For Those Who Are Currently In, or Have Gone Through College, What Was The Hardest Final You'Ve Ever Taken - AskReddit

12/13/2018 For those who are currently in, or have gone through college, what was the hardest
at was the hardest final you’ve ever taken? : AskReddit
≡ POPULAR ALL RANDOM ASKREDDIT WORLDNEWS VIDEOS FUNNY TODAYILEARNED PICS GAMING MOVIES NEWS GIFS MILDLYINTE
MORE »
Want to join? Log in or sign up in seconds.
COMMENTS
Welcome to Reddit. ×
Come for the cats, stay for Ask a question
the empathy.
BECOME A REDDITOR and start [ SERIOUS ]

exploring.
search
For those who are currently in, or have
783 gone through college, what was the
hardest final you’ve ever taken? Submitted on 13 Dec 2018
(self.AskReddit)
submitted 19 hours ago by Bcunningham3

1113 comments share save hide report 783
(91% upvoted)
https://redd.it/a5o8gu
top 200 comments show 500
username password
sorted by: best

remember me reset password login
Want to add to the discussion?

Welcome to /r/AskReddit
Post a comment!
Subscribe
CREATE AN ACCOUNT
20,879,254 subscribers 101,782 online now
[–] Lomelinde 671 points 17 hours ago

Rules:
Physical Chemistry I (quantum mechanics) (hover for more info)
The professor spent every class just writing

You must post a clear and direct question
equations on the chalk boards and never taking
in the title. The title may contain two,
any questions. The rumor was that he was passed short, necessary context sentences. No
1
over for some Nobel prize and was bitter. text is allowed in the textbox. Your
thoughts/responses to the question can
The final exam was open book and three go in the comments section. more >>
questions. Halfway through the final exam,
someone had the courage (stupidity?) to ask a Any post asking for advice should be
question. We all leaned in, eager to learn 2 generic and not specific to your situation
anything, when the professor erupted, "Don't you alone. more >>
know anything? That's the basis of the question,"
and looked incredulously at the kid until he 3
Askreddit is for open-ended discussion
questions. more >>
backed away.
The average was 23% before they regraded it. In
Posting, or seeking, any identifying
the end, the average was 43% and they curved personal information, real or fake, will
the class around a C+. I actually would have loved
https://old.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/a5o8gu/for_those_who_are_currently_in_or_have_gone/ 1/37
12/13/2018 For those who are currently in, or have gone through college, what was the hardest final you’ve ever taken? : AskReddit
to learn the material if we had a teacher that was 4 result in a ban without a prior warning.
more >>
interested in teaching it.
permalink embed save report reply
Askreddit is not your soapbox, personal
5
[–] hiscapness 210 points 13 hours ago army, or advertising platform. more >>
Came here to say same thing. Lost my temper

with PChem professor at one point asking him Questions seeking professional advice
6 are inappropriate for this subreddit and
to teach us instead of just angrily writing
will be removed. more >>
gibberish (terrible handwriting too) on the
whiteboard and insulting people who asked
Soliciting money, goods, services, or
questions. Thought I failed final; had no idea 7
favours is not allowed. more >>
what I was doing. Turns out that with curve
had the highest grade in the class. Literally left
Mods reserve the right to remove content
without a clue, learned nothing. That final gives or restrict users' posting privileges as
me nightmares to this day. 8 necessary if it is deemed detrimental to
the subreddit or to the experience of
Bonus round: physical biochemistry. Professor others. more >>
did nothing but “teach” his research. Think
pointless busywork like memorizing his titration Comment replies consisting solely of
9
curves for very specific esoteric enzymes (IIRC, images will be removed. more >>
not in science anymore) in a very very niche
set of biological reactions with no explanation If you think your post has disappeared, see
why. 1/3 of the class were his research team spam or an inappropriate post, please do
grads/TAs and knew everything in their sleep. not hesitate to contact the mods, we're
happy to help.
They got ~100s on everything (this was
obviously supposed to be a softball class for
them), the rest of us barely cracked 20s. We
laughed (one over-achieving girl sobbed, Tags to use:
literally) at the midterm. I got a 10 I think. We
lodged a formal complaint with the head of [Serious]
department. He came and actually physically
sat in a week of classes after that to see for Use a [Serious] post tag to designate
himself. The professor could barely speak he your post as a serious, on-topic-only
thread.
was so nervous (and a horrible speaker
anyway.) The dept head fell asleep(!!!) on the
first day and audibly groaned at several points
Filter posts by subject:
saying things like “oh wow this is bad.” He
removed and severely reprimanded the
Mod posts Serious posts
professor and if I recall we were all given As
and allowed a free set of credit hours for our Megathread Breaking news
trouble. I think the dude lost his position over
it. And damn well should have. Unfilter
permalink embed save parent report reply
[–] pterrorgrine 76 points 10 hours ago
Are you willing to share what school that is? Do you have ideas or feedback for
That prof is ass but the department head's Askreddit? Submit to /r/Ideasforaskreddit.
willingness to actually handle shit is
amazing.
load more comments (1 reply) Please use spoiler tags to hide spoilers.
>!insert spoiler here!<
[–] SecretRedditOverlord 31 points 7 hours ago
This gives me a raging justice boner. So

Other subreddits you might like:
many students, conditioned by high school,
keep quiet when they have shitty
Ask Others Self & Others
professors. Fuck that. You are paying out
the ASS for that education, and deserve to Find a subreddit Learn something
get your money's worth. Esp. at a state
school: people forget that the staff are Meta Subs What is this ___
government employees and paid with
AskReddit Offshoots Offers & Assistance
taxpayer money. There's all kinds of
requirements they have to meet and can get
in deep shit if, say, the state auditor's office Ever read the reddiquette? Take a peek!
gets involved. So, yeah, if your profs aren't
competent, file a complaint and don't be css by qtx a community for 10 years
afraid to make waves.
permalink embed save parent report reply MODERATORS MESSAGE THE MODERATORS
load more comments (2 replies)

krispykrackers
flyryan
[–] Soccerdilan 44 points 14 hours ago
Ooer
canipaybycheck
That sucks. I took Physical Chemistry as well roastedbagel
but my professor was great. It really makes a ani625
TheJackal8
huge difference when you have someone who
sexrockandroll
is willing to teach and is passionate about the e36
subject. I loved that class! IranianGenius
...and 18 more »
< > discussions in r/AskReddit X

[–] Lomelinde 11 points 14 hours ago
I'm happy to hear someone had a good 30.6k · 7663 comments

Reddit, As of Lately, What Has Been The
PChem experience! I think the subject BEST Thing You've Recently Discovered on
material is actually really interesting, and a the Internet?
good teacher could make all the difference.
It's one of the few text books from college
that I kept. I keep thinking that someday I
will read through it, but I've forgotten most
of the math by now. Maybe I can find a
Kahn academy type lecture series to learn
the main points.
[–] uberman35 254 points 18 hours ago
My hardest exam was my grad school gross anatomy lab final. There were at least 9
cadavers all with numbered pins in them pointing to a specific structure. You had to name
that structure, tell the action of that structure, or name the nerves that innervate the
structure depending on what the question was asking.
[–] BringemYoungU 106 points 16 hours ago
Taking my LE practical and written tomorrow. It's going tibia great!

