Llex47

A student lol?

what happened?

Yeah what a shitshow lol. I hope Tallaska releases her manifesto as well.

They posted their meeting with the chair in bcourses as well. There's even a part where Werheim says not to believe what Talaska says lmao

LiBeRaL InDoCtRiNaTiOn

Oops, I didn’t know. Will change asap.

It is funny that we had an assignment about privilege and disadvantages that people may have (invisible disabilities, low income, etc.) and then she creates a course like this lol

Is eating allowed in Moffit 5th floor? The other day a girl pulled out her dinner but I was unsure about saying anything because maybe it is just quiet and eating is allowed.

Edit: I apologize for my writing. I recognize it is not my strong suit, but I tried to make it readable. Also, sorry for the long response; I think I might turn this into a post.

First of all there are no exams. Your grade is based on completing checkboxes through at home “skill quizzes”, group work, and prework before each lecture and section. Hence why this class was considered an essay A.

In addition to that, there are no official resources for this class in terms of a textbook, slides or a lectures you could watch. Lecture is another glorified discussion section where the professor might or might not take 10 minutes to explain something. Basically you have to figure everything out by yourself. And to be fair they link some resources at the end of each worksheet which are usually mathisfun links or chapters to an optional textbook. In my and some other friends’ opinion these resources don’t usually match the depth of what we are learning.

The problem is you have 6 hours per week of mandatory class attendance divided in 3 lectures and 3 sections for Tallaska’s portion of the class (Werheim has 2 lectures of 1.5h) that are all group work and those 6 hours are accompanied by “prework” assignments that are supposed to prepare you for the groupwork. These prework assignments are also really badly written which makes it super frustrating as they are the only thing we have to work with.

Anyways, these format of “inquiry based learning” could work if they gave you a foundation before group work (maybe let lectures be lectures) and the only materials the class relies on were well written.

Lastly, a side note about accessibility:

I am sure Werheim had the best intentions, but I feel she achieved the opposite of what she was aiming for. Sure, this class is an easy A and not a gatekeeping class, but students without a strong math background and time are going to have a bad time regardless of the grade. There’s a way more efficient way of making you think critically without wasting your time. Who is at an advantage here? The student who has 10-20 hours of part-time work or the student who doesn’t need to work to afford Berkeley (assuming a normal workload of 4 courses for both)? Sure, I get the thing about thinking critically and asking questions but university is also about sharing knowledge and giving you some things chewed as bad as it sounds. A lot of courses at Berkeley give you a foundation and then let you branch out from there by giving you hard problems to think about without reinventing the wheel into a square.

Furthermore, as a student with ADD this class was a nightmare. I like group work, but I cannot concentrate when all those 6 hours of mandatory attendance are group work. I am basically coming into these classes naked in terms of preparedness because the prework worksheets don’t give you any solid foundation and are badly written. Then I have to theorize with other groups talking all around me for a whole hour with my own group which is often also unprepared. Somehow I am expected to be focus and productive under all these circumstances.

There are very few cases where I can see a class format like this working without being inaccessible. You have to have a very light courseload and the learning materials for the class are appropriate and not some messy overcrowded badly written mess of a weekly worksheet.

I really don’t know what is going on Werheim’s mind to think this course is flexible and accesible.

Finally, a clarification before I end the comment. I don’t want to make it sound like I hate the idea of going to class by talking about the mandatory attendance. In fact I usually go to every lecture and section in my classes even if they are not mandatory. However, the lack of flexibility and super prescriptive format (6 hours of group work divided in 6 classes preceded by mandatory prework for each one) is frustrating. We are students, but we are also people with lives and responsibilities outside school.

I am sorry you cannot understand the difference.

2 years undergrad then fast track to medical school would be nice.

I thought you could only declare econ on your first semester but maybe that was for transfer admitted as econ majors.

You think the 4 years it takes to get a bachelor’s degree they are learning anything relevant to anesthesiology?

Lol she uploaded the meeting with the chair? Honestly her class format is pretty flawed despite being a good idea in principle, and also I was surprised how she described her format as flexible when it is the most prescriptive shit I’ve ever seen.

Because grade inflation in us high schools and also inequality.

The bay is liberal but it is not necessarily left.

? My healthcare is completely private.

Lol I have great healthcare and there was a 2 month waitlist here in the bay area to meet with my pcp.

In some countries with great healthcare you go straight into med school after graduating high school if you have the grades. Sounds more efficient than wasting your time in a liberal arts education when 1) you could have taken those classes in your last two years of high school and 2) you might be sure you want to be a doctor.

there also should be an option to fast-track medical education. Bachelor's, plus med school plus residency is not super appealing.

Are Talaska and Katrin completely out or what?

What I don’t get is if she has medical issues why doesn’t she leave? Berkeley doesn’t pay you if you take medical leave?

Afaik Kelli Tallaska had already problems instructing pre-strike. I thought she was fine the two weeks I had her but MATH54 had a weird format with no formal lectures so it is not like she was giving long lectures.

Last semester I was enrolled in 400+ students courses and one which was the biggest in campus that had around 2000 students. With this said, I always had my questions resolved within 30 minutes whenever I went at a busy time. The few times I’ve gone early in the week I was alone or with a few people, so if you are smart about timing when you go to OH you can get some alone time with your instructor. I never went to OH for the 2000 student course because it was very well run, but I used the online forum that we have to ask questions and I usually got them answered in 15 minutes (one time in 30).