Hardest University/College course ever taken?

[Armando Esteban Quito]

What has been the hardest university/college course you've ever taken and explain why that was. Was the material just too difficult for you to grasp? Did your professor make it impossible to pass the class? Did you have some underlying hardships outside of school that affected you during the time ? Whatever it was, please feel free to share. Thanks.

[Queen B]

What has been the hardest university/college course you've ever taken and explain why that was. Was the material just too difficult for you to grasp? Did your professor make it impossible to pass the class? Did you have some underlying hardships outside of school that affected you during the time ? Whatever it was, please feel free to share. Thanks.
Hardest to comprehent was a course called ''Flexible robotic units''.

The one that was more furstrating though , was biology in high school. I disliked it, and I couldn't remember a page, even if I just read about it. Plus , the teacher was a huge ass.

[Vasconcelos]

Any structural engineering course is difficult for me, I always have trouble with them. No wonder I went for a specialization in Hydraulics and Water Resources.

The hardest on my masters is Structural Design, the teachers usually say that if you haven't passed on all previous courses related to it, you'd be better off not even trying. They do like to make it hard.
Know a lot of people who finished all other courses, masters thesis included, but are still failing at these exams.

[Armando Esteban Quito]

Any structural engineering course is difficult for me, I always have trouble with them. No wonder I went for a specialization in Hydraulics and Water Resources.

The hardest on my masters is Structural Design, the teachers usually say that if you haven't passed on all previous courses related to it, you'd be better off not even trying. They do like to make it hard.
Know a lot of people who finished all other courses, masters thesis included, but are still failing at these exams.

Were you able to score high grades in the engineering courses? By the way, how are the exams formatted? Is it free-response questions or multiple choice or a mix of both? Thanks for sharing.

[Vasconcelos]

Were you able to score high grades in the engineering courses? By the way, how are the exams formatted? Is it free-response questions or multiple choice or a mix of both? Thanks for sharing.

It depends on the subject:

On courses related to construction and management I get good grades, but not too high.
On geotechnical courses I suck, because they are usually related to stuctural stuff. If they are about geology then it's even worse, because I find those really uninteresting.
On Transportation courses I have okay grades.
On Hydraulics related stuff I have high/very high grades (for instance my latest hydrological modelling project was rated 19 out of 20, and I did it with high fever lol).



Basically the more I like something, the more motivation I have and thus I get better grades.
I also really dislike studying, but doing practical projects is something that I find fulfilling. I'm a very practical and pragmatic person, theory annoys me.

[Queen B]

Basically the more I like something, the more motivation I have and thus I get better grades.
I also really dislike studying, but doing practical projects is something that I find fulfilling. I'm a very practical and pragmatic person, theory annoys me.
You should focus on studying mister, instead of watch world cup and chatting :lol:

[Vasconcelos]

You should focus on studying mister, instead of watch world cup and chatting :lol:

I know, gorgeous..but it's also your fault, if you weren't so interesting and fun to chat with I wouldn't be so distracted! ;)

[Queen B]

I know, gorgeous..but it's also your fault, if you weren't so interesting and fun to chat with I wouldn't be so distracted! ;)
Damn, you spill my secret out in public for the apricity to read :icon_redface:
Well, if you weren't interesting and fun yourself, I would talk to you either !

Btw, we are both engineers :thumb001:

[Vasconcelos]

Were you able to score high grades in the engineering courses? By the way, how are the exams formatted? Is it free-response questions or multiple choice or a mix of both? Thanks for sharing.

Forgot the second question, sorry.


The overwhelming majority of my exams are free-response, usually envolving a lot of calculations.
I've had a new multiple choice exams, but they usually require us to read though a dreadful amount of stuff (for instance 3000 powerpoint slides + class notes), so they can get really hard if the exam has many trick questions - and let's be honest, there is no way anyone can actually know all that shit by heart in one semester.

[Ianus]

Econometry

[cally]

Biochemical Basis of Therapeutics
Physical Pharmaceutics
Formulation and Analysis of Drugs
Gastrointestinal Systems and Skin

[Hithaeglir]

Physics (high school) : I always sucked at it and i still do.With lots of studying i managed to have a good grade.Same goes for uni since we had Physics on the first semester and i had to retake the class three times .

Physiology (university) : I think that my hardships with this one are related to the fact that it's strongly related to physics.

Funny thing is that i never had a problem with Pharmacology.Go figure.

[Hithaeglir]

..

[Minesweeper]

Contemporary political theory, it isn't that hard and I loved it but we have like 1200 pages of text which is too much considering I am a first year student who still stinks of high school.

