Since I've been my professional program, I've run into several professors with tenure who have absolute disdain for their students. We can't ask questions without them responding to us like we're stupid. They present the information in a way that makes sense to them, and either won't or can't clarify. Hey, @$$holes, we haven't been doing this stuff for 20 years. We don't get it unless it's properly taught to us, especially when there's not even a textbook for the course! One in particular tries to blame our poor performance on test anxiety, us not reading the question thoroughly, any factor other than her incompetence as a teacher. And because the b*tch has tenure there's NOTHING the Dean can do about it. She's consistantly handed out at least 20 D's a semester for the past several years, which is ridiculous when in the rest of our classes we average A's and B's. When 40% of the class is in D range or below at this point in the semester, that doesn't reflect badly on us as students, it's HER. All we can do is show up at office hours and hope she'll remember where she put her soul.
I don't think that professors should pass us when we don't deserve it, but we've been busting our @$$ for this course - we're trying. It doesn't help that the practice problems don't reflect the material we've been taught either. Professors like this make the university and our program look bad.
