program?
Vincent Vega said:
Oh, those exchange programs usually are done when they are still normal students in school. As we don't have a high school system, especially students that go to the "Gymnasium" do those exchange programs and to get together with students about their age they will do so with high school students.
I'm going to live in a dorm which will be an interesting experience.
You are right, I'm currently studying Economics and will graduate a Bachelor of Arts in 2010.
I've not yet been to Koln.