From key@physics.utoronto.ca Tue Mar 25 10:01:48 2008 Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2008 10:01:47 -0400 From: Tony Key To: Apache , PHY138 TA list , Pierre Savaria Cc: Jason Harlow , Kimberly Strong , Vatche Deyirmenjian , Tony Key Subject: Re: PHY138yw Course Feedback Hi Apache: I was concerned to read your anonymous email (copy below). Of course I am concerned that the notes are not helping you, but I am more concerned that your message sounds like a cry for help. The problem is, of course, that its anonymity ensures that I am not given the opportunity to give you that help - nor is anyone else. This posting on the Bulletin Board is the best I can do. If we could communicate, I'd also want to ask the following questions, and make their implicit suggestions: 1. Are you attending lectures and tutorials regularly? 2. Do you read the notes well ahead of the lecture, and do the Pre-class quizzes? 3. Have you studied the aids (the extra problems, the worked problems, relevant problems in Knight - from where some of the problems come - or the old tests and exams)? 4. Do you check the Bulletin board regularly to read my responses to other students asking about the MP problems and other difficulties? 5. Do you attempt the MP problems well ahead of the due date, so that you can identify any difficulties in time to get help? 6. Have you come to see me? I keep regular office hours, and invite you to drop by any time you can find me, or, as many students have done, arrange an appointment. If that is not to your liking, have you visited any of the other faculty in this course, including Dr Savaria? 7. Do you have a group of friends - either in a formal study group or informally - with whom you can discuss your common difficulties? 8. Have you sent me an email explaining your specific difficulty with a problem? Many students have, and you may be one of them. 9. Finally, what has made you wait so long to let me know of your difficulties? - we are now five weeks into this section. If indeed, as I suspect, you expect to be able to do the MP problems without at least some of this sort of preparation, I am not surprised that you find them hard. Increasingly, as you mature as a student, you will find that university studies demand this sort of commitment. If you are not willing to make it, you have little right to complain. If you wish to remain anonymous, I urge you to make sure that you try the MP problems well ahead of the due date. Then if you have specific questions about specific problems, send them to me, and I will respond by a post on the Bulletin. I would also be happy to go over any of the earlier problems that you have had difficulty with. Whatever else you do, don't struggle with these difficulties alone. I realize that you may not read this message. However, my hope is that it may speak to any other students in similar circumstances. WTH indeed! TonyK Apache wrote: > subject : PHY138yw Course Feedback > Mail : Text : the supplementary notes are so pointless > its so hard to understand the calculation steps written. > every week i go do matering physics problem set w/o a clue as to how to > even start! WTH!!! > submit : Send > [ Part 2, Text/X-VCARD (charset: UTF-8 "Internet-standard ] [ Unicode") (Name: "key.vcf") 9 lines. ] [ Unable to print this part. ]