I do not like take home finals.

[shortylickens]

Teachers have a nasty habit of asking questions that dont make sense.

I didnt even know there was such a thing as diseconomies of scale. We never covered that. Never even mentioned it. My problem is: If he never taught it, do you think he would have it as an answer on a test?
It doesnt make sense in terms of the question, but since its a new concept to me it could be applicable and maybe I just dont know it.

 

[Numenorean]

If you are given an open book test, you will forget your book.

If you are given a take home test, you will forget where you live.

 

[shortylickens]

If you are given an open book test, you will forget your book.

If you are given a take home test, you will forget where you live.

Nope.
Found the house.
Found my book.

Read it. Very little info on economies of scale and NO info on diseconomies of scale. At the beginning he said he didnt like our text book but he was forced to use it.
I guess I'll have to learn it from Youtube and see if I can answer the question.
Thats how I learned Macro last semester.

 

[Numenorean]

Economies/Diseconomies of scale are pretty simple concepts. How you could be at a final for an econ class and still need a book to figure that out is beyond me.

 

[shortylickens]

Economies/Diseconomies of scale are pretty simple concepts. How you could be at a final for an econ class and still need a book to figure that out is beyond me.

The teacher this semester spend most of the time sharing personal stories and his political opinions. We spent very little time learning, and one of the above concepts was covered poorly in my crummy text book but I got the idea. The other was not touched at all.
This would be fine except he took two emergency days so we had to speed up learning in the final week and I dont think I got much edumacation for my dollar.

On the other hand he did put in some easy questions to make up for it.

24. The De Beers company is described as a monopolist in the production of:
A) diamonds.
B) software.
C) oil.
D) beer.

 

[Numenorean]

Beer. Obviously.

But on a serious note, I'd say go see the department head.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

I had a take home midterm for my strengths class last quarter. It took like 16 hours to do and I still didn't get 100%.

The in-class final was actually better for me.

 

[SandEagle]

damn , you in college? thought you were a dropout or a GED at the least

 

[shortylickens]

Beer. Obviously.

But on a serious note, I'd say go see the department head.

The Department head is:

A- Donald Duck
B- Fuzzy Baby Bunnies cousin
C- My professor

 

[Numenorean]

The Department head is:

A- Donald Duck
B- Fuzzy Baby Bunnies cousin
C- My professor

In that case, go to the head of the college or whoever it is that is above him.

 

[shortylickens]

In that case, go to the head of the college or whoever it is that is above him.

I think I will.
BUT,
the story I keep hearing from both students and disgruntled faculty is that the dean has no real power because its a crummy little community college and he has to answer to politicians and angry parents of spoiled children.

 

[Numenorean]

I think I will.
BUT,
the story I keep hearing from both students and disgruntled faculty is that the dean has no real power because its a crummy little community college and he has to answer to politicians and angry parents of spoiled children.

Oh...well pick a better college next time.

 

[shortylickens]

Oh...well pick a better college next time.

I didnt really "pick" it. Got stuck with it. Too old to get any real money from a scholarship. Cant get a student loan cuz my job prospects are shit (am too old). GI Bill doesnt pay much. It has to be a community college. And because of gasoline prices it has to be a relatively close one.

I shouldnt complain. I already knew the college was garbage to begin with but I couldnt do any better. I am just ranting cuz every once in a while that fact gets rubbed in my nose and I am cranky about it.

 

[Numenorean]

So you're wasting money on a garbage college instead of working? Nice.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

What do you plan to do? Its too bad your college seems so bad. I liked the two Community Colleges that I used to go to. Didn't really notice a huge difference in the quality of professors compared to my university (except for some general ed classes, but who cares about those?). Some of my favorite and best professors were from CC.

 

[sactoking]

The book explains economies of scale?
You kinda understand the book's explanation?
Diseconomies of scale are the opposite.
Sactoking wins Teacher of the Year Award.

