Tuesday, October 19, 2004

WTF is going on in Property?!!

Is it just me, or did Property suddenly get really hard??

It's bad enough that we're struggling to read the green book and trying to understand the pile of terms being thrown at us like a brick, but on top of that our professor is going really, really fast.
What's ironic is that he told us before that he'd go as slowly as we'd like, but that's not really true. He gets really impatient with us if we don't know the answer to the hypos on the slides, and then he zips through a whole bunch of hypos that aren't even on the slides. He should realize that if even those of us w/ laptops in class can't take notes fast enough then he's going way too fast.

Of course, there are the maybe 5-10 people in the entire class who actually understand what's going on, and listening to them converse w/ our professor makes me feel like I suddenly got abandoned in the middle of a foreign country where I don't know the language and only know how to say "hello, what is your name?"

All I know is that lately whenever the professor has been talking, I hardly take in a thing because 1) he talks way too fast, 2) it's like he's speaking a whole different language.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I completely agree with you. I am so tired of walking out of that class feeling dumber than when I entered. Even when you ask him to slow down he only slows down for that one statement, and then is back to a mile a minute the next statement. I'm still trying to type the hypo he just said and he's already 2 hypos ahead of me. You would think he'd catch on when he looks out at the class and sees the glazed over WHF look on our faces. No, it's not my cold medicine it's the fact that neither I, nor 95% of the class understand what you just said. If it was just me I would resign myself to the fact that I'm a complete idiot, but when almost everyone else in class feels the same way maybe that's a sign that there's something wrong with the professor, not the students.

Man am I glad you have this blog. Thanks for giving me a place to vent. I'm off to read the green book now!

Edward Jones said...

Hey, this is Edward. Thank you for the compliment of October 7th. (I would have posted this comment to the Oct. 7th entry but I didn't know if you'd see it.) I just want to let you know that I'm a fan and I hope it's okay that I've posted a link to your blog from my blog, which I now shamelessly advertise: edwardjones3.blogspot.com

I know you're protective of your identity, but I'm dying to know who you are. You should whisper in my ear some time... :-)

hufflepuffer said...

I can't just focus on what he says. I think the problem most people have is that it may make sense at the time, but you will most probably not remember the reasoning behind the hypo. Heck, you're lucky if you even remember the hypo, let alone what he said.

Of course, there is the real problem when he's going so fast that you can't remember the hypo and the answer, and all you DO remember is that you didn't understand what the hell was going on.

Hey Edward, thanks for the plug! I think I've spoken to you once or twice before, but I don't think we have any classes together.

Anonymous said...

Have you all considered that the Professor is insane? Sometimes while typing on my laptop I secretly thing he is insane. I mean all I can think about property is Rousseau saying we should have killed the first person who claimed property rights.

I mean if we HAD no property rights would we have survived the catalysmic events of "Day After Tomorrow"? NOOO of course not. I mean property rights destroyed the Core and it resulted in those people who rejected those rights to go save the world. Jeez, don't people ever understand the damage property has caused in our world?

Me said...

Geez, that sparked a flashback. Just wait 'til the "rule of perpetuities" starts to invade your dreams. Talk about a semi-psychotic state.

Anonymous said...

It is a bit disconcerting that students in the WTF category don't respond to the professor's daily request "are there any questions." I don't think the professor would ask that question of the class each day if the professor wasn't interested in having students ask questions. After all, if a particular student has a question, then in all likelihood other students have a similar question. Furthermore, the professor has office hours for students who don't wish to ask questions in class. They are: every MTW after 10:10 and before 2:20 and then all day on Th and F unless the professor is out of town.

Your Property Professor (the guy who wants you to understand the material)

hufflepuffer said...

Well Professor,
I know in all fairness that you do ask everyday if there are any questions. The problem is that you tend to make examples out of people, and you get kind of scary on people when they don't understand something quickly enough. Not only that, there are other not so nice people in the class who snicker invariably at those brave enough to ask questions.

Anonymous said...

Well put, my thoughts exactly. There are far too many people in the class who will make rude comments to you/about you during or after class for asking a question.

Anonymous said...

I think it's a little ridiculous that 20-30 something students are "intimidated" by their professor. I'm in class and yes, it is intimidating. But we're adults and we just have to do it. This isn't about looking smart in class or whatever. It's about being successful lawyers and we've got to stop sitting on our hands and then blaming our professors for intimidating us. I'm guilty of it too, but I blame myself, not Kurtz.

Anonymous said...

haha, should have applied as a summer entrant. DelaTorre taught out of Gilberts