What was the hardest class you passed in undergrad? - Page 9

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - What was the hardest class you passed in undergrad? (Page 9 of 10)

Posted: 4/11/2019 10:07:11 AM EDT

[#1]

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Going to class hungover too much

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I think another interesting poll might be What made your hardest class(es) the hardest: The Material, The Professor, Class Logistics (time of day, length, frequency), Other.

Go for it; teachers hands down here

Going to class hungover too much

No but had a prof come to class wasted almost every time

Posted: 4/11/2019 10:20:53 AM EDT

[#2]

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Physics 2. You were supposed to have passed calc 3 before you took it, but I hadn't taken calc 3 yet. Teaching myself differential equations was... unpleasant.

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This right here. Calc 3 was a co-requisite with physics 2 when I took them. Pretty pointless when Gauss' Law is in week 2 of physics, but no one in the class knew what a surface integral was, since that's the last two weeks of calc 3.

Posted: 4/11/2019 10:23:07 AM EDT

[#3]

Psychology. It was because I had an absolutely horrible, condescending, arrogant instructor.

And, it was required for my Management Information Systems degree. Yeah. Makes sense to me.

Posted: 4/11/2019 10:37:53 AM EDT

[#4]

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Dramatic history. Was five days a week, and covered all of theater history from ancient greece through modern times in excruciating detail. In conjunction with the history, we were expected to read a play every single day and hand in a report. I remember the midterm was 36 pages of essay questions, and the final was something we formed study groups for a month in advance. Learning in that class was like drinking from a firehose.

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@xdoctor

I still remember having to learn about Hrosvitha in that class, 25 years ago. That class was one of several reasons I changed majors away from theater & communication to biology. The theater program director had recruited me to their program out of high school, so that was an awkward transition.

Many of my undergrad courses were considered “weeding out” classes by their professors. The O-chem classes were tough, but I got As. Biochem was brutal and used the same textbook we used in med school biochem.

At one point, I was carrying 18 mostly STEM credits and working a full time job nights and weekends. Undergrad wasn’t much of a party time.

Posted: 4/11/2019 11:00:15 AM EDT

[#5]

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This!

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Statistics

This!

Same here.

Posted: 4/11/2019 11:08:12 AM EDT

[#6]

Quant. Stats.

Posted: 4/11/2019 11:13:04 AM EDT

[#7]

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two way tie. Formal languages and automata & cell molecular bio.

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For some reason, I was very good in this class. The professor was pissed that I was the only person to get a perfect score on his final in some ridiculous number of years. I’m not that smart, nor was I an exceptional student, but that class just clicked for me.

I sat with a guy who seemingly did nothing but drink, smoke weed, and drop acid on weekends. After our 8AM OS class, we’d walk to his house for a morning pitcher before the automata class. That fucker was a certifiable ubergenius and graduated with a 4.0. He’s probably a fucking CEO making a gazillion dollars now. If I had half of his CPU power I’d probably be retired now.

Posted: 4/11/2019 11:16:22 AM EDT

[#8]

Hardest class I didn't pass: PChem. Dropped it after two weeks, because despite being a good organic chemistry student, I realized I couldn't understand a single thing being presented.

Most intense class I did pass was Constitutional Law. This was the junior/senior "weed out" class for those aspiring to become attorneys. The instructor spoke like Forrest Gump, wore lime green leisure suits, and had a mind like a steel trap: perhaps the most intelligent guy I've ever met. Everyone feared him. I was never so proud to have received one of the two or three A's he gave out per semester. If he'd had the persona of an Avenetti, he'd be a mulitimillionaire.

Tests were multiple choice, and just brutal. RIP, Dr. Pickering. 89.9, bumped me up, and said, "Suh, I think you would be a fine attorney." Life sent me in a different direction.

Posted: 4/11/2019 11:16:41 AM EDT

[#9]

And the #1 reason to study engineering...

Friction, Lubrication and Wear is actually a class...

Posted: 4/11/2019 11:44:26 AM EDT

[#10]

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Electricity and Magnetism. I just could never figure out a basic model for how anything in the subject worked, so I could never develop an intuitive feel for how to tackle problems or what the answers should look like.

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That was exactly the issue I had. Later on I learned that it's a lot like fluid mechanics except with electrons.

Posted: 4/11/2019 11:50:47 AM EDT

[#11]

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That's why you put them in a properly sized box and closed the lid well!

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and you draw a diagonal line across the top of the cards with a thick marker.

Posted: 4/11/2019 12:10:43 PM EDT

[#12]

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and you draw a diagonal line across the top of the cards with a thick marker.

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We do have some older folk here don't we!

Posted: 4/11/2019 12:13:00 PM EDT

[#13]

Viscous Fluids, Boundary Layers, and Heat Transfer - missed a fucking "A" by 1 point. Thanks, Dr. Jones.

