Hardest college course you've ever taken?

[Red Storm]

Robotics II
I had no idea what was going on, just memorized whast I could and helped out my team in the lab .

Digital systems and something magnetic fields
WTF was this? LOL it was an Electrical eng course we had to take, again memorize what you can and pass it, labs were insane.

 

[ronboy]

I avoided math courses at all costs.....

But the hardest course I took as an undergrad was called "Psychology of the Exceptional Individual" (I think it was PSY 307) . And I had to pass it for my teaching certification.....

I had taken another course with this professor, and did very well. But this class was a nightmare for me. I bombed the mid-term. Even she was perplexed.... I studied my ass off for the final, and wrote two full exam book lets worth of essay. She gave me an A on the final, (I had already had an A on the end of term project), and a B for the course.

 

[maxpowr9]

Mine is a toss up between Monetary Policy and Econometrics. Monetary Policy was my capstone major class which meant writing a lot of papers on many topics. The material itself wasn't hard, but the amount of work required for a 3-credit class was absurd. Classes like that are why you save some cake classes till the end. Without classes like 20th Century Classical Music and E-Business Infrastructure (aka L2e-Bay) I would have gone insane.
Econometrics on the other hand was the only C I ever got in college. It combines Calc 3 and advanced stats to form the most demonic math class ever. It didn't help that my prof was on the NBER board (it was the only undergrad class he taught).

 

[chrisrobin]

Composite Secondary Education >insert puke emoticon<
Not because it was difficult, but because it was easy. File under: "check your brain at the door." I was bored. The "prof." was boring. The textbook was boring. Therefore, I chose not to go to class very often. I "aced" the midterm and the final, as well as the term paper. I only spent three days writing it because I didn't want to have an unfair advantage over my classmates. Since I cut so many classes, the "prof" only gave me a B. He showed me a thing or two! However, I did gain some insight into why the American educational system is so fucked up.

 

[morgaes]

I think it's a toss between Anatomy and Physio and Abnormal Psych. The anatomy is full of memorization, but the class was easy because the teacher was easy. I think if I had another teacher, I'd probably be retaking it again. Abnormal psych was pretty difficult because we had to memorize every single detail about too many disorders. I kept forgetting pieces of info. Thankfully I was interested in the material most of the time.

I'm taking Abnormal Psychology this semester, first class in a week. I was looking forward to it but now I'm worried, haha

The hardest course I've taken has to be Personality Psychology. It sounded like it'd be a great course and that we'd finally start doing something meaty. Up until that semester most courses had consisted of Statistics, Methodology and Biophysical studies.

Turns out that this course was the driest one yet. We were served 6 huge stacks of 6th+ generation photocopies of articles (shrunk so 2 pages fit on one). The amount was not really the problem, it was that we never got a clear answer as to what we should be gaining from reading those articles.

The professor was seemingly senile (I've since then heard that he has a brain tumor which might explain some of his behaviour), rambling on about things that were completely irrelevant (spent 30 minutes talking about that one of the guys behind one of the personality theories had a brother or a cousin who worked on the railroad), he'd zone out and forget what he was talking about all the time and he mumbled so much that notetaking was impossible. Eventually his wife started showing up to classes to keep him on the subject. The man was obviously very smart but he had no idea how to impart his knowledge to others.

We also never really learned about the major personality theories. We mostly studied the research behind them without getting much feeling for what these results were proving/disproving.

I know that a lot of this sounds like whining but this was definitely not just a case of "welcome to college". There was just a huge air of confusion and uncertainty surrounding this course which made it a horrible and unnecessarily stressful experience.

Despite that, I did learn quite a bit even though it was not what I expected to learn. The course should rather be called "Philosophy of Psychology" or something along those lines since we spent most of the time on subject such as monism vs dualism.

 

[Berbenli]

I just completed a 9 month pastry program yesterday. Hardest thing I've ever done, but I've learned so much. Now to tackle cuisine, which I fear could be ever more tought :S

 

[frankfrank]

Industrial Relations 405.

I am just not, in any way, "cut out" to be a supervisor...and even far less so back in my college days.

