UoM General Chat

[vox nihili]

I don't know why so many second year+ students here don't seem to like A/Prof Laura Parry... we had her today and she was fine. :S

Personally, I found her condescending, rude and disengaged to be honest. She also has that dreadful habit of making people fill in things to force them to go to her lectures.

[charmanderp]

inb4 Sheila Jeffreys

[Russ]

Personally, I found her condescending, rude and disengaged to be honest. She also has that dreadful habit of making people fill in things to force them to go to her lectures.

Why? I think it's a little rude and inappropriate to make comments like this without providing some sort of context to actually understand why you feel this way. Having an opinion is all well and good, but I would personally be disappointed if a student of mine was to make blanket negative statements about me without justifying them.

As an aside, what's she having you fill in?

[vox nihili]

Why? I think it's a little rude and inappropriate to make comments like this without providing some sort of context to actually understand why you feel this way. Having an opinion is all well and good, but I would personally be disappointed if a student of mine was to make blanket negative statements about me without justifying them.

As an aside, what's she having you fill in?

People made positive statements about her without context, in reality that should be as objectionable.

The first thing she outlined in her lecture was that if we talked, she'd stop talking and then we'd miss out on content that she would examine. She spent about ten minutes talking about how she can't lecture when students talk, and that it would be our fault when we talked. That's fair enough, and I understand that she wants a silent room, but it was condescending in the sense that she thought her rant was necessary and just plain nasty threatening to damage our chances at doing well on the exam from the outset. In particular, she held that threat over us quite a few times. When a minority talked, she lit up with the idea that whilst they were talking she wouldn't lecture and that would damage our exam performance.

Yeah, sorry that was a bit ambiguous (ok more than a bit). All of her lecture slides had fill-in-the-gaps. So without going to or listening to the lectures, you'd miss the stuff in the lecture notes. Not exactly something I object to, it was just annoying because it meant that we were rushing to fill in the gaps (hence half of our talking actually) and weren't able to pay attention. It also meant that if you didn't take the lecture notes with you (I personally never do) and wrote hand written notes, if you went over the lecture slides at a later point, they were incomplete and practically useless.

[Stick]

People made positive statements about her without context, in reality that should be as objectionable.

The first thing she outlined in her lecture was that if we talked, she'd stop talking and then we'd miss out on content that she would examine. She spent about ten minutes talking about how she can't lecture when students talk, and that it would be our fault when we talked. That's fair enough, and I understand that she wants a silent room, but it was condescending in the sense that she thought her rant was necessary and just plain nasty threatening to damage our chances at doing well on the exam from the outset. In particular, she held that threat over us quite a few times. When a minority talked, she lit up with the idea that whilst they were talking she wouldn't lecture and that would damage our exam performance.

Her spiel with us wasn't that long and she explained that she requests silence because she personally finds discussions very distracting and it can cause her to lose her train of thought. I don't think that's an unreasonable request. It was done rather tactfully and she validated that 8am lectures probably aren't ideal. To be honest, her friendly warning was probably necessary because my cohort is extremely talkative and we've already had one lecturer storm out on us mid-session. I can see how someone might find it a tad condescending, but I feel some of the things I have read on this forum are a bit of an exaggeration. Maybe it's just because I've had a tonne if teachers from school walk in and demand that they deserve respect. I'm also aware I've only had her for one hour and that things might change over the course of the week.

Yeah, sorry that was a bit ambiguous (ok more than a bit). All of her lecture slides had fill-in-the-gaps. So without going to or listening to the lectures, you'd miss the stuff in the lecture notes. Not exactly something I object to, it was just annoying because it meant that we were rushing to fill in the gaps (hence half of our talking actually) and weren't able to pay attention. It also meant that if you didn't take the lecture notes with you (I personally never do) and wrote hand written notes, if you went over the lecture slides at a later point, they were incomplete and practically useless.

I think this is just a case of your learning style and study technique clashing with a particular mode of teaching. Personally, I don't mind it because it means I actually have something where I can test my memory skills and understanding of the content we've learned.

It's not my intention to try and disqualify your personal feelings about her haha. I just got a really negative impression from someone who so far hasn't been bad at all (she's actually been relatively funny). I guess this goes to show just how differently we all learn!

[hobbitle]

And for calculus 2 etc

I thought you were complaining but then ended it with:

Seems reasonable enough.

So i'm not sure.  But at least they record at least one stream of Calculus 2.  You don't get any recordings for Engineering Mathematics so you bloody better be at every lecture.  I have had to miss one or two, it's a bitch catching up on your own.