Posted: 4/11/2019 12:22:57 PM EDT

[#14]

1st 2 years - Calc 2. Took that one twice. Not just the material, the prof was a straight-off-the-boat German (even told us he had Nazi family members) and didn't give a shit if anyone passed. I had the 8th or 9th highest grade out of 30 people and I had a 62.

Last 2 years - Dynamics/kinematics. Had a Hungarian professor for both who liked to use the saying "there's more than one way to kill a cat."

Posted: 4/11/2019 12:48:40 PM EDT

[#15]

I have a BS in Physics and a BS in Civil Engineering. The hardest class I took was quantum mechanics for the physics degree.

Posted: 4/11/2019 12:52:19 PM EDT

[#16]

Sociology 101 was a joke, but I had to try 3 different professors before I found one I could tolerate enough to take the class.

Posted: 4/11/2019 2:10:05 PM EDT

[#17]

Human growth and development

Posted: 4/11/2019 2:23:36 PM EDT

[#18]

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Dynamic Systems and Control
What made it tough, beyond solving the complex differentials created during modelling, was the Asian professor teaching it.

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Yea... this class sucked. First day in the class, asian prof asks the class who's good at Diff-Eq. Said to make friends with that guy. Also asked who had taken statistics (wasn't required for mech engr, but was an approved elective)..... two people raise their hands. Prof said we should have taken statistics before taking this course (even though it wasn't a listed requirement). Then tells us we better go buy a statistics book.

As a class, we were FOOKED! Unintelligible professor who DGAF about us + hard shit = busted my ass on an epic level to squeak out a C.

-ZA

Posted: 4/11/2019 2:27:56 PM EDT

[#19]

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And the #1 reason to study engineering...

Friction, Lubrication and Wear is actually a class...

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Race car dynamics and Power train theory being offered by a prof who owned a Porsche customizing business was a huge draw of the Mech Eng dept of my school. Practical exercises conducted via track days and jobs offered designing new mods as summer internships. He kept feuding with the campus cops for hanging his parking permit in various unregistered Porsches when they'd check the VIN and it wouldn't match the plates. They weren't allowed to issue traffic citations or report traffic issues to city police, so they would double park him and similar crap.

Or the times he'd hit the bank for $30k in cash, then fly to buy a used one to flip. He had to cancel class a few times for that, especially when things weren't quite as advertised. I ran his computer lab for beer/ammo money.

Kharn

Posted: 4/11/2019 2:47:51 PM EDT

[#20]

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We do have some older folk here don't we!

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and you draw a diagonal line across the top of the cards with a thick marker.

We do have some older folk here don't we!

Also, sequencing in columns 72-80 - leave room for inserts.

If you dropped them, they could be re-sequenced on an 082 sorter.

Posted: 4/11/2019 5:09:07 PM EDT

[#21]

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Also, sequencing in columns 72-80 - leave room for inserts.

If you dropped them, they could be re-sequenced on an 082 sorter.

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Quoted:

and you draw a diagonal line across the top of the cards with a thick marker.

We do have some older folk here don't we!

Also, sequencing in columns 72-80 - leave room for inserts.

If you dropped them, they could be re-sequenced on an 082 sorter.

Man.

My kids think I’m lying to them when I tell them about the 3.5 floppy disks I used in college.

Posted: 4/11/2019 5:36:39 PM EDT

[#22]

Radar transmission-line theory-- in 1970-- on a slide rule.

Posted: 4/11/2019 5:41:12 PM EDT

[#23]

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What is the hardest class you took in undergrad that you passed? Something to do with genetics, don't remember exactly. Barely passed it.

Was the class a required part of your major? At the time yes. Realized it was only going to get harder and decided to change majors.

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Posted: 4/12/2019 8:01:59 AM EDT

[#24]

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Research statistics. Required for degree.

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I took Research stats and a gen-Ed stats course in the same semester. Research was fun because it was applied and the professor was good. Stats sucked because it was a Chinese TA who was terrible. Got an A in research and a B in stats.

Hardest was Business Calculus. I never really learned how to study math, but still had a low A going into the final which wrecked my shit. I was glad to get out of that class with a C.

Posted: 4/12/2019 8:10:58 AM EDT

[#25]

Introduction to Stochastic Processes, math major so it was required.

Posted: 4/12/2019 8:12:35 AM EDT

[#26]

Mine was either algorithms or discrete structures.

Algorithms was taught by this Korean lady who had the thickest accent imaginable so besides it being bitch hard, it was impossible to understand her.

Posted: 4/12/2019 8:14:46 AM EDT

[#27]

Economics.

Posted: 4/12/2019 8:22:57 AM EDT

[#28]

Discrete Signal Analysis Junior EE class. I had to learn Fourier Analysis and Laplace Transforms

Posted: 4/12/2019 8:35:25 AM EDT

[#29]

Calculus 2,

Calc 3 was easier as it was all vectors for me.

