Bored & assignments

Screw assignments, they're a bloody waste of time honestly.. The concept behind them is good, but the implementation of assignments are anything but a waste of time. Learning students are supposed to question what 'knowledge' is being spoon fed to them, not just acccept them like its a fact-of-life instantly. Particularly better students will go a step further to ask questions beyond the unit and these are the best students.

However, some tutors (and lecturers) ought to be shot. I can hardly believed my ears when one student raised his hand, asked a good question about a topic in relation to the unit, only to have the tutor answered, "you dont have to focus on that because its not part of this unit. just stick to whats in the unit and in the exams". I was baffled. In other words, he probably doesn't know the answer, and the student was shot down. Is this how university is supposed to be? accepting "facts" as it is, without question? oh and did i mention the tutor's english is absolutely grammatically poor?

Some lecturers teach a unit very relevant to todays world and happenings, but in the lecturers uses data and examples from over 15-20 years ago. Those data have changed SO drastically since and the irony is that the lecturer would probably have been very right - 20 years ago that is, but lecture the same way today and it will draw flak, and criticism - from students who don't quietly sit and take in all spoon-fed information but from those who question and ask. Any information before year 2000 should NOT be used in such a fast moving and contemporary unit. This particularly unit also should be taught neutrally - i.e. the lecturer should not be taking stances on the unit (its a unit where there are 100 ways to do 1 thing and all are not wrong). Unfortunately the lecturer seems to impose his point of view upon students, creating fear that he will mark us wrong otherwise. I am simply amazed how one person could have taken such an interesting and exciting unit, and turn it into the most boring unit i've ever seen. i cant wait for evaluation.

Seditious? Defamatory? I reckon if I was still at Malaysia I'd get "warning" emails for writing a post like this. There's no names of anyone, units of anything, but for goodness sake, before you start chasing people for writing their opinion like this, evaluate yourselves first. Don't expect me to name anyone, and if (insert uni name) is concern with such poor quality tutors and lecturers, please do a full review of every lecturer and tutor, and get feedback from the students.


This whole post is one sided because it only talks about the negative part. Make no mistake, I have been to some of the best lecturers and tutors under (insert uni name) as well. Their ability to explain and create understanding among the students are fantastic. Tutors who can create relevant discussion while still tutoring the unit in the tutorial room rather than just questions and answers earn my utmost respect - even those who seem crude and rude at first are actually excellent tutors.

Logging off,
Lawy3rz