Laugh when you can,
Apologize when you should,
And let go of what you can't change.

March 07, 2007

Rantings of a Statistician

I don't think I can make it through this semester. The professor is unbelievably bad and it gets worse every week. Tonight he did about 4 examples, every one of them wrong. At one point he did an entire board full of math and equations and I raised my hand to say "can't you just multiply 8/13 * 7/12?" Yeah, we wasted a whole board of math on something with that simple of an answer. That happened several times. He tries to make everything ten times harder than it is, confuses everyone, and comes out with the wrong answer.

On top of that, he graded our homework wrong. For one of the problems, the majority of the class had the same answer and it also matches the answer in the back of the book and yet he told us it was wrong. It's not. But I'm happy to have proof of his incompetence to show the department. I am writing a letter to the department; it's that bad. I've had bad professors before- but being a bad professor is different than being incompetent. This guy has no idea what he's doing and can't do any of the problems he assigns.

How does someone like this get through a PHD program? There should be no institution that would allow someone with this little knowledge to graduate and teach others. And it's not like he's just starting out- he's about 60. So this is someone that has been corrupting young minds for a very long time. I looked it up and he graduated from UNC- I'm surprised. Aren't they supposed to be good? I guess even good schools can accept and graduate unqualified people. I think schools should be more careful about who they accept into their programs. One person like this could keep me from attending a school that I previously respected; I would imagine I'm not the only person that feels this way.

What scares me now is we have to take a midterm written by this guy. I have a bad feeling about that.

Anyone want a brain teaser? Here's one of the many questions my professor can't do:
If 8 castles (rooks) are randomly placed on a chessboard, compute the probability that none of the rooks can capture any of the others. That is, compute the probability that no row or column contains more than one rook. (FYI- a chess board has 64 spaces, 8 x 8)
Anyone? Anyone?

5 comments:

Marc & Melanie said...

I'm not going to do your homework Emily, I have enough of my own :)

Maybe this guy USED to be good, but now he's getting Alzheimer's or something...who knows...

Just hang in there, it'll be over before you know it!

Unknown said...

I agree with melanie....this guy probably was good at one time. Aging has a way of doing this to one's mind; and NO that is not based on personal experience!
As far as the homework, I can't give you the answer either.
Mom

Emily said...

Haha, i know the answer (unlike my professor). Just thought some of my fellow enginerds might enjoy it.........

Emily said...

And another thing: Even when Barany was teaching us at age 200 (I estimate that to be about the right age of a dinosaur), he was still competent. If you lose your mind, you should get booted!

How does that joke go again: Ahh yes......... What do you call a row of rabbits that all take a step back?

Wait for it..............
Wait for it..............

A receding hairline! One of my favorites from Barany. :)

Emily said...

Sorry, that's "hare-line". My bad.