Posted: 4/12/2019 9:13:04 AM EDT

[#30]

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Business Calc, hadn't taken a math class in 9 years, had to refresh my memory on EVERYTHING.

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This was a tough class for me, but Stats 2 was the worst. Terrible teacher so I took the class credit / no credit (only class I ever took like that) and just barely passed. Glad I did that because that would've hurt my GPA bigtime.

Posted: 4/12/2019 9:21:22 AM EDT

[#31]

Organic Chemistry

Posted: 4/12/2019 9:22:47 AM EDT

[#32]

Automatic transmissions

Posted: 4/12/2019 9:44:18 AM EDT

[#33]

Oddly enough, Latin American History. There was a big term paper and a six question essay final exam. The final exam was two hours long and you had to answer four of the questions, your choice which ones. Those two items plus your participation in class discussions were the basis of your whole grade in his class. You had a semester to learn the history of every country. There were no quizzes. You came to his class well prepared or you really screwed yourself. Skipping one class and was considered suicidal. If you tried to BS him, he made you the main dish in front of the class. The stack of books required to read could start a small library. It was the most insane class I ever took, yet the most satisfying. I walked away with an "A" that was the hardest grade I ever earned.

Posted: 4/12/2019 10:21:25 AM EDT

[#34]

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We do have some older folk here don't we!

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and you draw a diagonal line across the top of the cards with a thick marker.

We do have some older folk here don't we!

Hey, I was a child genius! I was 6 months old at the time, or something....

yep, I'm oldish.

Posted: 4/12/2019 11:33:54 AM EDT

[#35]

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Oh yeah, I *hated* discrete math. Data structures wasn't that hard to me though.

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Data Structures. Discrete Math a distant second but even that was HAF. C's get degrees!

Oh yeah, I *hated* discrete math. Data structures wasn't that hard to me though.

to make it even worse our instructor was a new hire from some ivy league university. I forgot which one but not sure why he was down in GA teaching us (the ones who couldnt get into GATech undergrad) as if we were all people who scored 36s on the ACT. he got tired of us being dummies i guess, he quit halfway through and they had to assign someone else. which is the only reason I say it wasnt harder that data structures.

Posted: 4/12/2019 11:51:21 AM EDT

[#36]

I never understood linear algeba or the purpose. Dropped the first time , did ok the second time, not sure how.

Diff E Q was a bitch, but made more sense. Used it a lot the next few years for my degree (nuclear engineering). Solving triple integrals is fun when your trying to do the math to determine if your making a paperweight, a reactor, or a bomb.
Dynamics just sucked. Final exam was the equivalent of determining the force on a piece in a gyroscope, while it was rolling down a hill.

Posted: 4/12/2019 12:14:32 PM EDT

[#37]

Hard to pick the hardest:
Calculus 4, 5, or 6
Differential Equations
Dynamics
Physics III
Random Signals & Noise
Intro to Circuits
Probabilities
Intro to Computer Science (used as a weed out class to flunk people)

Oddly not very hard: Thermodynamics, Statics

Roughly equivalent to high school:
Anything in Psychology, History, Accounting, Business, Management, or English. I took enough classes in those departments I could have gotten a second degree just because they were easy A's and my GPA needed the help and so I didn't have to take another engineering or math class each quarter.

Posted: 4/12/2019 1:06:00 PM EDT

[#38]

I’m not super smart so Industrial statistics and Trig were pretty hard for me

Posted: 4/12/2019 7:19:55 PM EDT

[#39]

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Intro to FORTRAN. Anyone else remember IBM punch cards?

I am old.

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I remember the punch cards, but FORTRAN was not my toughest class.

Toughest class for me was PChem. physical chemistry although it was mostly a conflict between me and the Prof. He didn't care for ChemE's and I didn't spend enough time studying. Failed twice (or was it 3 times).

The University replaced him finally and I made a B under a different guy. It allowed me to graduate after being in and out of school for 11 years

Posted: 4/12/2019 7:26:31 PM EDT

[#40]

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There are different types of "hard".

There is business calculus hard, and then there is "read Gorgias by Plato and write an essay discussing the differences between rhetoric and philosophy and be graded on original thought".

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Mostly I didn't take those types of classes. I did take Logic one summer session. There really was not any thing logical about that class.

Posted: 4/12/2019 8:18:05 PM EDT

[#41]

Comparative vertebrate anatomy

Posted: 4/12/2019 8:23:11 PM EDT

[#42]

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Oddly enough, Latin American History. There was a big term paper and a six question essay final exam. The final exam was two hours long and you had to answer four of the questions, your choice which ones. Those two items plus your participation in class discussions were the basis of your whole grade in his class. You had a semester to learn the history of every country. There were no quizzes. You came to his class well prepared or you really screwed yourself. Skipping one class and was considered suicidal. If you tried to BS him, he made you the main dish in front of the class. The stack of books required to read could start a small library. It was the most insane class I ever took, yet the most satisfying. I walked away with an "A" that was the hardest grade I ever earned.

