I’m an electrical engineering student, and I just want to see what kind of power students actually have in situations like this.
I took Electromagnetic Fields this semester, which I know is already considered one of the hardest EE classes. I expected it to be difficult. What I didn’t expect was a professor who genuinely might be the worst instructor I’ve had so far.
During the final exam, the entire class was clearly struggling with one of the problems. Instead of that being a sign that maybe the material wasn’t taught well, the professor literally started teaching during the final. He went to the board and began explaining the problem step-by-step. Then it turned into him basically solving and explaining 3 out of the 5 questions on the exam in real time.
That alone felt insane to me. If students can’t do half the exam without the professor reteaching it during the final, what does that say about the course?
On top of that, there were two questions on the exam that I had never seen before in my life. I did all the homework, studied the practice problems, and reviewed everything we were given. But professors always have deniability because they can point to one random lecture slide and say, “Well technically I mentioned it.”
I understand difficult classes are part of engineering. I’m not asking for easy exams. But there’s a difference between a challenging course and a badly taught one.
Has anyone else dealt with professors like this? And realistically, do students have any actual recourse in situations like this?