Am I worrying too much ?

[Justaphysicsnerd]

Disclosure : I am from India not from NA or Europe, so how colleges and institutions work here are different but still I would like to know if I am worrying too much.

 

The 2nd semester of the engineering college I am in, is about to begin in a few weeks. Over the course of the first semester, I have learned about the demographics of my class, which kinda worries me a little bit. Even though the students don't explicitly decide which instructor they get for a course, they can you know, kinda write an application to the appropriate authorities (I'm guessing it would be the Dean of Student Affairs or something or some other person ?) to change the instructor if they find their teaching methods very confusing and problematic. And in the first semester, I came to the realization that a very big majority doesn't gib a fuck about whether they get a good instructor or bad (most of them study from Youtube lectures because they don't actually wanna do Electronics Engg (the major I am in and the rest of the class has also apparently taken)). How did I come to this realization ? Well, in the first sem, for two courses : 1) Introductory Programming course in C and another one 2) Basic Electrical Engineering ; we got really bad instructors, so bad that like 80-85% of the students didn't even attend most of the classes. But when asked, if I could please write to the appropriate authorities on behalf of the entire class, to give us a better instructor for the course. None of them supported me in that.

You see, (and I am not bragging or being arrogant here), most of the kids (not including me) in the class don't actually wanna do Electronics Engineering jobs, they wanna do IT and software jobs (due to the ongoing IT boom in my country) , so they study just to get marks, but I study the subjects because I am really passionate about these subjects. And I kid you not, the elected class representative even told me "If we get a bad instructor i.e. one who is bad at teaching than there is no problem, but if we get one who doesn't give us marks than that's a problem". Ever since, I had that conversation, it sorta keeps me up at night. Because, what if in future we get a really bad instructor for a quite important course and the rest of the class won't gib a fuck then either (because there is a huge coaching / tutoring industry in India for even colleges and most of the kids study from lectures of those services).

 

So, say if something like that happens, should I as just one student write to the appropriate authorities to change the instructor ? Because if I don't get a good instructor in the course, whom shall I ask my doubts and queries to ? (Once, again not bragging, just an anecdote) In the first sem, the instructor for the Mathematics course was also not that good, in fact, on quite a few occasions, they failed to answer my queries. Even when I approached them with the same queries after class hours, they just didn't, they ignored those queries. 

 

So Am I worrying too much ?

 

Edit #1 : Also, if most of the kids studying from the lectures of those coaching/ tutoring services then they shouldn't come to college. (Yes this feels kinda like a rant but I needed to get it off my chest) In fact, most of the kids won't come to classes if there wasn't a mandatory attendance policy.

[harryk]

A good teacher, and I mean a properly good teacher is quite rare. You absolutely should not expect every teacher to be good, or even adequate. And you should use outside resources (books, YouTube, tutors...) even if the teacher for a given course is good. Independent learning and knowing how to find resources on your own is a skill more valuable than any physics or engineering topic. Learn how to learn. 

 

However, if you have recourse to submit complaints or request a different teacher, then utilize those options. It might not go anywhere but at least let your voice be heard. You don't have anything to lose.

 

12 hours ago, Justaphysicsnerd said:

In the first sem, the instructor for the Mathematics course was also not that good, in fact, on quite a few occasions, they failed to answer my queries. Even when I approached them with the same queries after class hours, they just didn't, they ignored those queries. 

Unfortunately, failing to respond to communications is an extremely common trait of academia. Many are too lazy, too distracted, too scatter-brained, too overwhelmed to respond to the quibbling questions of a student. Like I wrote above, learn how to answer your own questions, it will take you far in life. But also don't give up on asking your teachers. If they fail to respond, send the question again. Go to their office. Ambush them in the hall. Do whatever you need to to get their attention.

[VirusDumb]

As a 10th grader (gonna give CBSE board exams this Wednesday), this seems really different from what I imagined college to be like, this sounds really similar to schools

[Origami Cactus]

Most teachers didn't invite the stuff that they talk about, they get their information from books, papers, videos etc, but mostly books.

So just go to the library and rent the books that the specific course is based on, and you can skip the teacher part completely if needed.