[–] Grammarisntdifficult 27 points 9 hours ago
Tibia great experience?

[–] c00kiebreath 22 points 16 hours ago
I feel your pain. We only had three cadavers but five stations total so two of them were
on computers with two different images next to each other per computer, but arranged
so that the images were touching (even though they were from different parts of the
body!) and that was so much worse than using the actual cadavers.
[–] FTFallen 1153 points 18 hours ago
Heat Transfer. It was only one question with a 3 hour time limit. I barely finished.
[–] IssaDatBoiMura 984 points 14 hours ago
Easy. Heat come and go. When come, get hot. When go, get cold.
[–] BullshitSloth 666 points 13 hours ago*
Why say lot word when few word do trick?

[–] zimbleeder 60 points 12 hours ago
Kevin
[–] Venra93 158 points 12 hours ago
Kelvin
[–] EndlessKillz 22 points 9 hours ago
Kelevin
[–] Elpacoverde 9 points 5 hours ago
Kelevin Klein
load more comments (1 reply)
[–] NAMEBANG 11 points 12 hours ago
Cold go down, heat go WAY up.

[–] TheSloppyJanitor [ ] 136 points 15 hours ago
I just finished a Fire Dynamics class where Heat Transfer methods and equations made
up good chunk of our material. The professor said he could’ve taught another full
semester or two on the three methods
[–] Vitis_Vinifera 57 points 15 hours ago
I had a Heat & Mass Transfer class at UCDavis. Yes, that was some hard stuff.
[–] ThatOtherGuy_CA 54 points 13 hours ago
Heat goes in Heat goes out.

You can't explain that.
[–] Downvotes_hype 25 points 12 hours ago
Goes from hot to cold. Next question.

[–] HOOKshoTT_ 52 points 12 hours ago
Fuck me is this really the top comment? Taking it next semester.. I had to weasel my
way in without the prereqs (thermo and fluid mechanics) because its just for a minor
and the prereqs would keep me from graduating in the spring. This terrifies me.
[–] nattysharp 38 points 6 hours ago
In all 3 exams in a ~100 person class, only one person ever got a 100%. The
average was somewhere around 12/50. Generally my professor called that around a
B.
Heat & Mass Transfer made me cry, a lot.

[–] Dapper_Presentation 17 points 9 hours ago
For me it was Transport Phenomena (generalised equations for heat, mass and
momentum transfer) in chem eng undergrad. Pretty intense stuff. It's the basis for
computational fluid mechanics and other stuff, but frankly it's a bit much for undergrad.
Though I must say I really strengthened my heat transfer knowledge through that unit.
Exam included a ridiculously contrived situation involving a transient solvent diffusion
through air with associated liquid pumping while being heated by an infrared heat lamp.
We were asked to set up the equations. Not solve them, just set them up. It took me 90
minutes.
Curse you, Bird, Stewart and Lightfoot!
[–] ThePlanckNumber 12 points 14 hours ago
I took HT last semester, do you remember what the question was?

[–] FTFallen 21 points 6 hours ago
This was 5 or 6 years ago so I don't remember the specifics, but it was all about a
refrigerator in someones kitchen. It combined everything we had learned that
semester into one problem. There were probably 8 parts to the question and you
needed the answer from part A to get the answer to part B, or needed C and D to
get part F. Mess up part A and everything after that is wrong.
Good luck!
[–] A_Bit_Fishy 14 points 10 hours ago
Mech E major here, I’ve heard the stories.. do you have any advice, key concepts and
stuff?
[–] rowdserling 6 points 7 hours ago
Pray brother, and hope someone listens

[–] Tubby-Tubbs 12 points 12 hours ago
Fuck that
[–] prssecustum 5 points 12 hours ago
Current grad student, but I’ll raise you one I just took... computational heat transfer. 3
questions, 3 hours and 5 minutes. Still didnt answer everything fully.
I now know for sure I’m not a computation guy
[–] __electricSheep__94 187 points 17 hours ago
Graduate micro econ was rough but I've never been more terrified for an exam than when I
took self defense as PE elective credits. The final was to fight off and escape the instructor,
he fought mma as a hobby and was just exuded i could fuck you up if I wanted vibes.
[–] Horizon_17 68 points 15 hours ago
I'm in graduate microecon and my final is tomorrow. Fucking rough as hell. Went from
"hey this is review of undergrad microecon" to "fuck me they actually expect us to
calculate the exact number for that???"
[–] triface1 13 points 8 hours ago*
my god yes
I just finished my undergrad economics finals 3 weeks ago and I'm glad I never
have to touch economics ever again.
Our midterms was an MCQ on micro. We were given two sample quizzes to prepare.
What came out was NOTHING like the sample quizzes. The average mark was 47.5.
Even after she posted the worked solutions to the most problematic questions
(which were primarily supply and demand questions), I still have no idea how she
got to the answer.
I went into the finals banking on the fact that she wouldn't test supply and demand
so thoroughly anymore. Thankfully I was right.
Economics as a whole is kinda interesting, but the infinite number of ways they can
fuck you up really scares me.
[–] juicy-_-juice 9 points 10 hours ago
I took a self defense class for credit too. Final was also fight off a big dude. I fought him
off but ended up having a panic attack afterwards thinking about how I felt the reality of
what that would be if it was a real scenario. Everyone would cheer and hype each other
during the scenarios and then I ran out after everyone was clapping and cried in the
next room over. :( Scary class but necessary to learn that kind of stress to be able to
cope with later.
[–] Cyrano_de_Boozerack 709 points 18 hours ago*
Environmental Ethics. The teacher only ordered 20 books, and let 60 students into the class.
There was a single book on reserve in the library.
His lectures covered maybe 10% of what was on the final test. The questions in it were
largely copied directly from content in the text...which less than half the class had constant
access to.
Yeah...fuck that teacher.
Edit: As /u/mTORC pointed out, maybe it was all an elaborate ruse to make us realize how
"talking about issues" can be less impactful than "experiencing the issues first hand"...
[–] Glorious_Jo 282 points 17 hours ago
That wasn't very... e t h i c a l

[–] mTORC 71 points 16 hours ago
Perhaps it's actually ethical since it was an environmental ethics class. Less trees
required with less book orders :O
Still, that sucks.
[–] chases_squirrels 46 points 15 hours ago
At least your teacher actually TAUGHT the class. Mine just expected everyone to read
the "textbook" which was just a collection of essays and bring questions for in-class
discussion. Which sounds great, except when you're having trouble getting through the
essays and can't really make heads or tails of the material enough to actually articulate
questions.
The tests were all 3-5 page essays. He'd give us a list of 6 topics for papers and then on
test day would roll a die to determine which topic the test would be. You could write
them all ahead of time and just turn in the one he chose, or you could wait until the day
of and write it out during class.
That was the only class I had where the x/20 number grade never matched up with the
assigned letter grade on each paper. Thankfully I took it pass/fail, because I barely
passed that class, and it was only offered every other year.
[–] Cyrano_de_Boozerack 22 points 15 hours ago
The problem was that he let Q-n-A from students quickly drift away from the point
he was lecturing on. Which was great for student engagement, but crap for his
syllabus.
We all thought we were doing great because of how engaged everyone was, but
most of us ended up with Cs or worse.
Your situation sounds more like a "here is a mountain of preparation that I expect,
but it probably won't help you."
LOL...I am not sure which one I would prefer.

