One of my favorite procrastination methods has to be completing my Q evaluations. It is the perfect outlet to either unleash my anger after a particularly hard final or to make use of all the lovely (wait—make that “fetching”) words that I’ve found after my extensive thesaurusing for my 20 page paper that used the same word a thousand times. But we all know that the Q score evals are never truly HONEST, which can be very frustrating come shopping week. So, here is a decoding of what Harvard students really mean on their Q score evals with exact quotes from the Q site.
What They Say: “You’re going to hate this class it’s a time drain and you feel like one in a crowd that no one cares about. I learned nothing.”
What They Really Mean: *channels all of teen angst into two sentences* “I waited until the night before the midterm and final to even start studying and want to pretend that it’s the teacher’s fault. And I may or may not have skipped every lecture.”
What They Say: “The lectures are awesome, and while there is a lot of reading, the class is very manageable. I cannot recommend it enough.”
What They Mean: “I read every single sentence of every single reading, and I sat on the edge of my seat for every lecture. And I probably brought my professor food during their office hours. And I’ll be ruining the curve when I finish the final in less than two hours and leave you sitting there like—“
What They Say: (Author’s Note: This was an Ec10a review.) “we need more mankiw lectures”
What They Mean: “I couldn’t take the time to capitalize any letters or add in a period, so I’ll just call out the professor. And I’m probably a freshman.”
Silly child.
What They Say: “This class is definitely a really comprehensive introduction to comparative politics. It provides a lot of theories and explanations for understanding phenomenas and events in the world (development, democratization, ethnic conflict, and revolution). I feel like I definitely gained a better perspective of global issues through this course. The only two criticisms that I had were the readings and the sections. Because of the massive amount of readings in the course, it was difficult for many students to keep up. As a result, many students did not do the readings. Unprepared for section, the discussions were shallow and irrelevant.”
What They Mean: “I used a thesaurus for 90% of the words in my review. I am either heavily procrastinating studying for this exam or I am the biggest overachiever in the world. And I identify with this girl:”
What They Say: “Ec 10 is the only introductory economics class offered at Harvard, so take it if you want to use economics in the future. However, take everything that you learn in the class with a grain of salt. Understand that the course offers a biased sample of microeconomic thinking, and claims objectivity for extremely subjective statements. Students who take Professor Mankiw on his word will leave the class believing it to be simple economic fact that raising the minimum wage increases unemployment or that the Laffer Curve has real-world implications when there is not anything close to consensus on these ideas within the economic community. The course teaches a philosophy that values profit over people and uses a logic of generalized assumptions backed up by little concrete data.”
What They Mean: “Even though the only economics class I’ve ever taken is Ec10a, I am going to criticize the class using the material I have learned. And I am going to throw in an economic term to show I *really* know what I’m talking about.”
What They Say: “This class is over-hyped. Lecture will leave you feeling like you know what’s going on, but the psets are way too time-consuming for the pertinent topics (and logical problem-solving is definitely not one of my weak points). Unless you get a lot of help from TFs (or have background/natural talent in CS), expect to feel incredibly frustrated and lost among the sea of students, many of whom have prior experience. The TFs/other students try to be helpful, but there’s a culture of closely guarding your own work. Despite Malan’s heartwarming stories and insistence that he makes the course accessible, it doesn’t really feel that way. The 2nd midterm is a clear example of this. Even though he knows every year that people do worse on the 2nd test, he still decides to dramatically increase the length and difficulty of it every year (2010: 30-some questions, 60-some points; 2011: 40-some questions, 90+ points; this year: almost 50 questions, 120+ points). Nobody I know finished the test. Lastly, sections are very hit-and-miss, with many more experienced people choosing to drop down for the easy A. My “less comfortable” section somehow had averages 5-6% higher than the class average on both midterms, which made beating the class average (what should have been a happy achievement for a less comfortable student) feel much more meaningless. Granted, I learned a lot – there’s no denying that. But, with these issues, it’s hard to see this class as the amazing experience that people claim it is.”
What They Mean: “I’m about to fail this final, but I’m not going down without a fight.”
What They Say: “Many people take this class because it is easy; I think “ridiculously lax” is a more appropriate term. You probably won’t remember anything you learned after taking this course. The readings are boring and this class will become “an annoying pest.” Not recommended.”
What They Mean: “I’m the person that complains when there isn’t section held the week of the midterm and asks for a last encore class during reading period so everyone can hang out ‘one more time.’ When I moan that the midterm was much too easy, you’ll probably look at me like—”
And there you have it, Harvard kiddos. Be sure to take your Q scores and finals seriously because it’s almost
WE GOT THIS.