The Hardest Class You Ever Had

['Hamas' Jenkins]

I just finished up my coursework for the semester. While Organic I was a comparative breeze, Organic II was a bitch. Honestly, the tests were more of a monster than the actual course load.

Here were the grade breakdowns (all tests were MC):

80-100-A
62-79-B
46-61: C
40-46: D

While the baseline material itself wasn't exceptionally difficult, there were so many exceptions to the rules, and exceptions to exceptions, that the tests ended up as absolute minefields.

With that said, I've heard even worse things about Biochem, and I'm sure that those of you with or pursuing advanced Math/Science degrees have had nightmare courses as well.

What class was it that kicked your ass the hardest?

[Frosty]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

Have you ever heard of Math 55? I guess that, while Harvard's math program isn't considered as rigorous as a few other places, that course is supposed to be an absolute slaughterhouse.

Here is a link to a problem set:

http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/ic....files/ps9.pdf

It's been more than 20 years since I've used anything more than basic algebra. This looks like Greek now.

The thing I liked about Calc was how it integrated so nicely into the real world. Differentials are basically rates of change and integrals were roughly the average (area under the curve) of a function.

[Third Eye]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

Have you ever heard of Math 55? I guess that, while Harvard's math program isn't considered as rigorous as a few other places, that course is supposed to be an absolute slaughterhouse.

Here is a link to a problem set:

http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/ic....files/ps9.pdf

While those problems sound hard, they are really not.

[seamonster]

I was surprised at the sheer amount of s' I had to go through in Statistics. Calc and Calc II were challenging but the boat load of material my Stats class went through was out of control. I remember taking the mid term, driving to the grocery store, and walking around like a zombie in search of 12% blackout stout.

[cosmo20002]

Linguistics. Graduate-level class that I didn't need at all but took as an elective because I though it would be interesting. Undergrads in the class were graded on a curve so my D-range grade ended up an A.

Honorable mention:
An Econ class taught by a teaching assistant with an Asian accent so thick I couldn't understand a goddam word. I and many others had to drop the class. That was some bullshit.

[Frosty]

I was originally going to into Power Engineering but the power systems guy at OS was this old crusty guy that totally stuck in the past. Almost all of the homework was to be solved by writing programs in Fortran. Even then, nobody taught Fortran and we were all clueless. I ended up switching to control systems and am now glad that I did.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by cosmo20002

Linguistics. Graduate-level class that I didn't need at all but took as an elective because I though it would be interesting. Undergrads were in the class were graded on a curve so my D-range grade ended up an A..

I ****ing hated Linguistics. Hated it.

[Mike in SW-MO]

Circuits.
Studied my ASS off. Got a 28% on the first test & had highest score in the class. Rest of the semester was similar.
Passed.
Moved on.

[Sweet Daddy Hate]

"Reading Hootie 101"

Just...

****ing...

brutal.

[lewdog]

Mine was Anatomy and Physiology with weekly cadaver labs for an entire year. I absolutely loved the cadaver labs. We had access to both a female and male body and it was a very cool experience learning the body this way.

It was considered one of the hardest undergraduate classes though. It's not the material or the cadaver part, but she wrote the most horrible multiple choices test I have ever seen. Is it A, B, C, D, A/B, ABC, All the above? Shit like that on every question. Questions on the smallest details. Average scores on her lecture tests were near 50% for the only anatomy class for Athletic Training, Physical Therapy and Pre-Med students. I smoked everything on the cadaver labs to boost my score to a B each semester (80% exact) even though my lecture test scores were in the 60%. Close to 25% of the students ended up having to retake the whole course which was a whole year again! Many of them switched majors because of it. My lowest grade I ever received in undergrad or graduate school was a B in each semester of this class.

[Sweet Daddy Hate]

Hamas, I thought you were a teacher or something?

If I recall correctly, when I came here in 2008, you were in school at that time.

Professional student? Masters degree?

WTF, man?

[ghak99]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

Here was a question from my recent final. I got the answer right, but it just pissed me off:

Which one of the following compounds adds twice to this molecule:



A. MeMgBr (a Grignard)
B. Me2CuLi (an organocuprate)
C. DIBAL (a source of hydride)
D. LDA (A nitrogen atom with two lone pairs and two isopropyl groups)
E. All of them will.

I added the info in (). We were told throughout the course that irreversible nucleophiles add twice to carboxylic acid derivatives. Also, LDA isn't technically irreversible, but essentially functions as an irreversible nucleophile.

I have a feeling I sat in the back of this class several years ago completely ****ing lost for a whole three lectures.

1st lecture... Man, he's a little hard to understand and I'm not following.
2nd lecture.. I didn't understand a damn thing that man said. Hmm, she's cute.
3rd lecture.. The cute girl is gone. What the **** am I still doing here.

It was the only course I blew out of knowing I was completely in over my head with at Mizzou.

[Frosty]

Originally Posted by Mike in SW-MO

Circuits.
Studied my ASS off. Got a 28% on the first test & had highest score in the class. Rest of the semester was similar.
Passed.
Moved on.

A huge pet peeve of mine in college were professors who couldn't write a test. I had so many classes where the test looked nothing like what we had done in class and the highest score would be like 30%. Basically, the test told you absolutely nothing about whether you learned anything or not.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by Sweet Daddy Williams

Hamas, I thought you were a teacher or something?

If I recall correctly, when I came here in 2008, you were in school at that time.

Professional student? Masters degree?

WTF, man?

BA from '00-'04
MA from '05-'07
Taught from there.
Pharm D. beginning in '15.

[AustinChief]

Oh honorable mention here was an easy class called "Engineering Computing" (or some such). The professor was ancient and decided that since he had to learn on PUNCH CARDS he would make us at least do one project that way. It was bad enough that we had to learn Fortran 77 (so named because 1977 was the last major update).. but PUNCH CARDS??!??

Not a hard class but hard to care anything about something so completely useless, yet required for all engineering students.

[Willie Lanier]

I'd have to say "religious history"

That class was insanely interesting, but throwing all of those theologies into 1 semester was unfair, both to the students and the religions