[–] kruggirello 232 points 17 hours ago
Partial differential equations. 70 year old tenured professor was pissed the graduate school
made him teach 2 courses, so he vowed to get all the grad students put on probation by
making the course impossible to pass. Then they'd never have him teach the course again.
He actually told us this at the start of the course. He also scheduled the finals for both his
courses back to back on a Saturday at 7 am because he knew most students were taking
both.
I worked my ass off for a C, and I had to report him to the dean just to get that. I would
have dropped it but he was the only one who was teaching it and it was only offered once a
year.
[–] adfoote 58 points 15 hours ago
I took this class about a year ago (in undergrad), and my professor was horrible. His
accent was so bad you couldn't understand every second word, and his handwriting
wasn't much better. He also had the habit of writing something on the board, then
standing in front of it when you tried to write it down. By some act of god, he gave us a
take home final. So obviously like 10 of us got together, took a day, and figured the
whole thing out. The only reason I passed is he replaced the lowest test grade with the
final.
[–] sleepingbeardune 92 points 15 hours ago
I took that class in 1977 at Michigan Tech. I was the only girl in the classroom, and for
the entire time we were scratching away in our little blue books, the instructor sat on his
table at the front of the room carefully examining a Penthouse magazine.
Creeper.
[–] CordialFutureDwight 187 points 17 hours ago
Astronomy final. Circa 1996ish.

Ten questions. Open book, open library, open class -- we were allowed to work in groups on
it if we desired. Hell, we could've called NASA if we wanted to. We had a week to complete
it.
I have a general aptitude for science, and I love astronomy. I loved this particular class too.
It was one of the few I bothered to attend regularly during my brief flirtation with college.
But I suck at math somethin' fierce. I also lacked the math prereq for the course. I
mentioned this to the professor on the first day, but he was willing to let me take the class if
I wanted to. I (foolishly) desired to, so I stayed enrolled.

This final (and the class in general) was nothing more than a glorified sequence of the most
mind-crushing word problems I'd ever seen. Example: The last question on the final
required us to determine the size of the KT impact object based on the iridium layer
thickness.
I got a 36.
[–] Horizon_17 45 points 15 hours ago
Isn't the KT impact object around 6 miles in diameter?

[–] CordialFutureDwight 74 points 15 hours ago
Obviously, I'm the wrong person to ask.

Kidding aside, yes, we could obviously look up the answer. But the question required
us to essentially describe how to figure that out (show your work).
[–] gmsteel 173 points 18 hours ago
Process control systems

It didn't help that you were supposed to be marked on the working throughout but the
lecturer said he stopped marking after the first mistake.
There were significant complaints made against him to the department.
[–] Eldritchforge 15 points 17 hours ago
Process control systems? We're you taking mechatronics or electrical?

[–] TheDeviousLemon 24 points 14 hours ago
He maybe be talking about chemical process control.

[–] gmsteel 5 points 9 hours ago
Indeed
[–] llcucf80 391 points 18 hours ago
I've told this story before, it was college algebra. I am not a math person, and in fact I
already failed this course once before. It was my last semester, as long as I passed this and
one other course that I already had an A in I would graduate with my AA and could transfer
into state university.
So, because my other course I already knew I would pass regardless of my final there, I
focused all my energy on college algebra. I met with my professor virtually every class, and
I studied hard. I only needed a C, I knew I wasn't going to do any better then that.
The day of finals I came early, and I used every minute of the two hours allotted. I double
checked every single problem to the best of my ability, and once I was confident that I got
enough answers right to exactly pass then I turned in the exam, and I was the last to do so
with only a minute left.
My professor asked how I did. I said I got enough right to pass. I did. I did pass the exam
and I graduated. That was hard, and I never want to do that again.
[–] refreshing_username 343 points 18 hours ago
Told this story elsewhere, but a professor at my college wrote an open letter to
graduating seniors that said this: up until now, the lion's share of the rewards and
accolades have gone to the most intelligent among you. From graduation onward, they
will go to the most persistent among you.
He was talking about you. :-)
[–] CarolinaSwtness 53 points 17 hours ago
That’s such a great quote!

I am not a math person either. I'm currently enrolled for an Associate in Science, and
intend to transfer to a state school and eventually work towards a PhD in botany or
plant sciences whatever they want to call it right now.
College Algebra is the first math class I have to take, so I figured I'd knock that out in
my first semester.
I have finals on tuesday, and I am not going to pass this class. In fact, this isn't the last
math class I have to take. In order to get even a bachelor's in plant sciences, you have
to take Calculus II.
I'm so sad rn. I only got into College Algebra on accident, I picked all the right answers
on the placement test out of pure luck.
[–] cucumbercar 35 points 17 hours ago
Hi there! I am a math tutor and previous algebra teacher. DM me if you’re in need of

assistance, I would be happy to help!
[–] NicePerson69 15 points 16 hours ago
Thank you from someone who relied heavily on the kind brainiac tutors in the
math lab. Calculus was foreign to me, I still don’t know how I managed to pass.
[–] college-tool 430 points 19 hours ago
Hardest final as voted by my friends: advanced organic chemistry

Hardest final as voted by me personally: advanced immunology. Fuck that course and its
5000000 molecules and receptors and pathways and mechanisms and exceptions
[–] Vagabond21 139 points 18 hours ago*
Hardest final as voted by my friends: advanced organic chemistry

reminds, this was in high school, but the ap bio was the hardest exam i took in high
school. i remember looking around the room and catching other people's faces and just
thinking, "what the fuck did we get ourselves into?"
needless to say, i was proud of my 2 that i got.
[–] Avosmash 125 points 17 hours ago
Dude I’m taking AP Bio right now and let me tell you, I wanna rip out all the fucking
dna, rna and polymerase shit out of my body and shove it up my ass for taking that
class.
I’ve got midterms next week. Pray for me.
[–] AveryJ5467 26 points 14 hours ago
This tip is for the actual AP exam in May, but I feel it’s worth saying anyway. If
they ask what color the sky is, and I wrote “The sky is blue. The sky is green”,
they cannot take points or for me saying the sky is green. This tip only works for
multiple response, but it’s helpful for when you don’t know the answer.
Disclaimer, the question I gave was an example and not likely to be on the
actual test. Also this tip is exclusive to AP Bio Open Ended.
I wish you the best my child

[–] CreativeCorinne 26 points 15 hours ago
YOU CAN DO THIS! and even if you completely fail, enjoy the info. it's really cool
info.
I feel your pain my brother in arms

[–] puffthemagicsalmon 21 points 17 hours ago
I also did chem undergrad and can confirm that the thought of advanced organic still
gives me nam-like flashbacks
[–] enzymelinkedimmuno 16 points 16 hours ago
just took my immunology/virology final yesterday. it. was. rough.

