<p>i plan to record lectures in class. how big are the classrooms and do professors talk loud enough for it to be recorded? do people tend to talk in class?</p>
<p>Most professors allow it, and may have a table next to where they lecture. Given this, you can put the recorder right next to the professor, so it is out of the midst of those observing the lecture (who will be talking or typing, insert any type of noise). Also, classrooms vary dramatically in size. I’d have to know what you plan on taking. I don’t think it’s necessary to record in smaller classes as they are typically discussion based, and normally employ that or visuals moreso than traditional lectures. In such classes, it is far more important to engage than to memorize or listen to and memorize what the prof. says. Large lectures are different and it could be helpful to record.</p>
<p>i plan to use it in bio 141, chem 141, and either anthropology or sociology. im debating whether to buy a voice recorder or to record it using mac and then upload to youtube so that i cant lose it. i think i heard from you that science teachers wont allow laptops to take notes (not planning to) but do you think they will allow me to use it to record? my high school teachers often used powerpoints while they teach. what is a lecture in college like?</p>
<p>chem won’t, bio does (as in allows laptops). I still don’t recommend it. Nothing more annoying than a bunch of people typing in class (It’s kind of loud in smaller lectures say 40-70). Not only that, but not notes, instead LL or FB. Completely one’s own fault, but is difficult to avoid becoming detracted and observing the doings of others in a tiered auditorium). Also, bio is smaller than chem and many profs. actually make some attempt to engage students, so it’s noticeable when you loaf off/don’t pay attention. Not having the laptop lessens temptation to do so (I sat in gen. bio at Georgia Tech which is huge and allowed laptops. Their was a high level of disengagement on the part of both parties, the prof. and students. Ours is much better if only b/c of the size ). Also, note that bio and chem profs. post their powerpoints (and some may do the blank ones so you can fill the outlines out in class).</p>
<p>i heard that in uga everything that professor says out loud can be on tests and exams. is this the same way in emory? i take notes really slow so im really really scared. how fast do professors talk in science classes like chem? do professors use the textbook in class or do most textbooks tend to stay in the dorms? how much stuff do most people carry to classes?</p>
<p>UGA’s intro. classes have 300+, ours have 50-120. And bio only has 40-100. Very different environment.
The really don’t talk that fast and you certainly don’t have to write down everything (write down the main points and read the book). Also, I’ve seen UGa gen. bio and gen. chem. It is only somewhat challenging and their classes don’t have the same structure of either Tech or Emory (they are too damned big. I was shocked when my friend said that they had no problem or SI sets. I thought UGa would go out of its way to put such support in place I guess not. They could at least do what Tech does and give some type of hw if not on your own problem sets). For one, regardless of what the profs. say, you get problem and SI sets here (thus additional exposure to material outside of class and not via a simple recitation or meeting w/a TA but through problem solving). These emphasize the material that will general material that can and will be on the exam. The only thing that you may want to pay attention to is any special topics or demos. covered in class. Also, generally professors put problems on the exams that a) reflect the problem types on SI sets AND b) require ability to apply or extrapolate. UGA seems to only employ a). The unfortunate thing is that, outside of the “book problems” (I believe they have this weird online book or something) or some in session assignment given by a TA, they don’t get exposure to type a) and thus must overly rely on the lectures (this is good and bad. It makes paying attention to lecture too crucial, but also means you shouldn’t really expect any truly challenging problems). At Emory, you must go beyond the lecture and do some learning/deeper understanding on your own and really learn it. I’ve seen a UGA biol test, and they somehow come out easier than Escobar’s (they choose the easier questions on Escobar’s tests where nearly all of the questions are already easier than everyone else. And also, don’t make this statement encourage you to take him, he sucks and you won’t learn). For one you don’t have to “really” know it, you must only “know it” in terms of what the prof. said (thus memorize facts. In UGA gen. bio, you’re not gonna get a question that says: “What do you expect this random drug that we haven’t discussed to do the cellular respiration pathways when added to Complex “X” of the electron transport chain?” And then be provided w/4 answers that sound equally plausible even if you’ve studied). Their questions are much shorter and more straightforward. Ours are generally much longer and are worded very strangely so as to trip those w/o a full understanding up. Also, the answer choices are very complex (sometimes even they are long) for many problems and it can sometimes come down to nearly identical answer choices (like ones literally w/the same meaning in some context or another, not simply, one word added or subtracted makes one right or wrong). Needless to say, in such a case, listening to the prof’s lectures over and over again will not help. You’ll need a lot of independent meddle. As for chem, while generally questions are straightforward, they all contain some types of curve balls that require higher order thinking that goes beyond simple mathematics (a deep conceptual understanding is needed).<br>
If anything, as I have advised on here, I would simply avoid any multiple choice biology teachers maybe unless it’s Spell, but she writes very cryptic tests. At least her teaching is good enough to overcome it though. Can’t say the same for Escobar. You’re on your own there and you either get it or you don’t w/him. If you don’t, he can hardly explain it in terms outside of that of the book or ppt. slides.
If you can get the case-based class, if they offer it, it is the best bet. Tests are challenging, but fair (again, the MC tests really aren’t). Expectations are clear and there is better, less distant teaching and student-faculty interaction.<br>
As for chem, all are good, but you can’t really control for their testing antics. They all have their own tricks and the difficulty of those “tricks” varies from year to year.</p>
<p>Also, they use ppt. and the board to teach stuff (I’d imagine it’s based off the book content) and they of course do demos sometimes (or frequently). You may bring your book to class if you want (you know if you plan to study afterwards or look up something and ask a question about it).</p>