3 ms·

I don't think that's an excuse these days, especially for algebra. My first semester at university, we had an elderly professor for Linear Algebra and ODEs who

I don't think that's an excuse these days, especially for algebra. My first semester at university, we had an elderly professor for Linear Algebra and ODEs who mumbled largely incomprehensibly and seemed to be losing his memory. I had no idea what was going on, and never went back to class after the first or second. But there are so many amazing, free resources online. Khan Academy didn't exist yet (or at least we hadn't heard of it) but we had Paul's Notes, which has all the standard high school and college math courses. IMO, the online math resources are better than even an excellent teacher in a class of 50 students.

jameshart 2y ago
Absolutely. This is why college admissions are so hard. Colleges want to only let in students who either already know the material, or are motivated enough to teach it themselves. That way the fact that they are providing precious little actual tuition doesn’t matter so long as they continue to provide reasonably good assessment. This is a common complaint with computer science 101 ‘weed out’ classes where the claim is that they are weeding out people who lack the innate capability to program, but in actuality they are weeding out the people who couldn’t program before they got to college.
- firesteelrain 2y ago
  My 101 actually taught programming and I hadn’t done any really beforehand. But I was motivated
  - nearbuy 2y ago
    My 101 (called COMP 202) also taught programming from the very basics. I would say the most students in the class had not done any programming before. Some students struggle with it but I don't think it's the fault of the course or the prof. It's genuinely made to teach students who have never programmed before. Anyone who already knew programming would be bored and unlikely to learn anything they don't already know.

3 ms·

I don't think that's an excuse these days, especially for algebra. My first semester at university, we had an elderly professor for Linear Algebra and ODEs who

by nearbuy 2y ago

jameshart 2y ago
Absolutely. This is why college admissions are so hard. Colleges want to only let in students who either already know the material, or are motivated enough to teach it themselves. That way the fact that they are providing precious little actual tuition doesn’t matter so long as they continue to provide reasonably good assessment. This is a common complaint with computer science 101 ‘weed out’ classes where the claim is that they are weeding out people who lack the innate capability to program, but in actuality they are weeding out the people who couldn’t program before they got to college.
- firesteelrain 2y ago
  My 101 actually taught programming and I hadn’t done any really beforehand. But I was motivated
  - nearbuy 2y ago
    My 101 (called COMP 202) also taught programming from the very basics. I would say the most students in the class had not done any programming before. Some students struggle with it but I don't think it's the fault of the course or the prof. It's genuinely made to teach students who have never programmed before. Anyone who already knew programming would be bored and unlikely to learn anything they don't already know.