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Same for me but Roman history. The professor LOVED Roman history, and knew everything about it. Part of our grade was participation, so we had to read an be prepared to make intelligent observations and analysis in the class discussions. I ended up with an A in the class even though he disagreed with the thesis of my term paper but gave me credit for a good argument.

Posted: 4/12/2019 9:02:30 PM EDT

[#43]

Radioactive Waste Management under the nuke engineering program. Interesting but you combine calc with inorganic/organic chemistry, chem engineering, law, and supply chain management.

I heard p-chem is a nightmare.

Posted: 4/12/2019 9:19:54 PM EDT

[#44]

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Radioactive Waste Management under the nuke engineering program. Interesting but you combine calc with inorganic/organic chemistry, chem engineering, law, and supply chain management.

I heard p-chem is a nightmare.

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That sounds like a pretty interesting elective actually. Wish my school had it.

Pchem went way over my head. Not sure how I pulled off a "C". It was all Greek. The thermo section made sense, but I got enough out of the quantum stuff to know I NEVER wanted to delve further down that rabbit hole...

Posted: 4/12/2019 10:12:47 PM EDT

[#45]

For me it was Quantitative Methods in Decision Making. Linear programming, minimax oiptimization, best path calculation, all that kind of stuff.

It was hard because it was complex and you really had to pay attention. Math was fairly hairy, but except for the matrix math fairly standard algebra.

Required for my major, got an A.

That was a prerequisite for FOR 405 & FOR 406, the senior-level make-or-break forestry courses. 405 was essentially writing a linear program to manage for non-declining, even flow of resource output off a hypothetical forest. My LP had something 120 constraints and 90-odd variables, and the "LP Explication" report was about 120 pages. 406 was writing that management plan and mine was about 150 pages.

Amazingly, almost 30 years later, I find myself managing forests!

One of my easiest classes for Statistics for Forestry. For some reason, stats just seems to make so much perfect sense for me. Ended up as a tutor for other students who were having stats trouble, and did an independent study investigating the accuracy of various sampling design in forest inventory. Wrote a program that sampled a complete forest data set (i.e. we had the x/y coordinates, diameters, and heights of EVERY tree in a stand) with various designs and compared those to the true volume values.

Posted: 4/12/2019 10:14:47 PM EDT

[#46]

Whichever one was earliest and had an attendance policy.

Posted: 4/12/2019 10:22:20 PM EDT

[#47]

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DiffEq, Calc 3 were not bad at all for me. We had to take a Comms class on the math behind signal modulation/encryption etc and an Electric/Magnetic Fields class as part of the EE curriculum. They both really sucked.

It is funny sometimes how course difficulty can vary school to school as well.

We still had do do an assembly language class that incorporated all of that.

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Does anyone actually teach an assembly language class nowadays?

Txl

Posted: 4/12/2019 10:24:36 PM EDT

[#48]

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Does anyone actually teach an assembly language class nowadays?

Txl

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Yes, and I even do coding in assembler on occasion....

Posted: 4/12/2019 10:33:43 PM EDT

[#49]

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That sounds like a pretty interesting elective actually. Wish my school had it.

Pchem went way over my head. Not sure how I pulled off a "C". It was all Greek. The thermo section made sense, but I got enough out of the quantum stuff to know I NEVER wanted to delve further down that rabbit hole...

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Quoted:

Quoted:
Radioactive Waste Management under the nuke engineering program. Interesting but you combine calc with inorganic/organic chemistry, chem engineering, law, and supply chain management.

I heard p-chem is a nightmare.

That sounds like a pretty interesting elective actually. Wish my school had it.

Pchem went way over my head. Not sure how I pulled off a "C". It was all Greek. The thermo section made sense, but I got enough out of the quantum stuff to know I NEVER wanted to delve further down that rabbit hole...

I was pretty happy with Ohio State's range of courses. They had a reactor on west campus.

Posted: 4/12/2019 10:35:50 PM EDT

[#50]

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Does anyone actually teach an assembly language class nowadays?

Txl

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DiffEq, Calc 3 were not bad at all for me. We had to take a Comms class on the math behind signal modulation/encryption etc and an Electric/Magnetic Fields class as part of the EE curriculum. They both really sucked.

It is funny sometimes how course difficulty can vary school to school as well.

We still had do do an assembly language class that incorporated all of that.

Does anyone actually teach an assembly language class nowadays?

Txl

Of course. It’s a part of most CS programs.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - What was the hardest class you passed in undergrad? (Page 9 of 10)

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