Hardest college course you've ever taken?

[freefall]

See, I am the opposite, I loved my religion and philosophy courses. Both Islamic Tradition and Existentialism were the bomb. These types of subjects just always seemed to engage me more than Physics or Calculus ever could. And languages--oh my gosh. If I could, I would have taken every language course they had to offer; as it stands, I've studied a couple of years of French, Spanish, and Latin.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I don't like Religion, but I enjoy philosophy and language very much. I like reading philosophy books even though I never have them as a course and I never have problems in languages

Also, the course is deadly difficult not because of the materials themselves, but more because of the massive amount of very diverse materials pooled together that you feel it despicable to study 3 thick books despite you know only 6 pages will be asked in the exam

 

[neoachilles]

Oh, don't get me wrong. I don't like Religion, but I enjoy philosophy and language very much. I like reading philosophy books even though I never have them as a course and I never have problems in languages

Also, the course is deadly difficult not because of the materials themselves, but more because of the massive amount of very diverse materials pooled together that you feel it despicable to study 3 thick books despite you know only 6 pages will be asked in the exam

Okay, you got me there. I remember reading Heidegger's Being and Time in order to write a paper on the idea of one's "being-towards-death." There was so much involved in trying to explain the damn concept, it felt like I had to read half the book (which made me want to drill a hole in my head--Heidegger is not an easy read) before I could eke out a couple of paragraphs.

 

[dynk]

Micro-Biology was my toughest

 

[teadrinker]

Partial Differential Equations. By that stage (3rd year of course) my interests were pretty much pure mathematics, and I found for this subject it was impossible to work up an interest. I did pass, but only just.

-T.

 

[Efrackalecki]

Survey of Biochemistry. One in-class assignment, and one homework assignment every week. A short-answer quiz every Thursday that you had to get at least 14/15 to pass. All exams were cumulative and consisted of 14 critical thinking "mini-essays" that had to be completed in 1 hour and 15 minutes. Each exam covered about 8 chapters.

 

[RoadBike]

Upper division accounting. I struggled, yet got my degree.

 

[HornyHenry]

Geology and geography, got hammered at test time even though I studied hard. Taking 16 units that first semester didnt help things either.

 

[Corny]

Computer graphics .. fuck you fourier transform

 

[treanir]

we weren't allowed to take notes

Why not?

 

[Zu-Mendel]

Intermediate Financial Accounting III

I scraped by with a B by 2 points on the final.

 

[EasyRory]

Statistics ... don't even try to understand it, just memorize the formulas.

 

[Corny]

the fun and interesting thing is that some people list stuff here that i considered to be really easy probably someone else thinks the same about the FFT

 

[hotatlboi]

Trigonometry

I managed to pass but I think I lost 30lbs in the process from worry.

Dynamics for me.

Trust me Trig is a cakewalk compared to systems of partial differential equations.

 

[Spiff]

Chemistry and accounting. I know I failed both final exams; time ran out with half the questions unanswered and the rest I guessed at. Miraculously, I still managed to get a B- for those classes. Having a perfect attendance and assignment record goes a long way when grading on a curve. And I still managed to graduate magna cum laude.

The easiest were Geography and Land Architecture. The LARCH professor never even showed up for the final.

Funny, none of the classes mentioned above were relevant to my IT related major. Just goes to show how much extra crap that universities make you take.

 

[chrisrobin]

Funny, none of the classes mentioned above were relevant to my IT related major. Just goes to show how much extra crap that universities make you take.

With all due respect, higher education was never meant to be a trade school. The objective of the Liberal Arts education is to provide a broad spectrum of knowledge - AKA - a well-rounded individual. Some of the most "educated" people I know are conversant in subjects completely outside their chosen profession.

 

[treanir]

that's how he wanted to teach the course... it was actually pretty helpful. hard adjustment, but it really taught me to pay more attention to what the professor was saying and learn the material while he going over it, rather than writing everything down and cramming the night before a test.

Actually, I learn really well by taking notes. Quite often I would look over my notes once and remembered everything the professor said. No need to cram, because the information was already in my head.

Don't think that course would've been for me. (also because of the material of course)

 

[Spiff]

With all due respect, higher education was never meant to be a trade school. The objective of the Liberal Arts education is to provide a broad spectrum of knowledge - AKA - a well-rounded individual.

I know, I know. I knew someone was going to reply with that remark as soon as I posted that. But I heard it before. Having graduated from one, don't you think I might have heard the "well-rounded" spiel before? Ok, so I graduated being well-rounded in a bunch crap. I feel better now.

 

[shainski]

mine was a course that sounded so simple - I loved and still love math. This course was called "Modern Alegebra". So simple, so concise.

Then the professor started talking like this. "We could define multiplication as the process of taking the pencil sharpner and rotating it 7 times until it lands on the ceiling".

It was kind of a crazy semester. I ended up dropping the course. But looking back on it...i wish i had given it a chance. I'm sure once i contemplated what they were talking about it would all sink in and be inherently obvious even easy. (which is what happened one day with statistics)

 

[Jasoncurs]

Physical Chemistry

Genetics

Biochemistry

 

[star-warrior]

Chemistry. Electronics...