Anyway, I got the highest mark and expressions on the faces of students who can't pass that exam for 6 or 7 years was priceless. xD

[Armando Esteban Quito]

The hardest class I've taken so far is Anatomy that was at a medical school level. Out of 30-40 students, only 12 were left at the end of the class. I don't know how I did it but I passed the class with a 'B' grade. The professor would have a pop quiz every class day and sometimes would have up to two in a day!! We had 5 exams (apart from the final) and each had a total of 250-300 questions and was 3 hours long might I add. ON top of having multiple choice, we had free response, and histology slides which we had to identify. We also had dissections in the class.

I have no complaints though because I will retain the material without a doubt. The professor was the harshest but best I've ever had.

[Damião de Góis]

It was called "Physics III". It focused on electromagnetism... basically it was too out of place from the degree i was taking. Lack of interest and context made it difficult.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0O03GEa05IM/UUYWOHzC-UI/AAAAAAAAAjo/ZnSSPWnRFx4/s1600/ejercicio+resuelto+campo+magnetico.JPG

[Incal]

Anything that had numbers in it.

[Hawksnow]

Probably statistical thermodynamics or abstract algebra. Just brutal, that's all I can say. Also, warning: do not sign up for a course called 'pseudorandomness' if you're doing computer science.

[Veneda]

During my college times my nightmare was statistics :(

[Scholarios]

Comparative syntax and semantics graduate course.

[Amud]

So far, the hardest courses for me have been Differential Equations and Physics II (Electricity and Magnetism). Diff EQ was hard because it was all about memorizing and applying complex algorithms, rather than any actual reasoning or problem solving. I could do rote stuff like that if I really put in the time to memorize it, but courses where I can rely on my logic and reasoning to get me through require much less effort. And the Electricity and Magnetism course, well, let's just say that subject is not for me. I found it very confusing and hard to comprehend. Mechanics was much, much easier for me.

People usually say Organic Chem is very hard, but I made it through both semesters without any issues.

[Prisoner Of Ice]

One where we tried to prove unsolved problems of this nature:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_equilibrium

[Stefan]

Mathematical Methods for Physicists I suppose was the course where I knew the least content, but I still got an A in it because the curve was so high and we got extra credit for attendance. For example: In one problem on our first test, we would pretty much have to repeat a simple derivation of the curl, div, grad and volume/area elements in spherical/cylindrical coordinates, but instead in something like prolate spheroidal coordinates (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prolate_spheroidal_coordinates), all within the span of a 15 minutes portion of a test without any formula sheet and all from memory. Also, we had huge and annoying multiple integrals to do which were very mistake prone, and all had their own obscure technique which we only talked about for maybe a minute in hours and hours of class, again 15 minutes per question. That was only the first test, which I remember was the easiest of the two mid-terms and the final. I think I got somewhere between a 40-50% on that test, and still, I ended up with an A in the class because that was an average grade, and I did better on the next two which were on Surface Integrals, Line Integrals, Fourier Series, Laplace Transforms, etc.

[cally]

So it seems maths-related courses are the hardest

[Iloko]

Chemistry

[michal3141]

Requiring the biggest amount of work/time spent/projects:

- Operating Systems
- Distributed Systems

Both heavy courses with extremely time-consuming programming assignments.

The most abstract/mathematical heavy:

- Functional Analysis (It wasn't called this way exactly but very related)
- Computational Complexity Theory
- Theory of Formal Languages and Automata

[Caveat Emptor]

So far, the hardest courses for me have been Differential Equations and Physics II (Electricity and Magnetism). Diff EQ was hard because it was all about memorizing and applying complex algorithms, rather than any actual reasoning or problem solving. I could do rote stuff like that if I really put in the time to memorize it, but courses where I can rely on my logic and reasoning to get me through require much less effort. And the Electricity and Magnetism course, well, let's just say that subject is not for me. I found it very confusing and hard to comprehend. Mechanics was much, much easier for me.

People usually say Organic Chem is very hard, but I made it through both semesters without any issues.

THIS

[Óttar]

Statistics. I spent the entire three hours on the final exam and received a C in the course.

[Westbrook]

Multivariable Calculus made me want to suck a bullet through the back of my skull

[MissMischief]

Civil Procedural Law was quite a nightmare.

[Dandelion]

Chemical engineering.

[AphroditeWorshiper]

Statistics. I spent the entire three hours on the final exam and received a C in the course.

Damn

I had Statistics this year on University, I was terrible on this, now it's my wost nightmare, because since I was bad, I will need to do again :cry2

[Myanthropologies]

Cell Biology. Cell Biology at my university makes Organic Chemistry look like a walk in the park lol. However, this is in large part due to the professor being extremely garbage.

[Khamzat]

I don’t know about course but the module I found hardest in law school was EU law, not really because it’s complicated more to do with the module being mind numbingly boring

[StevenTylerAerosmith]

booty bop dance class