Ugh I’m sorry you had to go through that my brother in arms. Which study year is
that?
[–] scratchy_mcballsy 13 points 18 hours ago
Answer from pharmacists when studying at work: what’s a mechanism?

[–] allieoop87 9 points 18 hours ago
Duuuuude yes. But I can still recite the coag cascade front to back, so I've got that
going for me.
They actually changed that really recently lol, our physio teacher made us memorize
the new cellular theory of coagulation instead of cascade theory
[–] allieoop87 17 points 17 hours ago
No. NononononoNONONONONONONONONO!
[–] Burgurple 187 points 17 hours ago
My psychology exams were definitely the hardest thing I’ve ever done at Uni. The head of
the department in my uni was an expert in examinations and how to properly test students
understandings of courses. He had written multiple books on the subject AND was a
consultant for our government for the standardised high school exams. So needless to say,
those exams were tough! Full of multiple choice questions where the correct answer could
feasibly be any of the choices and essays to write about things we had never covered in
lectures but that we should be able to work out by combining the content of multiple
different modules. In my second year, he even set the answers to the multiple choice
questions to all B’s, to test whether we “were sure of our answers”.
[–] PichiBirdy 37 points 9 hours ago
If I got halfway through a test with B's as most of my answers, I would question myself
so much I would, without a doubt, start crying.
[–] WeirdOctopus 10 points 6 hours ago
I probably would just giggle and just go in with all Bs without even reading the
questions.
[–] OhComeOnKennyMayne 148 points 14 hours ago
That all b thing is fucking bullshit.

Hunans are suppose to question patterns.
[–] shotgunstormtrooper 52 points 9 hours ago
As a Hunan, I agree
[–] dkrasniy 65 points 12 hours ago
And more ironically on a psychology exam

[–] sneerpeer 30 points 7 hours ago
If I got a multiple choice test with all B's as answers I would go through a few phases:
1. Huh, that's weird. Probably a coincidence.
2. Wait a minute, maybe I am doing something wrong...
3. All answers must be B's!
4. Hold up! This is a trick, there must be some answers that are not B to throw
testers off.
5. *double checking all answers many times over* All answers are actually B's...
[–] CTHeinz 6 points 3 hours ago
Imagine the stoner guy comes in blazed out of his mind, and just goes “fuck it, im
gonna answer b for everything and go home”
[–] YourWordsMatter 62 points 18 hours ago
Invertebrate zoology. A 1-semester class to teach you about ALL of the invertebrates. I got
a 33 on the final...that was B. Only class at the school where passing was a D.
I passed.
[–] lateral_roll 20 points 13 hours ago
The only invertebrate there is the person who designed that class
[–] feardrinker 65 points 17 hours ago
Differential equations. When I realized I wasn't going to be an engineering major after all.
[–] BringBackVinePls 40 points 12 hours ago
Was averaging about a 50% before the final in that class, got something like a 98% on
the final, barely passed, and couldn't even tell you what an ODE looks like a week later
[–] psychedelicsexfunk 20 points 10 hours ago
Ah yes, the ole cram-and-vomit method of studying.

The class that turns boys into men and men into sobbing heaps
[–] dftba-ftw 7 points 4 hours ago
I really want to see what these other Diffeq classes look like cause mine was drop dead
easy.
Yes the professor gave us a practice exam that was basically the exam with different
numbers but even then, there's only so many types of Diffeq problems and so many
ways to solve each type.
I walked into one of the hour long exams 30 mins late and still got a 90%
But you are not the only person to describe Diffeq as a horrible hard class so I'm super
interested to sit in a difficult Diffeq class.
[–] AngelusLilium 548 points 19 hours ago*
Calculus III.
Final exam was 1 question:
∫ tan-1/2 (x) dx
Show all steps.
Edit:
https://www.integral-calculator.com/#expr=tan%5E%28-1%2F2%29%28x%29
Hit "go" then show steps.
You'll understand the evil.
[–] Bcunningham3 [S] 234 points 19 hours ago
Damn, I just finished my calc 2 test, if I saw a problem like that I’d just up and leave
the room, not even worth trying
[–] ahbi_santini2 230 points 17 hours ago*
My friend did that on E&M Fields II (Electromagnetic Fields). One of those professors
that every day just starts by putting Maxwell's Equations on the board and then
derives everything from there.
The exam was on the last day to drop the class.
He looked at the exam, and kind of knew 1 of 3 problems.
Did that 1 problem.
Then confidently walked up to the front of the class, and dropped off his exam.
The rest of the class was freaking out. They (including me) were lost too, and this
guy just dropped off his exam 30 minutes into it, like he owned the fucking course.
He then went straight to the Registrar and dropped the class.
The funny thing was, with the curve, he got a B.
[–] imanze 26 points 12 hours ago
I took Fields II but because this professor was known to have the lowest test
score averages in the department they made him have the first exam graded
and back before the drop date. I got a solid 18 (out of 100) which somehow
curved to a C.. but I needed to maintain a high GPA for the 5 year masters
program so I nopped straight to drop the class. After looking at it I realized I
could take a T ( transfer credit) and still get it counted. Took the course though
Clemson’s online summer program.. Two of my friends from my study group
followed my lead, one did not.. I think he said the class average before the curve
was a 9 on the 2nd exam.
[–] NicePerson69 63 points 16 hours ago
I took Calculus almost 20 years ago and just seeing the dx gave me anxiety
[–] Classiceagle63 10 points 17 hours ago
Same here
[–] AngelusLilium 19 points 19 hours ago
😭
[–] snjwffl 143 points 14 hours ago
As a Calc3 teacher, I've gotta say... holy shit. Anyone who thinks that qualifies as an
exam should be disqualified from teaching.
[–] stabbyhand 47 points 13 hours ago
I agree, this is just a terrible exam. You can make it hard but still give students a
chance to demonstrate what they've learned.
[–] Mr_dm 68 points 14 hours ago
If the professor wasn’t a complete asshole, they probably don’t expect a correct
answer, they just want to see what you can come up with using the material you
retained from class.
[–] FUCK_SNITCHES_ 9 points 8 hours ago
Yeah but they're always a complete asshole about this shit.

[–] Prysorra2 40 points 12 hours ago
I mean ... isn't Calc3 usually vector? There should be a fucking arrow over a letter
somewhere.
[–] InherentlyStrange 65 points 18 hours ago*
Wait is that the reciprocal of the square root of the tangent?
Edit: If so, that substitution out for the sec^2 x = 1+tan^2 x = 1+u^2 is actually
genius
[–] Beauclair 29 points 18 hours ago
Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing.

[–] Elebrent 17 points 14 hours ago
Yeah lol. I took calc 3 last semester and when I looked at that integral it seemed so
difficult. But when it's rewritten it seems super easy. I think if you had a couple
hours to stare at it you'd eventually see how to do it
[–] T_D707 15 points 13 hours ago
Did you look at the rest of the work required? Seeing the initial u substitution is
very much the easy part of that problem.
[–] Elebrent 16 points 12 hours ago
Are you kidding? Of course not. I'm not a psychopath lol. I only took calc III
because I thought I needed it for what I wanted to study (I didn't lol). I
hated integrals, you think I'm going to go back through them for fun now
that I'm free?
[–] Quixotic9000 44 points 16 hours ago
This gave me so much anxiety, I had to sit down.