 

Especially as you said, that the teachers failed to answer your questions. The teachers job is to teach the general consepts found in the books, nothing more. They cut out a lot of the "fat", but seems like you are interested exactly in that "fat", so I would recommend skipping the middleman and getting straight into the fountain of knowledge.

 

You are not worrying too much, but you are relying on specific people [teachers] instead of the actual source of the knowledge [books] too much.

[lewdicrous]

From what I've experienced with my journey through university is that even the best instructors want you to be self-reliant; you're expected to look things up on your own and not just depend on them for everything.

This gets more and more apparent as you move from being a high school student to being an undergraduate student to being a postgraduate student;  the guide rails are yanked away and you're meant to be on your own for the most part.

[Justaphysicsnerd]

3 hours ago, Origami Cactus said:

So just go to the library and rent the books that the specific course is based on, and you can skip the teacher part completely if needed.

 

Yeah, I primarily study from books and OCW courses from MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley + GOI (Government of India) also has a big ass library. But like there is a mandatory attendance policy which leads to a hectic schedule like from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM I have classes every day (except weekends and rn because nowadays I have my end semester examinations).

And something about the books in the library : It is my opinion is that books are not one size fits all viz. you might not prefer the writing style or way of explaining things of a particular author. So you might look for books written in other styles. But the problem is, a lot of Indian authors write books such that their target audience is the competitive exam aspirants (there are a shit tonne of un-necessary competitive exams here) and so its kinda difficult but manageable to find a good book. Besides, everyone in the class is a jerk i.e. they don't share a good book with you but if they see you with a good book, they will quite literally steal it from you (Explanation : A guy saw me reading a book on my tablet before class and when I turned away for a second, he quickly buzzed by and airdropped a copy of it to his own pc)

 

PS : It seems I need to manage this hectic schedule because, I always seem to be out of time to go to the library.

[Justaphysicsnerd]

4 hours ago, VirusDumb said:

As a 10th grader (gonna give CBSE board exams this Wednesday), this seems really different from what I imagined college to be like, this sounds really similar to schools

Not quite there yet, the two years of JEE upset me really bad. But yeah, it'll be pretty much like schools once you get used to it. Like JEE is gonna be so stressful, you'd wish to jump from your balcony (I did try to do that but here I am) but college is less stressful in a way that it is manageable. Like you get weekends off, if you are lucky, professors are pretty chill about assignments and you can submit like even 3-4 days after due date.

[VirusDumb]

1 hour ago, Justaphysicsnerd said:

Like JEE is gonna be so stressful, you'd wish to jump from your balcony (I did try to do that but here I am)

Are you in IIT bro?

 

Well my parents are already talking about sending me to Kota, so idk, I told them I want to learn game development, my mom didn't understand the concept of that but she said she'll support it as long as It's not a waste of time and only if I do things seriously.

[TetraSky]

Huh... This... Actually explains a lot as to why our gov here in Canada doesn't recognise your degrees.

 

I'm currently studying in Industrial Electronics, a bit similar to what you're doing, except mainly for an industrial setting. My teachers are great. But sometimes, I do still have to go on the internet to get information because even if they are good, they might not be explaining in a way I understand or go way too fast. Especially when it came to C programming.

So it's unfortunate you have bad teachers even if you're passionate about it, but I'd encourage you to get that information elsewhere regardless of your teachers being good or bad.

[Justaphysicsnerd]

11 hours ago, TetraSky said:

why our gov here in Canada doesn't recognise your degrees.

wdym ? could you please elaborate ? like say If I ever work up there in Kanawah, I will have to get some sort of verification ? like afaik, for post grad studies in North America, I need to appear for GRE and TOEFL. Does the same not apply for jobs ?

[Justaphysicsnerd]

12 hours ago, VirusDumb said:

Are you in IIT bro?

Nope, but still in a decent government engineering college. The colleges here in India don't matter a lot, because even in IITs professors can be not good or complete a-holes (I know people from IIT Bombay and Delhi). They might give you an initial boost in your career IF your career is in IT or Software dev but besides that if you wanna do actual engineering work, sadly in this country it makes no difference.