[Belgarion]

Her spiel with us wasn't that long and she explained that she requests silence because she personally finds discussions very distracting and it can cause her to lose her train of thought. I don't think that's an unreasonable request. It was done rather tactfully and she validated that 8am lectures probably aren't ideal. To be honest, her friendly warning was probably necessary because my cohort is extremely talkative and we've already had one lecturer storm out on us mid-session. I can see how someone might find it a tad condescending, but I feel some of the things I have read on this forum are a bit of an exaggeration. Maybe it's just because I've had a tonne if teachers from school walk in and demand that they deserve respect. I'm also aware I've only had her for one hour and that things might change over the course of the week.

I think this is just a case of your learning style and study technique clashing with a particular mode of teaching. Personally, I don't mind it because it means I actually have something where I can test my memory skills and understanding of the content we've learned.

It's not my intention to try and disqualify your personal feelings about her haha. I just got a really negative impression from someone who so far hasn't been bad at all (she's actually been relatively funny). I guess this goes to show just how differently we all learn!

Which lecturer stormed out?

[hobbitle]

The first thing she outlined in her lecture was that if we talked, she'd stop talking and then we'd miss out on content that she would examine.

More lecturers need to put their foot down about talking.  I am so bloody tired of lecturers who just keep going when half the room is talking at normal conversational volume as if it isn't happening.  I don't know how they even keep lecturing to be honest because I certainly can't concentrate.  It drives me nuts that lecturers just say "well if they talk and miss out its their loss" when really it's the loss of all the diligent people too who are trying to listen but can't.

[vox nihili]

Her spiel with us wasn't that long and she explained that she requests silence because she personally finds discussions very distracting and it can cause her to lose her train of thought. I don't think that's an unreasonable request. It was done rather tactfully and she validated that 8am lectures probably aren't ideal. To be honest, her friendly warning was probably necessary because my cohort is extremely talkative and we've already had one lecturer storm out on us mid-session. I can see how someone might find it a tad condescending, but I feel some of the things I have read on this forum are a bit of an exaggeration. Maybe it's just because I've had a tonne if teachers from school walk in and demand that they deserve respect. I'm also aware I've only had her for one hour and that things might change over the course of the week.

I think this is just a case of your learning style and study technique clashing with a particular mode of teaching. Personally, I don't mind it because it means I actually have something where I can test my memory skills and understanding of the content we've learned.

It's not my intention to try and disqualify your personal feelings about her haha. I just got a really negative impression from someone who so far hasn't been bad at all (she's actually been relatively funny). I guess this goes to show just how differently we all learn!

And to be quite honest, Stick, it's fantastic that you like her. In my cohort, there were quite a few people put off by her. Others didn't mind her, but there was a lot of negative feedback coming through about her. I'm glad she's toned down the spiel at the start though haha. I didn't mind so much that she asked us to be quiet, that's a reasonable request, it was the fact that she had outlined a punishment, which was quite a harsh one, and seemed to hang it over us the whole time.

I guess that's true about the filling in. I've never liked it, but again, a lot of the feedback suggested that it wasn't taken very well. With that said, you're right to point out that other people like learning that way.

More lecturers need to put their foot down about talking.  I am so bloody tired of lecturers who just keep going when half the room is talking at normal conversational volume as if it isn't happening.  I don't know how they even keep lecturing to be honest because I certainly can't concentrate.  It drives me nuts that lecturers just say "well if they talk and miss out its their loss" when really it's the loss of all the diligent people too who are trying to listen but can't.

The last point is very, very true (and the problem I had with her threat!). Although, a teacher once pointed out to me that if you're speaking in front of people, and they're not listening, you shouldn't be asking what's wrong with them, rather, you should be asking what's wrong with your presenting. Not saying I agree with that, but it is food for thought.

[Limista]

It's not my intention to try and disqualify your personal feelings about her haha. I just got a really negative impression from someone who so far hasn't been bad at all (she's actually been relatively funny). I guess this goes to show just how differently we all learn!

That 'heart beat' attempt  .

[vox nihili]

I will concede, "llama" is still one of my favourite impressions to do...

[charmanderp]

*twiddles thumbs*

[Stevensmay]

I thought you were complaining but then ended it with:

So i'm not sure.  But at least they record at least one stream of Calculus 2.  You don't get any recordings for Engineering Mathematics so you bloody better be at every lecture.  I have had to miss one or two, it's a bitch catching up on your own.

This semester I don't think any streams are recorded at all :/

[hobbitle]

This semester I don't think any streams are recorded at all :/

Pretty easy to check on the LMS?
They recorded two streams last semester.

[Bardia Saeedi]

Can anyone help me with a question?

My current semester is:
Chemistry 1
Biology
Physics Fundamentals
History

next semester I will be doing:
Chemistry 2
Biology
Calc 1
Data Analysis

These are all level 1 subjects.

If I do 2 level 1 breadth subjects next year, will they be weighted as 1 or 2 in my final GPA calculations?
I hope that made sense.

Pretty much I want to do French, but don't know the difference between French20015 and French10001. THey are both French 3 but one is level 2 and other is level 1.