I'm a graduate student and a teaching assistant -- this is exactly the kind of crap that
makes my office hours hell.
[–] ThiccLatinaGratitude 30 points 17 hours ago
Your professor must have worn a hat everyday to hide his horns
[–] c9lulman 37 points 16 hours ago
ln(tan(x)+√2√tan(x)+1)−ln(tan(x)
−√2√tan(x)+1)+2(arctan(√2√tan(x)+1)+arctan(√2√tan(x)−1))232+C is how to get
the answer for anyone asking and also what the fuck
[–] diffyqgirl 16 points 14 hours ago
Is calc 3 not multivariable at your school?

[–] BurnTwoRopes 29 points 13 hours ago
Yeah I was confused by this too. Honestly seems like a difficult Calc 1 or 2 problem.
[–] pineapple-leon 4 points 10 hours ago
It is. My calc 3 prof would have labelled this as calc 1 material. I think it's more
calc 2 but no way 3.
[–] Vagabond21 15 points 18 hours ago
time to change majors

[–] disastrousanimx 12 points 16 hours ago
Oh dear god
[–] TVA_Titan 11 points 13 hours ago
There is so much to be covered in calc 3 and they choose some garbage question like
this for their only question in a final? Sounds more like a shitty department to me.
[–] parrxtt 18 points 19 hours ago
yeah fuck that.

[–] jjr96 8 points 15 hours ago
I saw this and vomited.

[–] ScaredLettuce 8 points 17 hours ago
Thanks, my calc 3 exam is soon....I'm terrified.

[–] CygniGlide 19 points 16 hours ago
I took my calc 3 exam today. Today is also the day I ascend to valhalla because that
exam killed my soul
F
[–] Theredwalker666 6 points 18 hours ago
I remember having a calc 2 exam where we had to derive the inverse hyperbolic secant
as question 1. (10po and points) fuck that.
[–] crsuperman34 14 points 14 hours ago
after scrolling down 1000px: "The result is too wide for the screen. Scroll horizontally to
see everything!" :::::: bahahahaha, twirls ridiculous mustache, armchair cat squints.
::::::
[–] TheShadyGuy 392 points 17 hours ago
Logic. Wtf is all of this math doing in my philosophy class. I liked it so much I took it twice.
I think the professor took pity on me and just gave me that sweet sweet C- the second time
around.
[–] TommyBortles 115 points 16 hours ago
I came here looking for this. This is the only exam that i ever took where i couldn’t
explain to you what it was that i was attempting to do.
[–] sousaaaaaa 33 points 15 hours ago
Can you give us an idea of what it was like?

[–] willowoftheriver [ ] 138 points 14 hours ago
It's . . . really complicated and like op, I did terribly. I was fully sober for every
lecture but I swear to God what was coming out of that professor's mouth sounded
like gibberish filtered through seven shots of vodka.
But, to try to explain it from the class I unfortunately took, you assign a letter to a
simple statement and then another letter to another one and form an equation with
special symbols that mean things like "if and only if" or "and", etc. Then you make a
big chart to assign a "truth value" to each of those statements, and eventually you
can determine if the two statements together produce a true or false conclusion.
So like: All men are mortal. (Assign it the letter A) Socrates is a man. (Assign it the
letter B) Therefore, Socrates is mortal. (Assign letter C.)
Then enter it all in a chart and . . . do things.
Once you get past that, then you enter the cage match with the venn diagrams and
I still have no idea what that was about.
[–] jester_of_fools 92 points 13 hours ago
I had those clases too. Difference is, I am computer programmer. It mightve

been your teacher but all that atuff is juat logic written down. You can figure
most of it out by, well, logik :D
[–] xROSSTHEHOSSx 16 points 11 hours ago
Lol I was getting ready to say this sounds a lot like my AI and intro to
machine learning class
[–] NORCAL_SPARK 14 points 10 hours ago
This is the basis of discrete mathamatics. I thought it was tough too, but its
really fucking simple. Its the symbols that make people back away from honestly
trying to learn the material. If p, then q is pretty simple and intuitive. Like
checking a bunch of boxes of yes and nos. It becomes a bit more nuanced and
to form good logic you need to truly understand the definitions, but once I got to
mathematical induction everything before it seemed really easy.
[–] dimethylmindfulness 44 points 14 hours ago
Assuming it was symbolic logic, it's just symbol manipulation according to a few
rules. For those who already think logically, it's pretty much learning the syntax and
thinking how you normally do. Unfortunately, I can only describe it from that
viewpoint. In general, students find the course difficult.
[–] CEUQ 14 points 14 hours ago
what got me was making small dumb mistakes

[–] michaelthecoder 16 points 14 hours ago
I've aced a logic class before, I'm building a programming language and have had to
build in some of these concepts so I understand it very thoroughly. One of the main
concepts in a logic class is boolean logic.
You have variables that are either true or false. So if you have x, x can be true, or x
can be false. Then you have operations, similar to + - * / except they are different:
the main ones are "and", "or", and "not". So if x is true, not x is false. If x is false,
not x is true. x and y is always false unless x is true and y is true. x or y is always
true unless x is false and y is false.
So then you have truth tables. A truth table is when you have an expression and you
go through every possible combination of true and false for every variable and going
through the logic to determine what each value of an expression is. So for "x and y",
row one is x is false, y is false, x and y is false. Row two is x is false, y is true, x and
y is false. Row three is x is true, y is false, x and y is false. Row four is x is true, y is
true, x and y is true.
Truth tables have a few uses. The main use is that if two expressions have the same
results for every row, they are equivalent and one can be replaced by the other
without changing the logic. One famous equivalency that is not obvious is: not (x
and y) = (not x) or (not y). Similarly, not (x or y) = (not x) and (not y). You can
actually prove this yourself by building a four row truth table.
If every row on the truth table is true, then your expression is a tautology. x or not x
is a tautology. Imagine if you said "I am thinking of an integer that is even or odd".
That statement is a tautology and can be replaced by "true". x and true simplifies to
x, while x or true simplifies to true and is a tautology itself. Likewise if every row on
the truth table is false, then your expression is a paradox. x and not x is a paradox.
Imagine if you said "I am thinking of an integer that is even and odd". That
statement is a paradox and can be replaced by "false". x and false simplifies to false
and is a paradox itself, while x or false simplifies to x.
The last thing I'll mention that's cool is the infamous satisfiability solver. Say
someone gives you a boolean expression and you want to know if you build a truth
table for it, if any row exists that will give you true for the expression. If you can
build a machine to do this "quickly" (polynomial time) for any expression, you will
become one of the most famous mathematicians of all time, win a million dollars,
and break all digital security, as this is actually the famous P = NP problem in
disguise. Most mathematicians (but not all) believe this is impossible, but if you can
prove it to be impossible you would still become world famous and get the million
dollar prize.
[–] purpineapple 121 points 18 hours ago
I go to an digital art school, so like moves, audio, And vfx and animation. I’m a vfx major, I
like to model environments and such. After your associates, you start getting classes
tailored more towards your specific interest. One of the classes I take is called “Production
studios” and it’s more of a work class where they tell you to do something and you do it, so
there was no traditional “final”
BUT, at the end of class we had to show our finished work. Because it takes weeks to create
everything, to model it, texture it, and throw it in something to light it, by the end of the
semester you have put days if. It months of work into once piece.
Those “finals” were always the ones that kept me up the latest.
[–] Locket_Weasel 14 points 11 hours ago
Aye aye! 4/5 weeks worth of finals staying overnight in labs 😅

[–] shroomps 50 points 16 hours ago
My Anatomy Practical exam.

