Let's Be Honest

This is me (up there in that tack lab coat) because I am taking Physical Science 100 Independent Study (thank goodness!).  I had the wonderful opportunity to go to a review session yesterday for my exam.  Let me preface this by saying - what a joke!!  I hope I can get across how terrible this review was.  

First of all, I walk in and she is playing some rap/hip-hop song that no one knows.  Excuse me, I thought we had standards at BYU; we are not allowed to play rap/hip-hop at EFY so let's not play it before a study session.  Plus, it is a fact that media is not good before studying and sleep because your brain cannot focus!  Thanks for that, an instant distraction when I am already easily distracted.  You will absolutely not be able to get me pumped up for science. Let's be honest.

She then proceeds to tell us that if we don't do well on this exam then maybe we should rethink how we are studying.  "If what you are doing didn't work then change how you study, don't keep doing the same thing."  And then drew us a nice graph on how to retain information versus not.  (If I knew how to make a stupid graph, here is where I would show what she drew)  For now, I will make the following graph work:

The green line represents what she referred to our strategy that is not working, therefore decreasing our knowledge and ability to succeed in this class.  On the other hand we have the red line which represents "changing" our study habits; "if you would just study 20 or 30 minutes a day your knowledge will increase dramatically and you will do well in this class!"  This took the first 15 minutes of class.  Thank you for explaining the exponential graph to me, now can we please get to prepping for the exam??

This is where the first group of people left.  I emphasize "group" here because I have never seen so many people get up and leave a review at one time.

Or maybe we shouldn't...  We started with Newton's three laws of motion, which she openly said she didn't know how to explain to us.  She jumped from one to the other trying to think of examples on how to apply these concepts.  Epic fail.

And here is where the next group of people skidaddled out.

I could not for the life of me tell you what the next topic was we discussed.  She kept saying, "Because I have already looked at the exam I don't know how to give you examples without just asking you the exam questions!  And if I did that I would feel morally dirty..."  This is where a student chimed in and said, "I don't care about your moral cleanliness I want to know how to pass this test!"  Harsh, but at the same time I agreed because I was now officially more confused then when I came.

Again with the people leaving!  And there I say patiently waiting for it to get better.  I need to pass this exam!

She then wrote a bunch of formulas on the board.  "You don't need to know these but we will discuss them with each concept."  Excuse me?  You are now officially wasting my time.  Why on earth are you going over concepts that are not going to benefit me on this test??  It was then that I found myself packing my bag to get the heck out of dodge.  I think it is rude to leave in the middle of a lesson but I could not let myself stay and become more and more confused.  And I was only there for 30 minutes; 30 minutes of a scheduled 2 hours session.

I left.  Worst review I have ever been to with the most unknowing TA ever.  I could have gone up there and taught the concepts better - and  I hate science.  Long story short, I will stick to my TA; as weird and as awkward as he is, at least he knows how to teach and explain this nonsense!  And he can come up with examples right on the spot, even though he has seen the exam too!  Wish me luck on my exam tomorrow - I have to go in on Saturday thanks to my worthless review session.  Let's be honest - don't hire TA's that don't know how to TA.