 

[yeahright1991]

Naturalistic methods of communication research.

Game theory.

 

[mygaybuffet]

Feminist Philosophy

The teacher hated the male sex and each 45 minute class was a bash all men for all of women's woes and troubles.

 

[morgaes]

Feminist Philosophy

The teacher hated the male sex and each 45 minute class was a bash all men for all of women's woes and troubles.

I can just picture it

Bitchy teacher: There's a reason for why they call it MENstruation!

 

[js334433]

I would have to say it is a tie between the theory of probability and statistics and abstract algebra. These two courses made my junior year hell.

 

[Sam Blum]

Composite Secondary Education >insert puke emoticon<
Not because it was difficult, but because it was easy. ... Since I cut so many classes, the "prof" only gave me a B. He showed me a thing or two! However, I did gain some insight into why the American educational system is so fucked up.

I always find this idea of passing students who are for the most part absent bizarre. I think most Australian universities have had minimum attendance requirements for probably 20+ years now - perhaps 25 years.

It's also really interesting to me that there doesn't seem to be a 'general studies' introductory course per se that acts as a precursor to a more focused degree in many of your universities in the USA, rather just a vague course that at some point gives people a Major and a whole lot of other units that don't really contribute to expertise in the Major field of study. Curious.

And, what I would call 'units,' many of you refer to as 'courses.' A 'course' to an Australian is the series of units that one studies to complete a 'course' in (eg) Modern Languages or a course in Economics and Accounting. I would teach a unit of Queer Revenge Tragedy in Twentieth Century Western Media., but it wouldn't amount to being a course: It would be one unit, taking one semester, two times a week for maybe one x two or three hour lectures, and a total of four or so hours of tutorials, minus mid-semester break (two weeks). A typical work load for a full-time under graduate student would be eight or twelve such units per year, in a bachelor degree lasting three or four years, with an extra year if taking honours. The degrees are most often very focused and although most uni's expect students to take a good number of elective units that provide opportunity to learn something about fields away from the central focus, students are really encouraged in most instances to stay in a neighbouring realm, as it were, rather than venture too far afield. There are always Summer classes for students to digress - but the eye is usually kept (as much as possible) on the major arena of study.

But back to the thread - I have to say that nothing I have studied away from Stats has freaked me out nearly so much as just about anything would that most of you guys are discussing! And if a lecturer at my place dumped resources in front of students and then pretty much walked out - there would be an explosive reaction from admin. Let alone stopping students from having notes. I can understand not wanting students to write notes (it can send you insane when they ignore your discussion and treat you as a dictaphone), but I hand out detailed notes at the end of a lecture/tutorial, and students are expected to have done all their reading before lectures and are expected to engage - or 'bang, bang!.'

 

[ajax27]

Pharmaceutical Bio-organic Chemistry II...I did not enjoy it.

 

[thatcrap]

Physical Chemistry. Hard as hell, and not in a desirable way.

 

[MawellEvans]

Economics and Spanish. i dropped Econ once during the summer and then took it again in the fall. much better second time around.

 

[tommy_2_0_0_0]

I had to take advanced stats for my doctoral program. It just about killed me.

 

[DeafFoxDemon]

math is the hardest course for me, lol.. i hate math with passion but i pass my final math last fall with a B, which suprise the hell outta me cuz i expect that i get C or D

 

[mygaybuffet]

I can just picture it

Bitchy teacher: There's a reason for why they call it MENstruation!

Point taken!

Economics and Spanish. i dropped Econ once during the summer and then took it again in the fall. much better second time around.

The way foreign languages are taught is laughable at best. I've tried other methods and have learned a lot better than in an academic setting.

 

[chrisrobin]

I just completed a 9 month pastry program yesterday. Hardest thing I've ever done, but I've learned so much. Now to tackle cuisine, which I fear could be ever more tought :S

I have great admiration for your pastry talent. I'll bet you can make a mean pie crust - I cannot to save my hide. Good luck with the cuisine phase.

 

[Ninja108]

Biology without a doubt.