11 Incredibly Annoying Things Professors Do
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11 Incredibly Annoying Things Professors Do

You already have our money. What more do you want?

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11 Incredibly Annoying Things Professors Do
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A class is really as only as good as its teacher. Sometimes you get lucky and have an inspiring, engaging professor, and sometimes you get the professor from hell. It can be a really frustrating issue, especially when the professor has the power over your GPA. What follows aren’t the only irritating things professors do, but these eleven things definitely make the class way more unpleasant than it needs to be.

1. When all they do is read from the PowerPoint.

Please, by all means, use a PowerPoint or visual aid to spice up the lecture. Put the highlights of the lecture on your presentation. But why I am paying an ungodly amount of money to be read a series of slides verbatim?

2. When they have a crazy attendance policy.

Ok, I get that it’s important that we come to class. Most of us were going to come regularly anyway, but why is it necessary to add some ridiculous rule about attendance? I’ve seen some professors allow two absences, and anything after that results in the loss of a letter grade.

Maybe this is supposed to be motivational, but it just adds an unnecessary burden. In a perfect world, we'd all have perfect attendance, but sometimes life gets in the way.

3. When they give tests that are nothing like the lecture/study guide.

Adding in a few questions to a test is a normal move for a teacher, but why would you make the whole test excessively confusing? If you want us to do well on exams, you have to actually teach us what you want us to know.

4. When they get mad when the class does poorly.

Professors who like to have a lot of irrelevant material on their tests are usually the same ones who get mad when the whole class is doing poorly on tests or assignments. No, Leslie, we didn’t all fail the quiz because we’re all dumb and didn’t pay attention; we failed because you failed to educate us.

5. When they wait until last minute to cancel class.

You drag yourself out of bed, get dressed, and rush to class just to get an email five minutes before your class starts that the Professor has decided to cancel. Thanks for letting the rest of us know.

6. When they take forever to grade.

I get that you have a ton of students and four different classes, but the ten question quiz we took during the first week of class would really be up by now, two months later.

7. When they’ve finished the lecture before class time and don’t let out early.

Believe me, Professors, if you get through the whole lecture with time to spare, you are still giving us our money’s worth. Starting next class’s lecture in the 15 remaining minutes of class is not helpful or wanted. When you're done, you're done. No one said you had to use the full hour and a half.

8. When they make the class unnecessarily difficult.

Sure, make the class rigorous, but don’t make it impossible. What is the advantage of never giving anyone an A? There’s no reason to be excessively harsh when grading assignments, especially when there’s nothing wrong with the paper other than your impossibly high standard. You have power over your students' GPA; don't abuse it. Your course can be just as challenging without a draconian grading scale.

9. When they ban technology.

No phones? Fine, I completely understand that. But why ban computers? Some people take notes by hand, but a ton of folks have everything on their computer. Nothing worse than having to transcribe 1.5 hours worth of notes for no reason.

10. When they require you to spend a ton of money.

Pearson online lab is of the devil, and so is the textbook industry. They both cost way too much for subpar products. What's the deal? Do you all make a commission off of $120 textbooks and exorbitant online course codes?

Also, quit using us to bankroll your vanity projects! We're in college. We don't have money for this. But if you've just got to make us buy books you and your friends wrote, they'd better be worth it.

11. When they forget that you have other classes.

Most of us have at least four other classes on our plate with their own sets of homework and tests to worry about. All classes are important in their own way, but it's incredibly unfair to try to monopolize a student’s time with your coursework.

We work hard and try our best, but we’re doing that for other classes as well. Sometimes, Professor, your class has to get put on the back burner that week. This does not mean that a student is a slacker; it means that they’re overwhelmed, so please try to have some sympathy for us.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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