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A little rant against my school's policy on failing students (and pairing them with good ones).
I'm currently studying software engineering, I'm in my second year, and now we've got to do a project.
There's nothing wrong with the project itself but there is with the person I'm doing the project with.
The programming language is Java, which we learned in our first year, and he failed his exams twice.
You're allowed to fail for a few subjects if you pass them in your second year and he's doing them at the end of the second year.
This is my problem. I have to complete a project with a team member that lacks the necessary skills. He's not great with UML (the second thing he failed for) and he's dyslexic which means I can't put him on documentation duty.
The teacher (which is supposed to guide us)a said I'll just have to teach him because such situations also happen in 'real life'. Isn't teaching their job?
Nonetheless, I have tried to take his advice but I can't get my team mate to understand OOP concepts.
This isn't the first time I've been in this situation but I do want it to be the last.
So, what should I do? Ask another teacher's opinion? Make the project alone and hope for the best?
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nbgangsta wrote: The teacher (which is supposed to guide us)a said I'll just have to teach him because such situations also happen in 'real life'.
If you turn in a passing project and this guy gets credit the work force gets another dope with a degree.
Maybe you should find a different school - or drop the class and take it again somewhere else.
It doesn't sound like a school interested in excellence.
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You're passing judgment on the school based on one instructor?
I ran the Computer Science department at a local private college for 2 years, and I had 14 instructors. Some were good, some were not.
This could very well be an issue with the instructor. To recommend that he change schools because of one issue seems a bit drastic.
If it's not broken, fix it until it is
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The instructions from the instructor are so bad that I've a hard time accepting the idea that someone can pass off that advice without it being a policy of some sort. Sure, take it to the dean and if he gives the same "it's the real world" advice take your money elsewhere - because, that too happens in the real world.
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The difference is that he's PAYING for this education. The school is a business, and he's the customer. Deal with it like any other business complaint - take it to management.
If it's not broken, fix it until it is
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Kevin Marois wrote: The difference is that he's PAYING for this education. The school is a business,
and he's the customer.
That wouldn't seem to be the case in the US. In the standard institution getting rid of tenured professor is basically impossible. And in larger institutions an individual student is a trivial participant in the economics. The larger schools make a great deal of money from governments, companies, donations, sales, etc all of which a single complaint about a the process of a professor is unlikely to ever even be seen. And a student leaving is a trivial event given often there are waiting lists for admissions and the drop out rates are so high.
It is however possible to get some action if more than one person complains. But, again noting the tenure of a professor and other classes they might teach, one might want to be sure that they really want to fight the good fight before challenging the one that hands out the grades.
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MehGerbil wrote: The instructions from the instructor are so bad that I've a hard time accepting
the idea that someone can pass off that advice without it being a policy of some
sort.
Certainly not my experience.
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He did note that it was the "school's policy".
That sounds like a valid call to move on as they're making their failures his failures.
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I would use the term "F*ck Him".
Do it yourself and let him sink or swim on his own.
It is not your fault he is dyslexic, and you are not a qualified teacher.
If he was too lazy or too thick to pass after the first attempt then that is his problem not yours.
---------------------------------
Obscurum per obscurius.
Ad astra per alas porci.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur .
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Do it all yourself and at the viva let him answer the questions - you will get the credit and he will get to look like an arse...
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Or, you could try to teach him.
It's surprising what you can learn by teaching people, particularly about a subject you thought you knew well.
In a way, it's a compliment: the teacher is saying "I think you are good enough to do this"
In a way he is right: You do meet this in the real world, and if you can't cope with it there it's a lot more expensive for you than finding it out now. In the real world, you could be saddled with a waste of oxygen for ten years - and have to do his work as well as your own...
The only instant messaging I do involves my middle finger.
English doesn't borrow from other languages.
English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.
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OriginalGriff wrote: In the real world, you could be saddled with a waste of oxygen for ten years - and have to do his work as well as your own...
Sounds like you speak from experience. Who got saddled with you? 
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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All of them did, obviously! 
The only instant messaging I do involves my middle finger.
English doesn't borrow from other languages.
English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.
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You're right, I could take it as a compliment... if he knew me at all (he doesn't know my background/skill).
In the real life scenario, can't you 'expose' him to your boss by performing code review with some of your peers (assuming he's not the only peer you have)?
In my situation, that would be showing the line where he tries to cast an int to a string when he should be using toString().
The first rule of CListCtrl is you do not talk about CListCtrl - kornman
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The dream's of innocence, how cute.
In the real world, that dumb-feck is there because he's the boss's brother/son/mate and you've gotta man up, grow a pair and carry the retardon.
speramus in juniperus
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Dats da kitty!
The only instant messaging I do involves my middle finger.
English doesn't borrow from other languages.
English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.
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Having taught college, I recommend that you make one more attempt to talk to the instructor. Tell him that you have made every effort to help this other student, but it's not working.
If you don't get results, then go speak to the instructor's boss, typically the head instructor or Dean of Students.
If it's not broken, fix it until it is
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Good advice. 
/ravi
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Welcome to the real world. 
It's not going to get any better after you graduate and get a job. 
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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nbgangsta wrote: Nonetheless, I have tried to take his advice but I can't get my team mate to understand OOP concepts.
There's an old teacher saying, "if the learner hasn't learnt, the teacher hasn't taught". It could be that you don't understand OOP well enough to teach it - and this exercise is a great way for you to solidify this knowledge yourself.
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There is a lot of truth in that.
I can do OOP but I can't always explain it to someone who barely knows the subject.
Teaching is the best way to understand the matter, that much is true, but I don't have the time to do it.
This gets frustrating when the person doesn't see the difference between casting to a string and use the toString() method (which is the case).
That difference tells me that almost nothing of the classes he's taken have stuck with him.
The first rule of CListCtrl is you do not talk about CListCtrl - kornman
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Pete O'Hanlon wrote: It could be that you don't understand OOP well enough to teach it
That pretty much is an excellent reason for someone not to be teaching it.
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nbgangsta wrote: The programming language is Java, which we learned in our first year, and he failed his exams twice.
That's just ridiculous, unless that course was somehow over a million times as hard as the one I followed back in university. My guinea pigs could pass that course.
nbgangsta wrote: So, what should I do?
Can you afford to fail this class and re-take it? That should probably be the very last back-up plan, because it's terrible. It does have the nice effect of not letting that sucker that you got teamed with pass.
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Just do the work your self, in the end of the day it's your grades that will suffer if you don't get it done.
What's up with your user name? Are you in a gang?
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About my name: I made it years ago and when all that stuff was cool.
I kind of regret that now.
I'm changing my username 
The first rule of CListCtrl is you do not talk about CListCtrl - kornman
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