tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post6175208913186538468..comments2023-10-15T04:23:50.187-04:00Comments on College Misery: Surly Temple's Minor Misery. Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-91708168858830809602015-02-22T13:43:42.538-05:002015-02-22T13:43:42.538-05:00What BB said. Generally we allow AP courses to cou...What BB said. Generally we allow AP courses to count for general-education credit, but we don't allow them to replace courses in the major.introvert.profhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09042783611716432247noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-22826923507465421142015-02-22T09:39:58.740-05:002015-02-22T09:39:58.740-05:00Yeah, I had a great group of friends that I'd ...Yeah, I had a great group of friends that I'd see year after year at the reading, and that part was a joy. A booze-soaked, hilarious joy. But one of the worst parts of the week was most of the other readers. Jeebus, what a bunch of credulous ETS sycophants. They would hyperventilate about how "wonderful" the AP program was even as our table leader was telling us that we needed to Surly Templehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05057191570792423261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-86478917405527786202015-02-22T09:12:43.703-05:002015-02-22T09:12:43.703-05:00Oh, the candy! I forgot about that. Never before o...Oh, the candy! I forgot about that. Never before or since have I seen so many bowls of gummy bears.<br /><br />Sounds like you had a similar experimence, sans beer. I was much younger then, so I could drink until 1 am then get up without a hangover. The professional relationships that I made there lasted for several weeks. We had a good time but I will never ever do it again now that I have a Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-70687309525899864472015-02-21T18:40:43.586-05:002015-02-21T18:40:43.586-05:00Aw, man, they gave you beer? We didn't get bo...Aw, man, they gave you beer? We didn't get booze, just a lot of candy and the most regimented week of my life. Surly Templehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05057191570792423261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-70435437930712522672015-02-21T18:29:34.372-05:002015-02-21T18:29:34.372-05:00I actually feel that DBQs served me well, because ...I actually feel that DBQs served me well, because they taught me what a collection of primary and secondary sources should look like, and taught me that I should base my arguments on the analysis of primary sources, period. <br /><br />The result was that, when assigned a research paper freshman year, I headed into the library and found sources in the bound volumes of 19th-century periodicals Contingent Cassandrahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08161652083031423415noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-17881421289869017352015-02-21T18:04:01.946-05:002015-02-21T18:04:01.946-05:00I once graded an AP chemistry exam. I graded one q...I once graded an AP chemistry exam. I graded one question for 1000s of exams all week. Mind numbing but they fed us well and provided more beer than we could drink. That aspect was impressive.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-49921457544261856772015-02-21T17:39:08.579-05:002015-02-21T17:39:08.579-05:00I don't recall Urban having a great emphasis o...I don't recall Urban having a great emphasis on tech, but you're right that by avoiding the AP trap they have time for electives like neurobiology, marine biology, statistics, Russian literature, intaglio printmaking, etc., all of which is better.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10218085079223895140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-39898361884802044502015-02-21T16:51:32.083-05:002015-02-21T16:51:32.083-05:00Thank you, AM; you echo many of my feelings about ...Thank you, AM; you echo many of my feelings about AP and the College Board, and I appreciate your mention of those specific schools. I've long argued that our department should be allowed to design our own curricula, which would be far superior to AP. We are an excellent school that suffers from a bizarre lack of confidence. That we continue to hitch our wagon to this crazy-train of Surly Templehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05057191570792423261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-14885792108524701142015-02-21T16:50:43.142-05:002015-02-21T16:50:43.142-05:00Grudgingly is right, along with the "dual enr...Grudgingly is right, along with the "dual enrollment" HS courses for college credit our legislature has saddled us with. <br /><br />Ideally, our intro courses are more substantial, skill-wise, but we've never tested it, either, nor spent enough time defining what we and our adjuncts should be trying to accomplish to actually know what we're looking for.Jonathan Dresnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04356112719229675996noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-48321977984822400192015-02-21T16:17:26.219-05:002015-02-21T16:17:26.219-05:00*college of sources = collection of sources (sorry...*college of sources = collection of sources (sorry)Academic Monkeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07086078244493768565noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-71714164371768136512015-02-21T16:16:28.120-05:002015-02-21T16:16:28.120-05:00The DBQs drive me crazy. I'm sure that any stu...The DBQs drive me crazy. I'm sure that any student, if given a hand-wrapped series of primary and secondary sources, could do something with humanities work. But college is about research. DBQs (document-based questions, for the uninitiated, which are a college of sources) make students think that teachers are supposed to give all the research to them. It infantalizes the students and Academic Monkeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07086078244493768565noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-62594200393213260052015-02-21T16:12:06.018-05:002015-02-21T16:12:06.018-05:00You should test that premise next year. Take all A...You should test that premise next year. Take all AP students, hand them a research essay assignment similar to what you would expect from a History 101 student at the end of the course. See what happens. Then abandon your AP relationship.Academic Monkeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07086078244493768565noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-17731424925328304992015-02-21T16:09:07.410-05:002015-02-21T16:09:07.410-05:00COLLEGE BOARD IS AN ENORMOUS RACKET. I hate it.