This class had TWO finals. A written one, which would be multiple choice, and a practical,
which is just labeling body parts on a model. Written is set for a Wednesday, Practical is set
for the following Monday. So, seeing as it comes up first, I only study for the Written Exam
that week and save studying for the other for the weekend.
And then she switches their dates. And I do not get the memo, until I walk into class and
see the models set up.
I knew nothing. I had completely studied for the wrong test, and I was fucked.
[–] zenith0011 9 points 4 hours ago
taking anatomy right now, if you don’t have your shit memorized ONE HUNDRED
PERCENT, you’re fucked. this sounds like a nightmare i’m so sorry
[–] huggabuggabear 95 points 18 hours ago
My senior year I took a graduate course in nonlinear optimization theory in an effort to

impress grad schools... never again. I love applied math, but those proofs were hell.
[–] a_monomaniac 48 points 16 hours ago
Historically driven Math class ending at pre-calculus.

Every question had an era assigned to it, and we had to solve using the mathematical
proofs available to that era only. If we used something that was proven in the 5th century
on a 200 BCE question no matter if we got the correct answer correct, we would be marked
wrong.
Loved the class for the learning potential, hated it for things like tests. Thankfully I took it
as an extra curricular class and me getting a C in it didn't mess with my Transcripts.
[–] Steak_M8 90 points 17 hours ago
Does not taking the final count? I had a throwaway course to rack up credit that was rather
worthless. I kept up on the readings and turned in my assignments, but I couldn't bring
myself to attend class. When papers were due, I'd show up early, leave my paper on the
desk and leave.
Come final time, I showed up to class and the room was completely empty with the lights
off. Panicking, I checked the syllabus and realized she mixed the date and the day up (she
marked the 11th as a Wed, but it was actually a Friday). I emailed her to clarify the
mistake, but she never responded. Take two... I showed up on that Friday and SURPRISE....
the room was empty and the lights were off.
I had to endure 2 weeks of terror as I missed the final and I was afraid my grade would
drop my GPA. This was seriously the real life nightmare I still have where I forget to study
for a class I never attended. To my surprise, I aced the course! A few months later I served
one of my classmates when I was tending bar. Apparently the teach accepted a position at a
new school, but did not email the class. She also gave everyone A's, so we had that going
for us.
I just want to know what happened to the papers I left behind.

[–] Vagabond21 153 points 18 hours ago
Governmental Accounting.
I was the last person to leave because I sat there for 30 minutes thinking I failed and would
have to take the class all over again.
Turns out I would end up getting a B in the class, which mean that at the minimum i got an
86 on my final.
Looking back, the amount I put into studying for it and passing it was one of my proudest
accomplishments in college.
[–] High_Doggy 7 points 5 hours ago
I was really good at all my financial accounting classes, like 4.0 GPA good. But
government accounting still confuses the shit out of me. Something about keeping two
sets of records for the budget and the actual spend and how it’s impossible to spend
over the budget and then the close out of the budgets all went against everything I had
learned about accounting up to that point. The government knowledge was invaluable
when studying for the CPA exam at least.
[–] Wzlywzly 44 points 17 hours ago*
My Histology professor died during reading period before submitting the final exam. I don’t
know the full story behind how the exam was developed, but there was very little overlap
between the final exam and the syllabus, lectures, or readings.
My school has unscheduled final exams. Because any of your classmates may take the exam
before or after you do, discussing exams is absolutely prohibited. Commenting on an exam
before finals were over was grounds for expulsion.
So I was thoroughly confused by the exam, thought I did terribly, and couldn’t talk to
anyone about the issue. My professor was dead and I wasn’t allowed to talk to my
classmates.
[–] KogoDogo 63 points 17 hours ago
Not a final in a traditional sense, but I was an art major and our final was to have a gallery
showing. We had to have X number of works done in X amount of time, divvy up the gallery
space, set up our exhibits, and then make a menu and the food to be provided in the lobby
for visitors during the opening. This was on top of artist talks, meetings (where your advisor
could actually deny what you'd been working on and you'd have to start over), and writing
papers over and over on the merit and meaning of your work. It was like planning a small
wedding, but with eight brides that all had to agree on everything.
I remember, at one point, sobbing hysterically in a studio at four in the morning with an
electric sander while laying on the floor next to a frame I was building for my prints. One of
the painters became a recluse. The ceramics students basically turned into a cult. People
skipped classes and meals and slept under tables in the studios. It was intense.
Like, give me a written test any day of the week. It's over and done with in a day.
Let's agree to never be creative again

[–] Naten53 62 points 18 hours ago
The concrete design professor was always good for putting stuff on tests that he did not
teach, but had "given you enough information to figure it out" in class. In a timed test and a
zig zag shaped concrete beam, I just left after finishing as much of the problem I could.
[–] Jmazoso 31 points 15 hours ago
Mine too. First year professor. Our final was full design of a 2 story 2 bay by 2 bay
building, slabs and all. Basically, work as hard as you could, look at the clock, mutter oh
shit, try to work faster. Nobody finished.
Had him the next semester for structural steel design, much better work load. He was
on the hard side, but very effective. After graduating, I really came to appreciate that
he used the code books for text books. Sucked in school, but was a great advantage in
the real world,
[–] Drumman120 104 points 18 hours ago
College level world history. The professor was a stickler for exact fucking dates.....all of
them. And we spent about 80% percent of the semester on the fucking French revolution.
Because I need to know every God damn minor detail about the French revofuckinglution.
So many names, so many dates. God Its a nightmare just thinking about that. Shit should
have been easy as a gen ed, but he made it so God damn hard on purpose. Those were the
kind of professors that pissed me off
[–] TenaciousTravesty 65 points 16 hours ago
I think this is why a lot of people burn out of history in high school; too much focus on
dates and not enough on the what and why of the whole thing. Sounds like your
professor may have done his dissertation on the French Revolution and saw no problem
with throwing it on a bunch of freshmen.
[–] brig517 18 points 13 hours ago
Yup. My best history class I’ve taken focused on The Who, what, when, where, and
why. We learned all about it, including the reactions around the world. It was
interesting because it didn’t just consist of memorizing dates.
[–] 80000chorus 25 points 13 hours ago
My high school history teacher didn't focus on exact dates, preferring to teach us
about the underlying causes of the event. Understanding that Japan bombed
Pearl Harbor as retribution for US economic sanctions that the US handed down
in retaliation for Japan's aggression against other nations is more important than
knowing that occurred on December 7, 1941.
[–] Tyjid 6 points 12 hours ago
Heh, shit, I didn't know that. Making me reevaluate my teachers over here
[–] 80000chorus 17 points 11 hours ago
Allow me to elaborate then! You're one of today's lucky 10,000.

