Tough Professor? Get Help.
Posted by Randall Williams | Under Reference & Education Thursday Feb 11, 2010Chances are you worked hard to get yourself into college or university. Don’t let one or two difficult professors ruin your resolve to vanish what you started. You’re going to have to learn how butt heads with people of authority sooner or later; you might as well dig in and figure it out now, right? Your GPA is at stake, after all.
1. Let your professor know that you have questions. Don’t let him write your lack of understanding off as something that’s your fault, but be open to owning up to your confusion. Choose your words carefully so that you don’t assign blame his way and he should be willing to help you. When he does, listen carefully and try to give him precisely what he’s asking for even if it goes against the way you think it should be done. This particular skill is hard to learn, but it will serve you in the workplace as well. Unless you become your own boss, that is.
2. If you still can’t grasp what the professor is asking of you, get creative. Go to the internet or the library and find another way to learn what the course is covering. Your professor will never know that you learned in spite of him and you’ll get the help you need to get through the class and earn the credit you paid for.
3. Form a study group to commiserate. In addition to finding people with similar complaints, you just might compare notes and end up piecing together lecture material and learn what the difficult professor was trying to communicate. Two heads are better than one and a whole group of them just might give you the support you need to pass the class.
4. If you manage to stick it out without dropping the course and losing your tuition money, make good use of the professor evaluation at the end of the class. Your experience can be put to good use if it helps students in the future.
College is an excellent transition from childhood to adulthood. You’ll be going through all kinds of things while on that campus and hopefully, even be able to turn a bad experience into a lesson learned. The occasional difficult professor is likely someone you’ll never forget but chalk it up to a growing pain and move on.
Randall Williams is a school administrator who writes a weekly blog on online degrees and online colleges.
