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So one of my classes wants me to do a "fun-filled" mutlimedia project about myself and something that is important to me. Being the private misanthropic type, this assignment is going to be hell but its kind of like my midterm so now I have to make up some feelings and pretend I have them... Attachment 41963
What was a homework assignment you really disliked doing?
Anything that involved "this isn't going to be due for [several weeks]" because I inevitably put it off to the night before. Every time.
Yes, even giant projects worth a quarter of my grade in college.
I'm a model student, huh?
Homework was always the worst part about school. I would do the exact same thing as Pike, and would never learn my lesson.
I thought everyone did this?Quote:
Originally Posted by Pike
I was taking a class in Cryptography and the end of the semester was approaching. I'd procrastinated everything as usual. We had a research project and a take-home final due on the same day as the in-class final. It was an absurd amount of work; even if I had budgeted my time out responsibly it still would have been overwhelming.
So I got to work on the take-home final around 4 PM the afternoon before it was due. I slaved all through the night, typing commands aimlessly into PARI/GP hoping I would magically arrive at some sort of feasible answer. I was still drowning myself in black coffee as the sun began to rise. I worked on the take-home final until I had to go to the in-class final at I think 9:00 AM, and I still hadn't finished it.
I finished the in-class final, and dragged my greasy, haggard, sleep-deprived mothersmurfing self BACK to the library to finish the other stuff, both of which were due in the prof's office by 5 PM.
As much of a procrastinator as I am, I had managed to whip up a troutty research essay on quantum cryptography a few days before this madness, so I sat down and edited it up for maybe 2 hours, and then deemed it submittable (was it? not really).
Then I began a mad dash to finish the take home final. Eventually I realized that I had only one question left and half an hour to turn all my trout in. IT was something to do with RSA encryption and calculating the determinant of some smurfoff huge matrix, and I deliberately left it til the end. I stared at it for a while and started to think I should just give up on it. TheN I had some sort of EUREKA mad scientist moment where I had an idea and it somehow worked. I literally ran to the professor's office and turned those bitches in at 4:56, four minutes before the deadline. I felt like Indiana Jones narrowly escaping a temple before a boulder crushes him or some trout.
I'm not the type who's like "ah yea pullin an all nighter is cake for me, do it all the time man what's the big deal". I smurfing hate all-nighters, and this was the first of two I ended up pulling in college. I'd say this or the miserably boring paper I wrote on Complete Metric Spaces for my Topology course were the worst things I had to do in college. It does feel great to finish a behemoth of an assignment like this, but Ican safely say I don't miss these parts of college too much.
I hate group/partner projects.
I had to take a second chemistry course when I transferred schools and I hated it. Earlier in my academic career I had some interest in chemistry but I was a senior and just wanted to graduate and was annoyed because I had already taken chemistry and done very well in it. I ended up having to write a lengthy research paper on some BS for reasons I don't really remember. It was like pulling teeth.
Otherwise I was a pretty good student. There was plenty I didn't like to do but I pushed through. Usually I got a good start on stuff just so I wasn't waiting until the last minute. No all-nighters for me at all during school.
Yes, group projects suck. Completely.
I'm about to start two all-nighters in a row, probably. Hooray!
yes, this.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tifa's Boobs
also, one history class I took where all the course material was spoken by the professor with virtually no external resources. writing essays for that class was a nightmare.
All of it.
I can count on one hand the actual number of completed homework that I did in school. (no I can't, because I don't remember)
Never did homework
o
How to count?Quote:
Originally Posted by Shorty
Any homework assignment that had a speech of group project element to it.
One of my current classes is absolutely horrible in regards to homework.
Yes, that's it. I don't remember how to count.
Wait wait waitQuote:
Originally Posted by Shorty
Is this why Mormons have so many wives?
Group project in my Communications class in my first year on campus. It had to do with business dynamics and the effects of confidence vs. self-doubt. It was basically a group essay about having, well, confidence. Guess who did the work, me and some other nerdy guy, guess who didn't do the work? Hot college babes and a jock moron.