Japan was an Allied nation in WWI, but the groundwork for their switch
to become an Axis power was laid back in 1904, during the Russo-
Japanese War. A land dispute between Russia and Japan regarding
ownership of Korea escalated into a full blown war. At the time, Japan
was a massive underdog that nobody expected to win- but they did, and
they earned themselves a place at the League of Nations (ineffective
predecessor to the United Nations) following WWI.
This victory spurred a massive military modernization and expansion in
Japan, and was a huge bolster for national pride. The issue here is that
this kind of expansion requires lots of resources, and Japan is an island
nation without much in the way of natural resources.
Japan invaded China and many Pacific islands in an attempt to gain more
natural resources. However, wars are costly, and they were importing
most of their steel and oil from overseas.
Specifically from the United States.
Now, the US had a lot of islands (most prominently the Phillipines) that
had natural resources Japan wanted, and the Japanese invasion of China
and neighboring islands made the US nervous. In an attempt to curb the
Japanese military expansion, the US placed economic sanctions on Japan
denying them steel and oil, two of the most critical resources for waging
war.
Japan saw this as an attack on their empire and retaliated by bombing
Pearl Harbor. Still flush with victory from the Russo-Japanese War, they
believed that they could wipe out the US Pacific Fleet, take over the
Pacific and its islands, and fortify themselves enough to resist any attack
before the US could rebuild the Pacific Fleet.
But they missed America's aircraft carriers, and all the ships were sunk
in a relatively shallow harbor. The Japanese High Command was wrong.
America rebuilt its fleet in record time and set sail for the Pacific.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
[–] spencersss 6 points 11 hours ago
Everything you said is history

[–] mathxjunkii 54 points 17 hours ago
Differential equations.
I have a degree in math, and I took a ton of classes higher than differential equations, but
diffy eq remains the hardest class I had ever taken. I’m still awful at the material too.
[–] deedug 28 points 17 hours ago
My last final was a paper and it was like skinning myself alive to write it. I'd mentally
checked out so I had to dig for every last morsel of motivation I had to get those words on
paper.
[–] punkterminator 27 points 17 hours ago
Statistics for social sciences II. Most of the class was done on computers except the final,
which was one of those tests where every question builds on the previous one. The first
question involved filling in some output from a fictitious dataset and all subsequent
questions were based the answers in the first question. If you fucked up the first one, you
couldn't redeem yourself in the rest of the test.
Also, if you got lower than a C- in that class, you got kicked out of the program.
[–] Naraven 24 points 17 hours ago
Forest and Shade Tree Pathology. The final was worth 25% of your grade. It covered
everything we learned that semester. It had 4 questions. Get two wrong and you fail. I had
to take that class twice.
[–] Theredwalker666 66 points 18 hours ago
Far and away coastal engineering. Imagine fluid mechanics, calc 3, differential equations,
statics, dynamics and physics (because of natural structural frequencies) had a baby, ...and
that baby was raised in hell.
[–] animalboom 14 points 16 hours ago
Having taken all those classes separately, combining them into one would be a fucking
shit show.. how did you do in the class?
[–] Isaac_Masterpiece 22 points 18 hours ago
Behavioral Neuropsych. I failed that Final so badly that I switched majors the next day.
The head of the department was not pleased.
[–] peeege 20 points 16 hours ago
Statistics my sophomore year. Studied for days straight leading up to the exam - when I got
to the exam room, I looked at the test my mind went completely blank. I couldn’t
remember anything. Nada. Dropped a whole letter grade after the exam, but I still passed
the class. I think I was incredibly nervous. I’ll never forget that.
[–] RatenFirewalker 39 points 17 hours ago
An operating systems 300 level computer science course. The content wasn't particularly
complex, but the professor's lectures and slides had slightly different notation for things we
had to diagram than the text book, and she was a stickler for that type of stuff, taking off
points if you gave a correct answer in the wrong way.
When we were preparing for the exam we found some of these discrepancies and asked her
which way she expected us to do it. Her answer boiled down to "Yes". So we all had to
gamble on which way was what she wanted, so some of us had the same answers but
different scores for the same questions.
She also would make about 20% of the exam grades based on questions that are related to
the topics of the course, but not taught in class. Her philosophy was essentially she teaches
80% of the class, the other 20% is for those who go beyond what she teaches, essentially
expecting us to do independent research on the course material.
[–] Enigma_789 85 points 17 hours ago
Thermodynamics. It was part of the course to be accredited by IChemE. Most exams I could
walk out with an estimate of 10% of where I thought I was. I estimated somewhere
between 40% (pass) and 70% (first class). The whole course was ridiculous, taught by a
professor who absolutely did not care about teaching, and made sure we knew. First words
to us: one third of you will fail this course. If you have any maths problems, go speak to
your maths tutor.
The entire course was maths. We did not have a maths tutor, we were fucking engineers.
I got my 48%, and my pass. To this day I am proud of that exam.
PS: Just saw final - this was a first year exam, but hey, still the worst exam I ever took.
[–] diffyqgirl 11 points 14 hours ago
I've taken a lot of physics classes that assume I know a lot more about thermo than I
actually do, having never taken thermo like the real physics majors have to. I swear I
get a mild panic attack when I see dQ. Thermo is evil
[–] shortermecanico 59 points 17 hours ago
A history of Japan course taught by a professor in the midst of his eighties. Still sharp as
hell and taught in a strictly old school way. Just him and a chalkboard to write key points
and names.
He was the only professor to expect sources cited in our blue book essays without bringing
the books to class and his questions were wicked. I just remember sweating my way
through that final and being way more proud of that B than an A from any other class.
Undergrad got nerfed into high school the sequel at some point in the last 20 years while
the powers that be made bachelors degrees worthless, but Dr. Historyguy did not get the
memo. I got an honest to goodness education and not a feel good rap session from him.
And I have read Japanese Inn several times because of that class and want to walk the
Tokaido at some point.
[–] AtlasIsReal 12 points 16 hours ago
I had an almost identical experience with a class on the Romans this semester. Professor
was old and tough as hell and the only true professor of “Classics” at my university
because the entire department was cut, but still taught his courses with an insane vigor.
I’m hoping I passed that final 😂
[–] GreatTragedy 31 points 18 hours ago
Applied Statistics and Design of Experiments. MyMathlab is bullshit.

