Posted by alexandra_k on September 12, 2014, at 19:44:04
In reply to Re: perfect weather » Lamdage22, posted by alexandra_k on September 12, 2014, at 16:22:58
well, i finally got a physical copy of Campbells Bio. 9th edition, softcover, since that is what is being stocked here... I did send out an email to inquire about whether the edition is likely to change for next year... But... Too bad. I decided. We only need Campbell's for cellular stuff (mostly using the anatomy and physiology book) so...
Working my way through it... I should have done it at the start of the year, yeah.
Important thing is: Now I know.
For all the advise that support staff give about moving to computers and not printing or having physical copies... It is all just so much... B*llsh*t. I really did give it an honest go and... It is not for me. I'll get all the books for next year... In enough time to read through them properly over the summer.
It makes me angry that people advise me when they don't know me half as well as I know myself, they haven't thought about it half as long or as hard as I have thought about it, and the consequences to them of a wrong decision are really... Negligible. It makes me angry that they pretend to be in the position to advise me, they pass themselves off as knowing more about it than I would and they... Screw me over.
Over and over...
I think... At the ripe old age of nearly 36 I have learned: Most people really are full of it.
University support services... Health support services... Whatever whatever whatever support services... People who get off on telling people what to do... Who like to puff themselves up to feel important telling other people what to do...
Sigh.
My main flaw was not to have realised this ages ago... Though I suppose something something about having the power to do otherwise...
Anyway... It is a bit tricky because they might update the textbooks for next year. In which case I'll be stuck with an older edition. I realise that it only matters insofar as they choose to make extensive use of the textbooks people's assessment stuff.
I've been doing some of the online assessment from Campbells... And the bio department had some available too... And our test that we just had... And I'll admit that I'm far from impressed, actually. There were questions that struck me as... Unfair.
For example, Campbell's Bio has a particular chapter in mind when they ask you a question. Which makes their questions somewhat arbitrary. A test of your textbook knowledge (their textbook) rather than your knowledge more generally. For example... Is it an important feature of life that it be based on carbon? The answer to that depends on your perspective... From the perspective of chapter one no, it is not. We could find life on other planets that is not based on carbon. From the perspective of chapter four yes, it is. Carbon is in a fairly unique position of being able to share 4 covalent bonds and form rings and so on...
There were aspects like that in our last test. Some of the stuff... We haven't covered yet. I think it was from later sections of the textbook... There was a question on finding an individual that looked like it was a member of a particular species but then finding that its internal organs were smaller. That threw me. It still does. I mean... I said it could have been a female with smaller parts. It could have been a juvenile with smaller parts. It could have a form of dwarfism. It could have growth hormone issues... We haven't covered any of that... Of course I know that some things look superficially like a member of a partiucular species but then they turn out to have DIFFERENT internal features (e.g., coelom, hearts, complete digestive tracts etc) like with all the different worm-y things... But different sized organs? wtf?
The textbook has questions that... Go well beyond the text. Questions that aren't fair game (IMHO) from the textbook and some reasoning... I think... I really do think... That I'm smart enough such that when the reasoning is explained to me (or the answer is revealed) I should be able to see / make sense of it / go on in the same way. When I can't... Well... I'll admit I start to wonder about the integrity / authenticity / non-randomness of the test. Anyway... I suppose everyone is in the same boat... But of course if the textbook people are providing the multi-guess and other questions then having their latest version is crucial... They move sections around into different chapters and so on and so forth precisely to penalise you for not having the most recent version.
Educational profiteering. Etc.
I'm betting that an international edition of the 10th won't be out by the start of next year. It is important to make sure that outside north america people have different textbooks... I mean... How else are you going to protect the whole paying for your kids private US educational privilege thing????
The arbitrary thing upsets me... Like... Making an arbitrary analogy (bases are like letters, triplets like syllables... Q: what is analogous to the whole genome)? Just... Stupid questions. In the sense that it is just an analogy. I guess the idea is... You can change the arbitrary analogy for the next edition and change the questions accordingly and thereby penalise students for not having the most recent version of the textbook. Again... Educational profiteering. Somehow your ability to remember the latest arbitrary analogy is a measure of your.... Uh. what? parental investment?
ffs.
poster:alexandra_k
thread:1070931
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20140828/msgs/1071053.html