 

[shortylickens]

So you're wasting money on a garbage college instead of working? Nice.

Cant get a job.
Already explained that a hundred times. (Not here, other threads.)

 

[shortylickens]

The book explains economies of scale?
You kinda understand the book's explanation?
Diseconomies of scale are the opposite.
Sactoking wins Teacher of the Year Award.

I wouldnt know that unless I actually learned diseconomies of scale.
I know better than to assume something with a "dis" at the beginning is automatically opposite, cuz that isnt always the case. Especially with scholastic shit which is normally needlessly confusing.

Also its a good thing the teacher explained economies of scale cuz the book did a shit job.
I am angry it was required for the course. It spends about half its space trying to say that government intervention is almost always a good thing.

 

[TheNinja]

I always hated open book and take home tests. They always made them way harder and it basically became a test in how good you were at remembering pages or how good you were at looking things up. They didn't really test your knowledge of the subject matter imo.

 

[Numenorean]

Cant get a job.
Already explained that a hundred times. (Not here, other threads.)

Why can't you get a job? What makes you think that a degree from a shitty college will make a difference? If it's such an obviously garbage college, it wouldn't mean much to people looking at your education would it?

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Takehome final is ridiculous.

We learned all about semiconductor processing. We had zero calculation questions to do the whole semester, and then she drops a bombshell on us about diffusion vs reaction rate limited. Thank goodness I've taken my share of chem e classes, and I had the exact same textbook in an undergrad class.

To me it's basic knowledge, but I remember the idiotic people in our class completely crying about it. The ones who claimed to know how to do it were all wrong too.

Then the other questions were way out there. Not even about processing, or anything we learned, but it was more about reading research papers and summarizing how new devices work.

I thought it was the biggest waste of my a semester. A grad class that used the same textbook as my undergrad. Not only did we cover less, we never did a single math problem. The only thing we had were "quizzes" after each chapter which were... well... just to see if you read. Basic BS.

 

[shortylickens]

Why can't you get a job? What makes you think that a degree from a shitty college will make a difference? If it's such an obviously garbage college, it wouldn't mean much to people looking at your education would it?

I dont think that.
But my gi bill expires 10 years after my discharge so I have to use it.

And I already been over the job situation too many times. Talking about it again will just make me angry.

 

[shortylickens]

I always hated open book and take home tests. They always made them way harder and it basically became a test in how good you were at remembering pages or how good you were at looking things up. They didn't really test your knowledge of the subject matter imo.

Thats my general problem with education anyways. Spend very little time actually learning and more time proving what you learned. Except not really. It mostly tests your ability to take multiple choice tests, which is more a game than anything else.
I can spend one weekend watching NOVA, National Geographic, and Biography and get MUCH more knowledge than a whole semester of classes.
But thats life.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

What I hated about take home tests are that everybody cheated on them. You'd have people working on them together in lab while the professor is talking and the professor either doesn't give a shit or is blind. The questions were generally reasonable (although half the class still asked others because they're fucking idiots that never pay attention in lab) which isn't necessarily bad, but when everybody gets A's on the final, it fucks up the curve and ordinarily petty point differences become huge.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Why can't you get a job? What makes you think that a degree from a shitty college will make a difference? If it's such an obviously garbage college, it wouldn't mean much to people looking at your education would it?

makes a huge difference. it depends what industry you are in. you know some of the more cutthroat competitive ones like consulting and accountancy? look at where those firms get fed from. For example if you take the Big 4 accounting and you rank them EY, Deloitte, PWC, KPMG, look at where each recruit from. School matters. At a Fortune 100 company that my friend works at, there's an internal memo showing the Tier 1 schools like Berkeley, Stanford, MIT getting first dibs, but my local CSU where I'm getting my Masters and lower tier UC schools like Irvine and Davis are "Tier 3" in terms of hiring.

Certainly it helps doing well on your interviews because there's no saving you if you have zero social skills and are from MIT, but when all things are equal, school does help.