:mad:
Essays ...didn't mind writing them but I hated MLA....
With most essays, I waited till the day of to complete. Yes, even 8-10 page MLA papers. I feel as though my concentration and writing is better at 2 AM for some reason. I couldn't procrastinate everything though because pre-planning was involved for a lot of my college work.
I used to hate writing formal lab reports. I actually think they're pretty easy now though.
Group projects with relatively competent people can be enjoyable. In high school I was with some friendly people and we did an extremely meticulous filming of a scene of The Crucible down to the individual angle. It was quite a bit of fun.
But when you're working on something with people who are apathetic/unpleasant/tyrannical it can become tiresome.
I hate how some assignments have no real connection to the class or how the work doesn't really relate to other aspects of the project.
The most recent example was a my "Non-American Author" paper. I had not done one before, but it turned out to be quite simple. Just.....also quite stupid.
We were supposed to pick an author and book (Not written by an American, Brit, Canadian, Aussie, Kiwi, etc.) and read the book. Then do a report on the book.
Only it wasn't on the book at all. We simply needed to pull certain culture references from the book, and research whether or not they were accurate, then go on to describe those cultural aspects in depth. We didn't need to discuss the character interaction or how their culture might have affected decisions they made, etc. We didn't need to relate how that country's history might have affected the story line. We simply needed to note if they ate certain foods, dressed a certain way, attended certain ceremonies, other things like that, then talk more about that thing. By the end I realized I never really needed to read the book at all, I could have just picked my country (Mexico), my time frame (Mexican Revolution), skimmed the book for different cultural references, and then used them to write a paper about Mexican culture in the 1900's (Well, 1890-1915). There was no analysis of the book. I was told point blank that I should not do that.
While writing it, I never really once saw how this was making my English any stronger. I'd written plenty of research papers in previous English classes or other classes, and this was no different. I was really look forward to analyzing the behavior of the characters and relating that to their country, but instead I basically wrote a history or a social studies paper. :|
Another thing is, it only needed to be a 6-8 page paper, but it was required to have at least 10 cited sources. After paragraph transitions, double spacing, and room for my own thoughts, I had citations every other sentence.
I'm rambling, but I'm old so I'm allowed. The second point was that I hate how it feels less like they want you to write from your head now. I feel all they want is for you to parrot information and cite where you found it.
I hated when homework was basically busy work, much like what sharky said above (actually basically his whole post is my gripe with school).
As far as more of a specific thing, there was this project that I had to do for Economics for a major portion of my grade at the end of my senior year in high school. You basically had to simulate living life fresh out of college. My partner and I picked a profession that would net us a good chunk of change to work with. Our teacher said it was too much and cut our salary in half. Now, I realized even then that sometimes people get underpaid, but our yearly income was barley above minimum wage.
But the worst part is how they actually made students to to insurance companies, car dealerships, etc. and simulate buying these things while providing proof (just have them print out a quote). It got to the point where many businesses (mainly car dealerships) refused to play along with the project anymore because they felt there were losing business to people who, you know, were actually at a place of business to buy a car, get a mortgage, buy insurance, etc.
The whole damn thing was a mess and I barely passed the class because of how poorly thought out that final project was.
Homework in general is just terrible. Kids are meant to be free damnit :mad2:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pike
Thats when you're retired and can't do anything. :cry:
I can't wait until I'm retired I'm just going to set my wheelchair up in front of the computer and play games all dayQuote:
Originally Posted by Flaming IceQuote:
Originally Posted by Pike
Thats when you're retired and can't do anything. :cry:
Most of my teaching classes were focused on how to teach a diverse population, which translates to every class focusing on how to teach Spanish-speaking students. Seriously, this was the primary focus of my teaching credential program classes.
Anyway, for one of these classes we got into groups and had to do a play in Spanish (not just a foreign language, of course, had to be Spanish). I was the only non-Spanish speaker in the group. No matter how much I practiced my lines, I couldn't understand the native speakers, so when the time came I just blurted one of my lines any time their was a pause in the dialogue. It was notably unfun.