Incompetence rules...

[Elevz]

I wish the world wasn't filled with clueless incompetent idiots. They've even taken over the goddamned university...

For a introductory course on cultural anthropology, I was given the assignment to write a cultural autobiography. The idea is simple: describe your life and the things that influenced you. After finishing up a first version, I was told to put it online for an anonymous fellow student to give me feedback on it. After a few days waiting, I got word that they found my essay slash autobiography too complex and too literary. Could I please tone it down somewhat for the final version, so that any fellow student could grasp the meaning of it all? Guess what - I sold my soul to the devil and did just that for the final version. The result is a text that's accessible, always straight to the point and very much structured... And still this fucker didn't understand it. How fucking incompetent can you get? You're attending a university, and you don't know the meaning behind accurate every day words? You don't know how to read a text and extract the meaning of what's being said? Get a fucking grip.

By means of a special exception they'll allow me to redo my text once more and they'll actually let the professor look at it. I guess I'll have to tone it down so much that any fool could grasp the watered down version of me, because apparently they don't appreciate accuracy and a refined writing style.

The university is dumbed down to a level where the meek have become the standard, and anything above that will have to adjust to that. That's the end of science, right there. Kill the competence, and let the incompetent rule. They've got me down to a point where I'm doubtful about doing any work for a university in the future. That's a John Galt-move, I know. But fuck them.

[virtuoso]

Hey I don't think it's a question of incompetence , there maybe individual incompetence of course, but it's more a question of what you yourself have recognised, a systematic means of dumbing us all down. Why would there be an educational basis of dumbing down? because it allows them who control information to mould and shape you, in the hierarchy, they need to hold the power and knowledge is power. What was done in terms of subjecting to you towards rewriting your work, was a very blatant example of them trying to condition you to think along a more narrow linear simplistic path. I must admit I have never heard of a university asking someone to rewrite an essay but even something as basic as telling you what you must include in your body of work, i.e. the details of the issue from from which the assignment is based, is steering your thinking. The fuckery starts from the moment we enter school man it's just I didn't become consciously aware of that, until I was in uni.

[Tay]

Wow, that's pretty ridiculous. In the U.S., we have laws that kind of put that kind of thinking into effect. The standardized testings and the No Child Left Behind act prefer to have everybody slow down instead of expressing their knowledge. But now it messes up your story and distances it from the original meaning. Reminds me of a Joe Budden lyric, "When you dumb it down, it gets harder to understand".

[Nat Turner-reincarnated]

thats truly ashame.........for real........if that nigga cant overstand that he need to step hi reading/ grammar up ridiculous

[Sikotic™]

I know the feeling, my man. I recently wrote a paper on the dynamics of insulin and it's mechanics within the human body and because I wrote more than everybody else and put more detail into my paper, I got 50% credit. The professor's reasoning behind doing this: I wrote too much.

Less is more and more is less nowadays. The educational system is fucked, we just all have to play the game.

[virtuoso]

Great point I always used to ask my teachers but why is there a maximum word limit and the response I got was because as much as anything it's a test of your ability to concisely codify information. I always thought it was bullshit but never really appreciated what that really is doing, name;y it's suppressing your ability to express and convey information. For some reason i had completely overlooked that when I was thinking of what 123 had written.

[7even]

In the big tests with hundreds of people participating, it is always annoying to me that eloquent writing is useless or even hurtful because they will just look for certain things to be mentioned and move on... as long as you ain't the one who's running things you will have to adapt to whichever system you're in, whether you admit it or not.

[Elevz]

In the U.S., we have laws that kind of put that kind of thinking into effect. The standardized testings and the No Child Left Behind act prefer to have everybody slow down instead of expressing their knowledge.

Which is basically what already happened to me in primary school. I was always bored to death and started tinkering with random objects, a scissor and some glue. You can't imagine how devastating boredom is to ambition...

as long as you ain't the one who's running things you will have to adapt to whichever system you're in, whether you admit it or not.

Which is why I'm now thinking, maybe I shouldn't even want to be a part of that system. Fuck them. I'll come in, and grab whatever knowledge I'm looking for, not giving a shit about a GPA or an academic future. I don't want that system, so I might as well get out of the way and rebel against it.

[7even]

Well, everybody will think "rebelling" is an euphemism for you not being capable. If you get a bad GPA people will just think you suck. Apart from making an idealistic point (that only few people, at best, will notice) I don't see a reason to do so. I say you wait until your emotions cooled off before you make a decisive decision.

[Elevz]

Well, everybody will think "rebelling" is an euphemism for you not being capable. If you get a bad GPA people will just think you suck. Apart from making an idealistic point (that only few people, at best, will notice) I don't see a reason to do so. I say you wait until your emotions cooled off before you make a decisive decision.

