Shoot the Wall (A.K.A. The Rant Thread)

[Carol the Dabbler]

30 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

TEN pages???? How many people were in this class? When did the instructor plan to read all these pages?

Read???  What read?  All they had to do was count!

(So Herlock might have gotten an A.  )

 

[Pseudonym]

When I was in uni I knew people who would add random things in essays to see if they were actually read... and often they hadn't been. 

Just had a delivery driver who looked like Richard Madden. 😋

[Artemis]

Almost all of my papers had to be at least 10 pages, many were 15, 20, or more.  Is that abnormal?  I had a 75-page paper once, lol.  It was also not uncommon for us have discussion-based classes or to be assigned hour-long presentations that took an entire class period, so perhaps they did some grading while we were essentially teaching the class ourselves.   

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

8 minutes ago, Artemis said:

Almost all of my papers had to be at least 10 pages, many were 15, 20, or more.  Is that abnormal?

We sometimes had to do a term paper.  I don't recall what sort of page count was typically tequired -- I'd say mine were in the 10-20 page range.  But that was only one paper per class per term, and any other papers were shorter.  Many classes didn't have any papers at all -- one advantage of being a math major!

[Pseudonym]

Wish I was good at maths, my eyes glaze over and I panic. Which is sure to make the physics portions of my degree a delight. 

[Artemis]

I wish I were better at math too.   

After I graduated from college I counted all the papers I had to write, not including papers shorter than 5 pages (I was popping out like 3 of those per day).  The total came to 322, approximately 40 per semester.  I actually almost died in college from sleep deprivation, lol.  (All I can do now is laugh at the hellishness.)

 

[Arcadia]

2 hours ago, Pseudonym said:

When I was in uni I knew people who would add random things in essays to see if they were actually read... and often they hadn't been. 

Just had a delivery driver who looked like Richard Madden. 😋

Good thing they didn't have my dad as a teacher, then. Although he was usually happy with 3-5 (handwritten) pages. 

Who da hey is Richard Madden?  

1 hour ago, Artemis said:

Almost all of my papers had to be at least 10 pages, many were 15, 20, or more.  Is that abnormal? 

Well … it certainly wasn't normal in any of the schools I went to, and my Dad would never have required that much. Although he always worked out of the box as much as he could, so it's probably not really fair to use him as a basis for what's "normal".

What you describe sounds more like a graduate degree workload … I still remember trying to plow my way through my brother's opus that he wrote for his doctorate. I also remember helping to assemble several copies of my Dad's … whatever you call it. Dissertation. No, wait, that wasn't his dissertation, it was something else … anyway, it was a veritable book and we (the family) had to assemble each one by hand, then Dad forced them into binders. One of my earliest memories.

But I'm a liberal arts major, I'm fairly sure it's different from discipline to discipline. And from school to school; my brother and I went to a state school, I think Dad went to a private college. For what any of that means. All I know is the longest paper I ever wrote was for a literature class, not because the dozen or so pages I wrote was required, but because I was so into the subject. And also because I included illustrations. But I only have a bachelor's. Painted a lot of paintings to get it though, if that counts!

 

[Pseudonym]

My brother had to write a thesis and that was the size of a book and bound as one. 

I had to do a dissertation, can't remember the exact length but it was pretty big. 

Richard Madden:

 

[Artemis]

7 hours ago, Arcadia said:

What you describe sounds more like a graduate degree workload …

Now that you mention it, they did say on my graduation day that we had been “well-prepared” for graduate school by completing a Bachelor’s degree at a “graduate degree level”.  I wish they had told me I was going to be doing that before I started school there though, and not after I finished it all, lol.  I honestly don’t know what the point was either, really.  It’s not like I can get the credit for all the extra work I did and be like, “Well, see, I have the equivalent of a PhD...”; it’s still just a Bachelor’s degree on paper.  All it did was make me suffer for 4 years.

My 75-page paper was just a midterm assignment, lol.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

After I posted last night I tried to count the long papers I had to write, and could remember only one in undergrad school plus two in grad school.  Those two were for different classes, math and philosophy, and it occurred to that if I wrote one on the philosophy of math, I could hand it in to both profs.  I did clear it with each of them first, and ended up getting a pretty good grade on both.  So anyhow it was really only one long paper in undergrad and one in grad (plus one in high school).

My master's degree did not require a thesis (because of convoluted reasons that still don't make sense to me).

[Artemis]

Honestly I've never heard of anyone having as much work in grad school as I did in undergrad, but I haven't been to grad school yet so I can't compare.  I had planned on grad school, but extenuating circumstances and finances got in the way.  A part of me though was terrified of grad school if it was going to be a repeat of my undergrad.  I don't think I'd be able to get through that again.

 

[Arcadia]

Suddenly I'm feeling woefully undereducated.  

[Artemis]

If you want I could assign you some papers. 

 

[Arcadia]

Ooops, sorry, all my pencils are broken...

[Carol the Dabbler]

4 hours ago, Artemis said:

A part of me though was terrified of grad school if it was going to be a repeat of my undergrad.  I don't think I'd be able to get through that again.

Go to a different school.  I got my bachelor's from a state teacher's college, and my master's from a highly-respected private university, and neither one required anything like the sort of mass written output that you describe.  Of course that may partly depend on one's major.

[Artemis]

36 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

Ooops, sorry, all my pencils are broken...

No problem, you don't need them.    Your keyboard will do just fine.

My hand is cramping just thinking about having to hand-write my papers...  (I mean, I had to do that in high school and for smaller papers, but not a 10-pager.)

 

[Arcadia]

Keyboard's not working either. In fact, you're not really seeing this.

[Van Buren Supernova]

13 hours ago, Pseudonym said:

My brother had to write a thesis and that was the size of a book and bound as one. 

I had to do a dissertation, can't remember the exact length but it was pretty big. 

Richard Madden:

 

Hold on, that is not Rob Stark!

But I never like Rob Stark anyway..

 

For my master degree we normally have minimum of 6 pages answer, do they count? In two hours if I remember correctly, hand writing, and I'm talking about those paper with lines. There are normally 5 questions and each question could take 1-3 pages to answer. My preparation include a dozen of pen, correction tape, and lots and lots of hand exercise. We practically barely have enough time, every time!

[Artemis]

6 minutes ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

For my master degree we normally have minimum of 6 pages answer, do they count? In two hours if I remember correctly, hand writing, and I'm talking about those paper with lines. There are normally 5 questions and each question could take 1-3 pages to answer. My preparation include a dozen of pen, correction tape, and lots and lots of hand exercise. We practically barely have enough time, every time!

Sounds like some of the tests I had.  I always ran out of time, I'm not the greatest with timed tests. 

 

[Pseudonym]

I always handwrite my assignments as a first draft covered in crossings out, notes and scribbles. Then it gets typed as draft two. And gone over a gazillion times before I submit it. 

I never liked Rob Stark either, too goody goody. 

[Pseudonym]

Subtitles are really annoying when you can't turn them off, even if you can understand the audio fine you can't help reading them. 

[Pseudonym]

Taking my car to the garage later to *hopefully* be fixed. Fingers crossed it'll be cheap and easy, and hopefully I won't need to rant.

[Pseudonym]

ARGGHHHH, just flicked through the next chapter of my textbook and it's all maths. *hides under desk*

[Carol the Dabbler]

9 hours ago, Pseudonym said:

ARGGHHHH, just flicked through the next chapter of my textbook and it's all maths. *hides under desk*

What kind of math?

[Pseudonym]

Dunno, saw the numbers and shut the book. I'll tackle it on a calmer day.