...COLLEGE BOARD IS AN ENORMOUS RACKET. I hate it. <br /><br />At my graduate school and the two unis I adjuncted at before landing full-time professor work, there was an unwritten tradition of forcing AP students to take an extra history class because AP did so much crap to students that they were even worse prepared than those who did not take AP. They didn't just join the 100 level intro Academic Monkeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07086078244493768565noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-41033664392335528522015-02-21T14:56:12.090-05:002015-02-21T14:56:12.090-05:00I'm not a Humanities professor, but I took AP ...I'm not a Humanities professor, but I took AP Calculus in high-school. The course changed my attitude and study habits because it was drill-and-kill. <br /><br />Sometimes, a boot-camp experience is what is necessary to get our little darlings to shut their fucking phones off and get their fucking acts together.Emergency Mathematical Hologramhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15873569623797587860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-81313561965746766912015-02-21T12:50:50.524-05:002015-02-21T12:50:50.524-05:00This makes me sad, since, like Porpentine, I had a...This makes me sad, since, like Porpentine, I had a really good experience in AP US history. But I attended a private school with small classes and excellent teachers, and I strongly suspect that the test has changed since then, since we spent a lot of our in-class time on skills (e.g. practice DBQs) rather than drilling content/coverage. I did spend some time reviewing/cramming content with the Contingent Cassandrahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08161652083031423415noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-75762818520497050952015-02-21T12:33:30.002-05:002015-02-21T12:33:30.002-05:00I recently had high-school students in my multivar...I recently had high-school students in my multivariable calculus (sophomore-level) class, who apparently had exhausted the AP offerings at their (STEM-magnet type) school. They were among the best students in the class, and probably went on to more challenging places than we are (at least I hope so.)<br /><br />On the other hand, our intro-level math classes (for STEM majors) are shallow. You donPeter Khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00754472537710161295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-62291904517298533772015-02-21T09:27:53.892-05:002015-02-21T09:27:53.892-05:00I'm in English and I used to be an AP exam rea...I'm in English and I used to be an AP exam reader, and I'm fairly satisfied that the essay section tests the skills I want my students to have. I can't speak to the multiple-choice section, since I haven't seen any of the questions since I was an AP student myself, but the essay portion is really a pretty decent test of close reading, analysis, and writing, given the constraints Fretful Porpentinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11165078003123517013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-34453421115406925832015-02-21T08:46:28.358-05:002015-02-21T08:46:28.358-05:00Historian here. We grudgingly allow two AP classes...Historian here. We grudgingly allow two AP classes to count towards our major, but we'd rather not. They have to score a 4 or 5 on the examination. But that is long established prejudice rather than empirically demonstrated fact. Which is to say we don't think that AP prepares a student especially well for the type of work we ask at college, but we've never tested the premise.Surlyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05685839069609420679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-64314987294397878392015-02-21T08:34:43.227-05:002015-02-21T08:34:43.227-05:00Not in humanities but your question hit a nerve wi...Not in humanities but your question hit a nerve with me. AP chemistry is not real gen chem. My uni's freshman chemistry is average but not spectacularly hard. we tell chem majors that they should not skkp freshman chem after passing the AP exam. they don't learn enough from the AP chem class in order to succeed in the sophomore level classes.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com