I started my sophomore year of college on Monday. While my regular Monday schedule includes all four of my classes, my presence was required for only my last class of the day. (It ended after 4 PM, which meant I had to come in. This year’s academic schedule is really weird. We’re going to have a lot of days off but also a lot of conversion days to make up for it. Monday was the first day of classes only for those who had “late” classes. Tuesday was the first day for everyone. It was quite confusing.) That happened to be Core 4, which is a history course: Shaping of the Modern World. The professor listed on my schedule (whom I’d researched before adding this course to my program) was not the professor with whom I met… but just as good. I think this will be a boring class — but, then again, I really don’t like history. Twentieth century history and beyond is actually interesting. Anything before that… meh. Not so much.
Wednesday was my second day. This time, I met with three classes: CIS 4.1 (Assembly Language Programming), Math 4.3 (Calculus 2), and Core 4 (World History) again. I already don’t like my CIS 4.1 professor. Actually, it might be somewhat misogynistic: I don’t think women make good programming professors. Or it can be that she’s already proven herself to be somewhat of a bitch and is rather verbose. (Funny. I can say the same of myself.) I mean, my syllabus is something like 20 pages in length. She included instructions on installing the software that comes with the textbook (if you need help inserting a CD into your system and following the on-screen directions, you really shouldn’t be a CS major!) and letting the students know how to retrieve files from a floppy disk. Amazing.
My Calculus professor was over 15 minutes late. He’s a tall fella who’s got a weird sense of humor. There are two huge TVs hanging in the room that he uses in order to project his computer screen… where he uses Maple to do complex functions. I think he expects us to get a copy of the software. This would be all nice and dandy if it weren’t for the fact that most students are not computer-savvy. (And most certainly don’t have the $100 that it would cost to obtain a student version of the program. If you are familiar with computers and the Internet, you know how to get a version for free…) What are they supposed to do? Also. He gets horrible reviews on Rate My Professors. This scares me a bit. I’m afraid he’ll make me hate calculus.
Thursday morning brought CIS 11 (Discrete Mathematics). It’s a math course! The day’s lesson? A Set is a collection of objects. An object ‘a’ that belongs to a set S is a member or element of S. We also discussed the different number sets: natural numbers, integers, rational numbers, real numbers… I felt like driving my pen through my hand. Gah! I learned this stuff in 7th grade. The kid sitting next to me seemed to be quite bored, too. I noticed that he’s also in my calc class. I think he was in my calculus class last semester, too! I should probably make his acquaintance. If not to help each other with schoolwork, then definitely to make fun of this one student in the CIS 11 class. (We both seemed to chuckle at him and his verbal leaks of stupidity. We’re mean.) He’d come in late and announced to the professor, “Would you believe train trouble?” Once he sat down and listened to the teacher mention coming in through the back door the next time he’s late, he responded with, “There won’t be a next time.” He repeated this a few times. The professor shushed him. He’d also laugh at the professor’s corny jokes… and made a lame joke of his own: “One syllabus is a member of a class set of syllabi. May I have one?”
I would actually find this joke quite humorous if it were a different person reciting it. This guy’s just really annoying. He’s the type who will sit next to a person and begin talking… without stopping. Ever.
I’m still not sure what to make of this semester. I guess we shall see.
