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What were your best and worst classes/grades in college?

BrianNole777

HB Heisman
Jan 27, 2023
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I took Sociology 101 my Freshman year and loved it. I thought it was really easy. The professor was basically a Communist as were the teaching assistants. They were as left wing as it gets and basically preached how everything bad people do is because of the way society is set up. It was wild.

This was when George W. Bush was President. The first exam seemed like every question was: "True or False: George W. Bush is an awful President." I answered how I thought would get the best grade.

I got a 100% on the first exam. It was great. In our small group, the teaching assistant called me out in front of the 25 students for getting a perfect score. I ended up getting an A+ in the class. I almost majored in Sociology because I thought I could be like the Albert Einstein of the Sociology Department but I switched to History.

My worst subject, by far, was Math. I always hated Math. Algebra was the worst. I think I got a D- in it. I barely passed. I almost took Geometry. I was like Forrest Gump in Math. I hated it. Equations are dumb and I've barely used Math since.

My second worst grade was science. I liked science and took Astronomy 101. The professor was a ginger (like me) who was basically a child prodigy/mad professor type. He had a PhD in Physics from Cal Tech or University of Michigan by the time he was 21. He worked on black holes.

He was so far above me in science it was insane. I liked learning about planets but after a few months, there was math involved. That really grinded my gears.

I cheated on the math part of the exam and got caught. I was totally sleep deprived and looked at the student's exam next to me and wrote down his answer. I knew the exams were different.

What was I thinking? I have no idea.

The professor emailed me a week later and wrote: "Could you please come into my office tomorrow after class? I have a question about your exam."

I immediately knew I was busted. I told my roommate and he said: "Admit it! Tell him you cheated. Don't deny it. You're already caught. He may take it easy on you."

The next day, I went into the professor's office. It was tiny. The teaching assistant was there. She was very cute for a science nerd. (No pics)

The professor asked me how I liked the class. I told him I liked it alot especially the experiments he did on stage. He then opened my exam and asked me to show him how I got this math answer.

I took a deep breath and told him: "I barely slept the night before the exam. I'm bad at math and was almost hallucinating and I looked at my classmates test and copied his answer. I'm sorry."

The teaching assistant said: "It's really great you admitted it!"

The professor said "OK. Thanks for letting me know, Brian. Here's how it's solved" and showed me how to solve it. I wasn't really paying attention. Math blows.

Then he said: "We won't report this to the university. I think this experience will make you a better man. I'll take 30 points off your exam."

I think I got a 30% on the exam. That's alot better than 0%.

I eventually got a "D" in Astronomy. As John Kerry said: "D = Degree!"

I think I graduated with a 2.8 GPA or 3.0.

CSB.

How about you?
 
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I enjoyed the classes where the TA’s spoke English or broken English. I was frustrated when they did not speak English.

I remember a survey went out during a semester I had a Chinese person teach Geographic Information Systems and spoke maybe two words of English. I told the University the problem and proposed a remedy that I either get an A or I get back my money. Dept head was MIA. Weird, the registrar’s office never got back to me on that one.
 
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My best grades, though not my highest, were a b+ and a- on my American govt papers for the late Gary McDowell. My highest was probably an a in my senior Soviet studies seminar, which I felt I earned as it entailed reading an entire semester of gulag memoirs.

I think my worst was a b in chemistry.
 
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My best grades, though not my highest, were a b+ and a- on my American govt papers for the late Gary McDowell. My highest was probably an a in my senior Soviet studies seminar, which I felt I earned as it entailed reading an entire semester of gulag memoirs.

I think my worst was a b in chemistry.

I was on the 12-year college plan. After getting kicked-out of Iowa I went part-time for eleven years. In that time I got a full-time job, then started my own software business. I finally discovered that my degree requirements were going to expire, so I took the last couple of courses at age 30.

The last course was a "capstone" business policy class that was notorious for being the hardest class in the Business School. I took it as a once-a-week night course. We took the final two weeks before the course was over - with a term paper due after that. I have never prepared for a test like that in my life. I had a business trip the week before, and spend all my hours on the plane, in the airport, and in my hotel studying.

After each test the professor would write on the chalkboard the highest score, the lowest score, and the average score. After handing out the papers he wrote: 15, 62, 98. The class audibly gasped when he wrote the 98. He then said "This is misleading; so I'm going to cross out the 98 and replace it with the second highest score." Which was an 82.

When we took our break he looked me up in the hallway and shook my hand, saying he had never seen a score like that ever on his final.

I carried a crappy GPA all through college. But I nailed my last class.
 
I was on the 12-year college plan. After getting kicked-out of Iowa I went part-time for eleven years. In that time I got a full-time job, then started my own software business. I finally discovered that my degree requirements were going to expire, so I took the last couple of courses at age 30.

The last course was a "capstone" business policy class that was notorious for being the hardest class in the Business School. I took it as a once-a-week night course. We took the final two weeks before the course was over - with a term paper due after that. I have never prepared for a test like that in my life. I had a business trip the week before, and spend all my hours on the plane, in the airport, and in my hotel studying.

After each test the professor would write on the chalkboard the highest score, the lowest score, and the average score. After handing out the papers he wrote: 15, 62, 98. The class audibly gasped when he wrote the 98. He then said "This is misleading; so I'm going to cross out the 98 and replace it with the second highest score." Which was an 82.

When we took our break he looked me up in the hallway and shook my hand, saying he had never seen a score like that ever on his final.

I carried a crappy GPA all through college. But I nailed my last class.
First, good on you for seeing it through. Seriously man.

Second, the blackboard story you just told is the story of my B+ on my first American Gov't grade. That was a 0745am eye opener for a lot of freshman in an entry level course that was a gatekeeper to a popular major.
 
I failed a classical music class at UNI because I showed up for the final on the wrong day. Had to retake it.
my roommate loved to stay up late ...and sleep late. One day after he'd stayed up late to study for an exam, I came home from lunch to find him in bed. So I said, "Beans, how'd your exam go?" He looked at me very vaguely through a fog. I said, "Beans, did you sleep through your exam?" He replied, "did you?" And then suddenly, the waking light of dawn turned on, his eyes lit up, he yelled, "oh shit!", leaped out of bed, threw some pants on and went bolting out of the dorm to beg for an opportunity to take his test..which he ultimately aced because he was a very smart guy.
 
best grades pre law classes

worst math

really enjoyed the social science classes straight A's had the old chief of police for Waterloo as the professor
 
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