Wednesday, November 20, 2002

 

A transcipt of the e-mail I just sent my Circuit Analysis teacher:

When I got your e-mail today, I felt bad about not coming to your office to get my rework checked. I thought maybe there could have been some time I could have made it to you office (despite the fact that I had classes, labs, and group project meetings scheduled surring all of your office hours this last week)... maybe I could have made an appointment or something. I really thought I had screwed up by not coming to your office.

But then, I talked to some of the other people who had their tests returned... most of the ones I talked to said they had been by your office (some of them multiple times, at least one person came to see you three times) to have their work checked. And they seemed to think that you had checked their work fairly well, and they were ready to turn it in. And yet they all had their tests returned, the same as I did.

I guess what I'm asking is this... how much would it really benifit me to have you check my work?

Yes, I was upset that I did something stupid on a problem... but my mistakes my fault, so I was upset with myself. I would be a whole lot more upset if I had time to come to see you, and then had my test returned anyway... not only would I be upset that I had made a stupid mistake, but that you had looked at my work and hadn't caught it.

Seeing as I didn't get out of lab today until 4:30, there was no way I could get the rrework back to you by 5pm today. And, since I'll be in class from 9:30am to 6:30pm tomorrow, with no breaks, I won't be able to get you to check my work this time either. I have no idea where my mistake is... and asking anyone but you (other teachers, classmates, or upperclassmen) for help is cheating... so I don't know if I'll be able to turn this in or not. I really need the points... but what's the point of turning it in when I know I'm going to make a zero?

I am extremely frustrated with this class. My dad is an electronics tech, and I grew up helping him fix things and running checks on circuits, so I was fairly familar with circuits in general before i took this class, although not to the depth that we've covered them. I feel like I'm learning the material... I understand what's going on... I can do the homework... and yet I'm still failing the class.

Granted, I have been / am sick this semester, and I missed turning in a couple of homework assignments. But I didn't skip them... I went back and did the work, even though I couldn't get it done in time to turn it in. I was one question away from having the last test rework turned in... but I couldn't get the right answer for one of the problems. And I wasn't going to turn it in if I was going to get a zero on it anyway.

The homework frustrates me, because I never know if I'm doing it exactly right... Even checking the solutions after I get the assignment back, I have trouble determining if my answer is different from their because theirs is wrong, or if I got the right answer but followed the wrong procedure...

Even when I'm not in class, I'm spending a minimum of 15-20 hours a week working on circuits... doing the homework, doing extra homework, looking over the lecture notes... that's more time than I'm spending on any of my other classes. But I'm not seeing any results. And I'm frustrated by that. I don't know how to make it any better... I obviously don't have more time to spend on studying for this class (I have 18 hours this semester). I've tried studying in groups, and studying by myself... nothing helps. I'm not spending my time out partying or playing computer games or anything stupid like that. I don't go out on the weekends, and this year I don't even go to home football games.

So what can I do to do any better? Can I do any better? I really can't afford to fail this class... but there may not be much I can do about it at this point.

I'm working so hard at this, and I'm not seeing any results... I really don't know what else to do. I really feel like I belong in Computer Engineering... but maybe I don't. Maybe hardware isn't my thing, and I should drop to CS. Maybe I'm just too stupid to be an engineer in general... I don't know.

I'll work on the rework again tonight and see if I can get anywhere... and if I do, I'll turn it in tomorrow afternoon. If I don't, I guess I'll just have to deal with it. There's not much else I can do.


Dorinne Glasscock
Senior
Computer Engineering

Yeah... not sure if I should have sent it or not.. but I did. So there. At least it's out in the open.

posted by Deedee 5:36 PM