We all have that professor we love (or love to hate) who does that one thing that drives you crazy. We make it through the semester by bonding with our classmates over the ridiculous habits of the teacher, and finally at the end of the term, we get to write professor evaluations. We vent it out on our evaluations and on ratemyprofessor.com, and then hope to never have to take that teacher again. What are the things that drive students crazy?
1. The one who doesn't allow laptops or tablets
OK, we get it, it's disrespectful and distracting for people to be watching soccer or Netflix in class, and if someone is doing that, feel free to kick them out of class or take their device. However, it's incredibly hard to keep everything organized, especially when you're a crazy person like me and take 15 hours in two days, and you end up making choices about which textbook or binder you REALLY need for class today. While half of your professors allow laptops, the other half will smite you if you so much as dare to use something other than paper and pen. Coincidentally those are also the teachers who talk too fast to reasonably write down everything by hand, and they never use PowerPoints. Go figure.
2. The one who thinks their class is the most important
Professors became professors because they love what they teach (if they don't, why'd they get a Ph.D.?), and that's great! What isn't great is when they decide that their class is the most important class you will ever take, and therefore you should place 100 percent of your efforts this semester on their class. This usually also means that they give an unreasonable amount of homework, refuse to work with you when you have a scheduling conflict (such as a mandatory event for another course that conflicts with their lecture time) and tell you to quit anything (including your job) that prevents you from having complete concentration and time to devote to their course. They're the unrealistic professors who never held a job in college, I assume.
3. The one who refuses to post any class material online
All right, you want to make sure people come to class, so you make it so they can't access anything on the class website. If you want people to come to class, either be more interesting so people will want to show up (the number one thing that makes me want to skip class is if you drone off verbatim whatever is on the PowerPoint slide), or just take attendance for a grade. I generally try to go to every class, but if any class information is available, I save it for future studying and homework.
4. The one with weird attendance policies
That being said, it's college and I think attendance policies are bogus. Either people will show up or they won't, but I think we all know by now that when you go to class you are more likely to excel in the class, and most of us probably know that from experience. We are considered old enough to live on our own, join the military, and decide the next president, so I think we can handle going to class and facing the consequences if we don't. Oh, and don't bother canceling class when there are multiple weather advisories and the school is snowed in, it's fine.
5. The one who assigns group projects
We all hate group projects. Surely our professors also remember how absolutely unbearably terrible group projects are. They are total mood killers. Why are they still a thing? What do we learn from doing all the work for a group of lazy people with no standards and then receiving a grade other than hoping you don't end up in a work place with similar assignments? Why? If you decide that you want to be Satan and make group projects part of your torture plan, please, PLEASE, do not assign the groups. We are begging you.
6. The one who's disorganized
I've had completely amazing teachers who were super interesting and extremely knowledgeable, but they NEEDED a personal assistant. The class website is an Easter egg hunt for vital information, their handwriting is illegible, they can't find any of their papers in class, and no one knows what is due when. Walking into class is like walking into a burning room. This would-be dream class has turned into the hot mess express, and your professor is the conductor.
7. The one who claims the textbook is vital to the class material
Sometimes your professors will be straight-up with you and say that you don't need the book in order to get a good grade, but there's always that one teacher who emphasizes that the book is the biggest factor in a good grade. Somehow, most of the time, that teacher is lying to you and you'll never open that book. It's also guaranteed that those professors are the ones who make sure you have to have the newest edition of that book, and therefore have to pay full price. On the flip side of that, there are the teachers who don't require the book and then make all their tests based completely on it. Both are equally terrible.
