Why am I having such a hard time in this class?

[russia...@gmail.com]

I spend hours on understanding and taking notes from lecture/textbook.This class is not like any other philosophy class, I thought I would enjoy it since the topic is science, but it's becoming a huge pain keeping up with so much study for a GE class. I've had 5 unit classes that require the same time as this 3 unit class. Sorry for being whiny but I am just being honest. Is anyone else out there or am I just too stupid for this class?

[G. Randolph Mayes]

I'm sure there are plenty of people who find this course to be more work than they expected. Of course, this doesn't make anyone too stupid for this class. It just means that some may not have the time they need to spend to do as well as they would like. Many students have the expectation that GE courses shouldn't be much work, but that is not a legitimate expectation, especially with upper-division GE in the B area.

[dsit...@gmail.com]

I find myself struggling with the quiz questions. I do all the reading and lectures and attempt the quizzes 5 or 6 times and try going back to the lecture slides. It seems like some of the questions / answers are very ambiguous. 

[russia...@gmail.com]

I agree the questions are really hard and confusing Thirty minutes is not enough to answer 40 questions without giving them much thought when the expectation is we know every single detail from the text book and lectures.

[G. Randolph Mayes]

Feel free to post troublesome questions here. Occasionally they are not well formulated, and that helps me to improve them. But usually the problem is that they are precise and students haven't learned to make the relevant distinctions.  We can help you with that here, too.

The time on tests is appropriate, as reflected by the class average.  It's important to remember that since it is an online test, I can't restrict your access to materials, so a significant time restriction  is necessary as a way of requiring that students know the answers rather than simply look them up. If you have been using the quizzes as study tools, and are only taking the test after doing very well on all the quizzes, then test questions will be very familiar to you. 

The average performance on these tests is about 14/20, which may strike students as low.  However,, if you are doing the journal diligently and well, then every entry effectively adds 3 points to your test score. So someone who gets a 14 and does the journal entry well, can think of that as a 17 or 85%. Even if you get a 12, a D-, you can lift it to a C by writing a strong journal entry. 

So in the end, the course is hard work, but students who work hard and methodically tend to do well.

[nicole...@gmail.com]

I agree with the students above. I wouldn't mind taking the test with a video camera to show I'm not looking answers up. I rush through the test with barely enough time to read the question and all of the possible answers, let alone check our work

[G. Randolph Mayes]

Yes, I agree that would improve the testing experience if we could do something like that eventually. For now I just have to go by the the average grade as well as the average time that the test is taking people to complete (currently about 18 minutes.)

[kristina.c...@gmail.com]

I agree, except I am not doing well at time. No matter how many times I study and retake the quizzes I do terrible. And it is ridiculous to only have 30 minutes for a 40 question test. I am sorry for being harsh but I believe a minute per question would be more appropriate. 

[kristina.c...@gmail.com]

I realize that you restrict time to make sure students do not google answers and what not, but their is a program called responduslockdown browser that prevents that. It completely locks the computer screen on the test so you cannot change over to another webpage. I had it for another class and highly recommend it.

[G. Randolph Mayes]

Yes, thanks, I am familiar with respondus. It is very easy to work around with a phone or hardcopy unless students are taking the test in a proctored environment.

[russia...@gmail.com]

Don't feel bad Kristina I am an A/B student and I currently have 47% in this class. I don't get the book, I dont get lectures. I don't get this class at all. It can be summed up into "its all relative" and no one really knows anything and only experiments can show us the truth. Thats all I understood so far. I've never had so much confusion in any of my classes, and I took chemistry, bio and physics. All were easier than this class (to me anyway). 

[kristina.c...@gmail.com]

Thank you. That makes me feel better. I thought I was the only one! Good luck! Maybe we'll get at least a D if we're lucky!!

[russia...@gmail.com]

I think if we dedicate our life to this class we might be able to get even a C!

[kathy...@gmail.com]

don't feel stupid im at least a B student and i having a very tough time with this class as well.

[mrsdanie...@gmail.com]

Don't feel stupid. I am struggling too. It's a really crummy feeling. I pace myself and study but I feel like this class is a sinking ship and I watch myself drown each week. It's gotten progressively worse. The tests don't give you much time to read the questions before you select the answer. The lecture quiz questions are very dense. I've always prided myself on being a good student. This is my last semester here and I am pretty sure that I will not pass this course. It's depressing. Not matter how hard I try, it's not good enough. Even my journals are lacking.

[russia...@gmail.com]

I am actually starting to understand the textbook and to my surprise I am enjoying it but, lectures are getting more confusing.I did like Ch7 lecture, but after watching Ch8 lecture I wanted to give up on this class. I like the examples he uses but I do not understand some of the concepts as they are presented in a way that is very hard for me to understand. I always have to use google or youtube but sometimes I still don't find good explanations. This class consumes all my "free time". 

I really wish he used more examples as this is the best way for me to understand....

I think it would be much easier if it was a classroom environment and we could ask him on the spot to clarify what is he saying. 

[jdn...@gmail.com]

I agree with what everyone else is saying. Even when I have thoroughly read the chapter and diligently taken notes on the chapter and lecture, I am doing terrible on the quizzes and tests. There have only been 2 chapters that I have felt confused on, which is even worse because I felt confident on the other chapters and still did very poorly.

Also, I have to agree that the limited test time has me skimming questions rather than reading and thinking about them; this is especially difficult because some of the questions are easily misunderstood if you do not read them carefully. I'm hoping that continued diligence will pay off for all of us!

[kathy...@gmail.com]

is anybody interested in a sort of study group please email: kenda...@yahoo.com thank you