CP

Class Participation is accorded marks in many courses at WIMWI. While it encourages some to speak up, I am afraid it seems counterproductive to me. The professors claim that only good quality participation will be credited. In practice though, it is the TAs who mark us and they probably don't bother with mundane things like the relevance of the point. The more you open your mouth, the better your CP marks are likely to be.

So some start talking randomly during lectures. Their hands are always raised, whether or not they have anything worthwhile to say. If the professor is strict, they remain in some control due to their fear of being insulted. Even so, we had some really arbit CP being flung around the class on Tuesday. In economics our new professor is really soft. For him, the idea of pre-class preparation is unimportant. We were meant to read a chapter in the textbook dealing with government inteventions in a market. One of the six sections in the chapter is "The impact of a Tax or Subsidy". So, we are meant to prepare and come and the professor invites doubts. One chap raises his hand and says, "Sir, please explain the impact of taxes and subsidies." Other fellows do the same with certain other sections (None of these sections is particularly difficult). Why didn't they ask the prof to explain the entire chapter in one go? And the prof happily explains the concepts, as if we are little children in 8th standard. I was so frustrated that I simply zoned out of the class and started reading the next day's material in class. Luckily, this professor doesn't seem to want student attention either. Time saved in avoiding a repetitive lecture in class is time gained for sleeping.