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In the past, I've had students call my problem sets “emotionally trying”

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Re: In the past, I've had students call my problem sets “emotionally trying”

#11
post #5

My favorite history professor in college gave open book essay exams. He asked your opinion on topics, "what were the motivations of the leaders of the US revolution?" Even better were the questions that ended in "why or why not?" There were no right or wrong answers, if you could justify your answer in a reasonable manner, you got full points. Some students hated his tests, some students loved his tests. The students…

I would hate open-ended questions like that if I didn't know the professor and I didn't know the grading, because it relies on the professor's ability to evaluate what is reasonable justification. I'm sure if the professor was great, this strategy is wonderful, but it also relies on a leap of faith in terms of the student. For example, if I was a black man and the teacher was white, my essays about slavery would be not about if I learned the material but my trying to work around determining how racist a teacher might be.

Re: In the past, I've had students call my problem sets “emotionally trying”

#12
Part of the difficulty with emotional views of problem sets and tests at universities is not so much that these sorts of problem sets are emotionally trying themselves, but that from the student perspective, going between institutions and class levels, the style, grading and expectations for problem sets and tests can change quite quickly. While I strongly prefer the sorts of problem sets being described, and preferred them as a student once I got used to them, it is likely helpful to have these sorts of explicit clarifications, even in situations where you might assume that students will already be acclimated to a particular style. For students taking unusual pathways through courses, they may not have been around for previous mentions in prior classes, may be taking a class out of their field or usual level, or may be more used to a institution, field, department, or simply instructors, with different expectations.

Going from secondary school or community college to lower division undergraduate classes, upper division undergraduate classes, and graduate classes, depending on circumstances and field, you can, in a few years, go from assignments where you have 60 questions you are expected to be able to answer, and getting 50 right will result in a poor grade or even failing, to assignments where answering 3 out of 5 is considered great. Without context, it can be terrifying to get a problem set where you assume that having trouble with a problem means you don't understand the material well, when in reality it's expected that you won't finish it perfectly even as an excellent student.

In my undergraduate experience, going from a community college, to upper division undergraduate physics courses, to graduate physics courses taken in my senior year, I went, from the finals one term to the midterms of the next, from classes where I walked into tests expecting that I should be able to answer every question perfectly, to classes where my 70% score on the midterm (of a handful of questions) was considered an excellent result, with no explicit indication beforehand that this would be the case. That switch was only a year before I was in a small graduate class where answering two out of four questions correctly on an assignment merited a congratulatory email from the professor. Even rationally having a sense that the expectations and styles were changing, it can be a massive, rapid shift.

Re: In the past, I've had students call my problem sets “emotionally trying”

#13
post #2

via https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1614958291066535936

Paul Graham: > The reason his students find his problem sets "emotionally trying" is that they're getting a taste of what real work is like. Which Shengwu Li seems to disagree with, since the author retweeted this thread: https://twitter.com/bradchattergoon/status/16151056145600839... > Good on SL for setting expectations but I also want to comment a bit. If research is all about being comfortable with uncertainty, w…

Grade inflation exacerbates this problem. The straight A student of today might have been the straight B student of 40 years ago. Meanwhile, the student of 40 years ago that was exceptional in some subjects but mediocre in others can today only get an A for exceptional work, but may get a B for what used to be C level work. Truly exceptional work does not pay in grades anymore, only reliability.

Now, reliability is a very important skill, but it should not be the only thing measured .

Re: In the past, I've had students call my problem sets “emotionally trying”

#14

Problem sets for a second year PhD? Is that common in the US?

Yes, the first two years in STEM Ph.D. programs are typically coursework-heavy and include qualification exams as part of your courses. You must pass X quals, of which Y must be from this subset. Because of this, if you leave the program after the first two years, they will often issue a terminal master's degree as a consolation.

Ah ok, I have no such examinations.

Do most in the US start their PhD from a Bachelors degree?

I had a masters degree prior to starting my PhD. It is also possible to start a PhD with a Bachelors, however you wouldn't likely be awarded a masters degree if you failed to complete

Re: In the past, I've had students call my problem sets “emotionally trying”

#15
That takes me back to third year applied mathematics in the 1980s.

Small class, seriously smart hard working ederly professor notorious for setting conjectures from whatever areas of interest he currently had as exam questions.

Failure was not even trying to answer, grading was scaled on how many you had a shot at and what kind of dent you made on them in the hour.

Fun times.

Re: In the past, I've had students call my problem sets “emotionally trying”

#16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First year is general classes (e.g. in economics that would be Micro, Macro, Econometrics, etc), 2nd year is classes more specific to your area of study.

What about the following years? In my PhD in the UK, I had three months of part-time classes and then onto my research. Just curious, as I didn't realise it was such a difference

PhD programs in the US and elsewhere are different: most PhD programs in the US are significantly longer, and could be seen as combined Master's and PhD programs, admitting students directly after their undergraduate degrees. The first year or two could be seen as more of a Master's program, and many programs give Master's degrees at some point in the process (some by request, such that the difference between having a Master's and not having one can be whether you decided to file a form or not). There can also be a certain filtering process at some point in the process, with some form of qualifying exams with three possible results of failing, being given a Master's degree but not being permitted to continue in the program, and continuing on to a PhD.

The result is that for many PhD programs, the first year or two transitions from being fully class-based (though often very small classes) to more and more research, and then finally a switch to having no classes, and only research (and teaching).

Re: In the past, I've had students call my problem sets “emotionally trying”

#17

If you set this expectation up front, and explain the premise, this rules. If you simply present problems to students without this caveat, you are being needlessly cruel. It seems like the author found a good approach.

This was my initial reaction also. I can deal with approaches that are unusual, but don't surprise me with it.

Re: In the past, I've had students call my problem sets “emotionally trying”

#18
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about the following years? In my PhD in the UK, I had three months of part-time classes and then onto my research. Just curious, as I didn't realise it was such a difference

PhD programs in the US and elsewhere are different: most PhD programs in the US are significantly longer, and could be seen as combined Master's and PhD programs, admitting students directly after their undergraduate degrees. The first year or two could be seen as more of a Master's program, and many programs give Master's degrees at some point in the process (some by request, such that the difference between having…

Great to know. Thank you

Re: In the past, I've had students call my problem sets “emotionally trying”

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the first two years in STEM Ph.D. programs are typically coursework-heavy and include qualification exams as part of your courses. You must pass X quals, of which Y must be from this subset. Because of this, if you leave the program after the first two years, they will often issue a terminal master's degree as a consolation.

Ah ok, I have no such examinations. Do most in the US start their PhD from a Bachelors degree? I had a masters degree prior to starting my PhD. It is also possible to start a PhD with a Bachelors, however you wouldn't likely be awarded a masters degree if you failed to complete

Most often than not yes.

Some will continue after a master's. Still, they will usually need to change universities (or at least go through the full selection process again), so if you're interested in a Ph.D., you should apply for that rather than a master's.

For that reason, most master's programs in the US are professional degrees, not research ones.

Also, almost no university advertises or promises a terminal master's degree. It is a very subjective process as well.

Re: In the past, I've had students call my problem sets “emotionally trying”

#20
The extra-credit question on one of my finals in grad school was: "What is the time-resolved fluorescence of a fluorophore in 4 spatial dimensions?" We had covered 2D and 3D cases in class. my housemate started the question on Friday night (after finishing the regular questions) and was done some time Monday- she said it was pretty hard problem that involved deriving several new equations for 4 spatial dimensions, throw in some tensor calculus, finally some ugly integrals, and then out pops an analytical expression.

I didn't even attempt it because I knew it would be beyond emotionally trying.

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