If it’s a low level class, a 100 or 200, it’s probably student ineptitude. If it’s a high level course, I would expect a lot more people to pass. I work in a law school and if we see a lot of students failing one professor, it’s generally a sign that professor has a chip on their shoulder.
This. It’s quite common that first or second semester courses are used to filter out students, but after the second semester that shouldn’t happen.
It’s useful to filter out people early, before significant time and effort was invested (both by the student and the staff), but mass-failing people in later courses is bad design.
Or, sometimes, their are that weird brand of « great at teaching but totally forgot this is not a graduate class »… there are quite some proofs like this in my uni now, and convincing them, every semester, that asking for active research results in a 1h30’ test during the fourth semester is NOT reasonable is a pain every time.
On the positive note, all their students are great at the subject matter and significantly more advanced than expected… if they didn’t give up completely
Or they’re bad at teaching, I’ve had both experiences.
If it’s a low level class, a 100 or 200, it’s probably student ineptitude. If it’s a high level course, I would expect a lot more people to pass. I work in a law school and if we see a lot of students failing one professor, it’s generally a sign that professor has a chip on their shoulder.
This. It’s quite common that first or second semester courses are used to filter out students, but after the second semester that shouldn’t happen.
It’s useful to filter out people early, before significant time and effort was invested (both by the student and the staff), but mass-failing people in later courses is bad design.
Or, sometimes, their are that weird brand of « great at teaching but totally forgot this is not a graduate class »… there are quite some proofs like this in my uni now, and convincing them, every semester, that asking for active research results in a 1h30’ test during the fourth semester is NOT reasonable is a pain every time.
On the positive note, all their students are great at the subject matter and significantly more advanced than expected… if they didn’t give up completely