Props lol

[Sikotic™]

That's the sad dilemma: acquiring knowledge vs. beating the system. It's becoming almost impossible to do both now. For example, I WANT to take a Biochemistry course this fall. Not only will I gain a lot of valuable knowledge from it, but it would give me a head start when I begin graduate school. The downside: it is highly likely to lower my GPA because of the difficulty of the course, thus limiting my options for medical school. I've been advised by most people I've talked to not to take it because it will hurt my numbers.

How retarded is that?

[LyRiCaL_G]

That's the sad dilemma: acquiring knowledge vs. beating the system. It's becoming almost impossible to do both now. For example, I WANT to take a Biochemistry course this fall. Not only will I gain a lot of valuable knowledge from it, but it would give me a head start when I begin graduate school. The downside: it is highly likely to lower my GPA because of the difficulty of the course, thus limiting my options for medical school. I've been advised by most people I've talked to not to take it because it will hurt my numbers.

How retarded is that?

I feel you homie, i already done my degree but right now im taking a gap year and then imma do my masters but basically what u said there is part of the reason. I did a joint degree so i had to choose my courses very carefully and at the same time i was trying to get great results and shit which matters to me aswell but i think you will find a balance. Also in my last year of uni i had to do TWO fuckin dissertations, (one was on the role and importance of culture within international business in terms of mergers and aquisitions in a globalised world...dang the literature review i had on that never ended,lol) most muthafuckas only do one so i was kinda phased out after that. This year taking a gap year before i do my masters is hella refreshing, i can do things i want to do, aquire knowledge about shit i wanted to do in uni but didnt because of the politics of the marking system and shit like that. Its also a nice way to get pre-knowledge about shit you are going to learn and shit in the future but again like you say, because of the way the system works, im now one year behind because of the way the system works and me taking a gap year leaves me a year behind in my career but ofcourse because its something i decided to do myself and feel i have achieved what i set out to do within my gap year i feel a sense of peace feel me?

Another point about the thing u said about more is less and less is more...i aint tryna be against the "student" because i still feel like one but that i can understand because you have to understand even though you may not like it and its the life career they have chosen, lecturers and the people who grade your work have lives aswell. If there was no word limit one scenario is that everyone starts writing novel size material for minor random assignments and the people who mark them do not have the time to teach/grade and have a life  of there own aswell. Anothe point is that people could write up so much yet it could be complete bullshit...again a waste of time so word limits are done to please both the people who grade the work and people who write it aswell. It also gives people a basic blueprint into what you really are capable of...how much quality shit can u right within the word limit? how rich is your work? ya dig homie?

I didnt know you was studying medicine though homie...what you want to do when its all done? I know a few cats who study medicine, one wants to be a spinal surgeon and the other a doctor! Dope shit homie! keep it up, but always remember your roots!

Thats what my homies always tell me! haha

pz!

[Sikotic™]

I feel what you're saying. The thing is though, I didn't write bullshit just to get the grade, I demonstrated that I fully understood the topic. Some people wrote bullshit and didn't understand the topic at all, but just because they only wrote a little bit, they got full credit for the assignment. She never even specified the length of the paper. My only gripe is that I proved that I learned something, but I was punished for it and not given a fair reason, but fuck it I'm over it: life isn't fair.

Congrats on the degree. Two dissertations is a crazy achievement, I would probably take a year off two if I were you. I still haven't decided what I want to go into specifically because there are so many options. I'm thinking either emergency medicine at the moment, but the more experience I gain, the more other fields interest me.

[Australian Bastard]

In the big tests with hundreds of people participating, it is always annoying to me that eloquent writing is useless or even hurtful because they will just look for certain things to be mentioned and move on...

Word. Thats exactly how it is, I learnt the hard way....for my first two years at university I always went into exams with the intention to make my writing interesting and to demonstrate how in my own way I  understood the knowledge of the course......but Ive realised that that takes too much time and nobody cares... so now I just regurgitate the specific shite we supposed to know.....at the end of the day you just a box they gonna either put a tick or a cross against.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/M_bvT-DGcWw" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/M_bvT-DGcWw</a>

[LyRiCaL_G]

I feel what you're saying. The thing is though, I didn't write bullshit just to get the grade, I demonstrated that I fully understood the topic. Some people wrote bullshit and didn't understand the topic at all, but just because they only wrote a little bit, they got full credit for the assignment. She never even specified the length of the paper. My only gripe is that I proved that I learned something, but I was punished for it and not given a fair reason, but fuck it I'm over it: life isn't fair.

thanks dawg, appreciate it but on the real what you just said there if FUCKED UP,lo...i'd be pissed too at first, but i be like that too, i just get over it,lol

pz