[–] Old_Gnarled_Oak 31 points 17 hours ago
A pair of Cisco networking finals. The finals themselves are fairly hard as Cisco tends to be
intentionally tricky but these two I had to take within a few hours of my mom dying.
I passed but not nearly with the grades I should have gotten.
[–] OhComeOnKennyMayne 8 points 14 hours ago
What level?
CCNA?
I couldn’t have done that, man.
You’re strong OP, very strong.
[–] HummusMaster 6 points 12 hours ago
You’re a fucking tough guy though OP. Sorry to hear about your mom, I definitely
wouldn’t have been able to do that.
What Cisco exams were they?
[–] Ha4leyQuinn 12 points 17 hours ago
War & Peace in 20th Century Europe. High level history course. Great class. Just so much
shit happened in Europe between 1940-2000 alone. And that was only half the class.
[–] Underwaterbob 11 points 15 hours ago
Ordinary differential equations. I aced every single test and assignment. Then, I missed the
final week of class due to illness. Every single question on the final was based on what was
taught that week so as to not be redundant. Came out of the course with C+ and a huge
chip on my shoulder. This was twenty years ago, and I'm still pissed.
[–] themanyfaceasian 41 points 18 hours ago
This wasn’t in college but I was taking my AP Stats Exam when my TI calculator dies 10
minutes in... with all the saved formulas the teacher approved we could have. I borrowed
someone else’s calculator but the settings were fucked and so yeah it was bad.
[–] plasticmanzor 13 points 16 hours ago
Differential equations: This goes for all her tests though. They were all so long we had to
take them in the testing center because we couldn't possibly finish one class session. The
average time to finish the test for all the people I talked to was about 4.5 hours. It usually
took me 5. They were absolutely brutal. Needless to say, I didn't pass the class.
[–] poliuy 13 points 14 hours ago
Final exam for my capstone course for my masters in public administration.
We were told it would be a take home exam and spent the whole semester relearning
everything we had been taught this far. With take home exams I was usually pretty decent
at, spend like a weekend on them and be done. The day we received the exam I saw we
had 6 questions and my eyes widened... we had one week to accomplish this and by god did
I need it. I called in work and told them I needed the entire week off. I spent every day
around 11 hours typing and researching and reading. I turned my exam in with an hour left.
Each question I had written somewhere between 15-20 pages. I fucking cried when I turned
it in. I legit told myself if I don’t pass I quit, I refuse to do this again. Luckily I passed, but I
never want to do that again for the rest of my life.
[–] daird1 28 points 17 hours ago
Freshman Physics second semester, but honestly, it was my own damn fault. Fall semester,
prof says half the final is thermo and we have a double-sided formula sheet. I take notes via
computer, so shrink to size ten, single-space- half the final might as well be open notes.
He didn't do that come spring. Got a 31 on the final
[–] Quixotic9000 21 points 16 hours ago
Graduate level Macroeconomics II. It was a 4 hour exam to 'prove' an economy could reach
a steady state. I spent three days crying in bed after this exam, expecting to fail. I got a
perfect grade on it. Doesn't matter; still have PTSD.
[–] JackalopeSix 10 points 16 hours ago
Biochemistry. A multiple choice exam, written solely by the lecturer with no proofreading.
His English was very poor. He obviously wrote it the night before, and as it was in a hurry,
he didn't want to write questions that assesed understanding of theories, actually knowing
the subject etc. So he basically wrote an exam on trivia.
Fully a third of the questions were on topics he had explicitly said we did not need to
memorise - multiple questions asked exactly how many electrons were exchanged at a
particular stage of the Krebs Cycle.
The English was so bad many questions were just unintelligible.
But we all passed.
He'd left all the correct answers bolded.
[–] cbelt3 20 points 18 hours ago
Fields was the hardest computationally. So much tensor calculus.

Industrial digital controls.. the final was a project. Graduate level class. They had one
simulator. The work took about 8 hours. There were 10 lab teams of 4. the class was
desperately overbooked because it was the early 80’s and this was upcoming tech. And
everyone had perhaps 48 hours to finish it.
My team was second up. We looked at each other. Looked at the next three teams in the
lab. And we made a solemn pact, and sabotaged the FUCK out of the simulator system so it
could not be repaired (a series of small nicks in insulation and some judicious shorts).
Everyone got an A.
[–] BasedZiggy 29 points 18 hours ago
Art History SUCKS, it's like art but hard and boring. You end up remembering a bunch of
names and eras you don't give a shit about, then struggle to rename them while trying to
remember who the fuck Darius was and what godamn kingdom he ran
Darius
Persia?
[–] BasedZiggy 8 points 17 hours ago
He's the guy

[–] Fancyliving228 9 points 16 hours ago
Structural analysis. I took it today. 8 problems, 2.5 hours. Only 4 finished the exam. 2 of
them had no idea what they were doing and the other 2 gave up. It was fucking hard
[–] hunnangelx3 7 points 16 hours ago
Physical chemistry. 3 hours for 4 questions. Memorized how to do one of the questions,
spent 2 hours between the other 3 questions wondering which one I could BS better.
Everyone failed but bless that curve.
[–] Katekate376 10 points 15 hours ago
Not a final, but a project for my "Fabric dying and Manipulation" class. (My major was in
Theatre and making costumes for theatre.)
The teacher handed us 4 different types of fabrics that each took fabric dye differently and 4
different paint chips that we had to dye each fabric to match. So in total 16 different things
to dye. Everyone had different colors too.
We only had a week to do his project, and being the first color matching project of the class,
we were all inexperienced. Some colors took up to 40 trys to get right with several variables
to experiment with. It was one of the biggest tests of patience I have ever done.
[–] beachfaced 7 points 15 hours ago
they didn't have enough courses for my major so i had to do an independent study which
required me to essentially make up an entire course for myself with the approval of the
head of the department.
sounds cool, right?
It was a lot of pressure to think of something and when I finally did the source material
ended up being a huge headache to get my hands on. this independent study was the most
stressful "class" so, my hardest final was the one I gave myself.
[–] usaskie 9 points 14 hours ago
Tax law. Two hour final worth 100% of the grade. Absolutely did not finish - wasn’t even
close. I wasn’t the only one, though. Thanks to the grading curve, I passed the class.
[–] crsuperman34 9 points 15 hours ago*
My graphic design friends and I thought it would be fun to take a junior level class named
'dinosaurs'. We took it and sat in the front row. There were soft pre-reqs, not required but
recommened that we hadn't taken. None of us had any archaeology, latin, anatomy or
physiology backgrounds. Studying names like Sauropodomorpha and Herrerasauridae and
learning the entire Phylogeny of multiple types was super challenging.
Turned out it was the hardest class we all had ever taken. None of us could drop the class
because we needed a science credit that particular semester. I still remember some stuff .I
studied my a$$ off. I think I ended up with a C.
... and learned about the book Raptor Red featuring a holographic cover written from a
predator dinosaur's perspective! So, that's cool.
[–] GoodColorer 7 points 13 hours ago
Bond and Securities Markets - the prof had a PHD from the most prestigious university in
Russia in theoretical physics. Through his broken English, he couldn't figure out how we,
junior finance undergrads at an American university, couldn't figure out how we all had
under 40% going into the final, and ultimately failed the shit out of the final. That curve tho.
[–] Diis 5 points 16 hours ago
Discrete Dynamical Systems final, back in 1999. Still have no idea what that class was
about or how I passed the final or the course.
[–] MKVIgti 5 points 16 hours ago
Mass communication law, a 600 level course, to graduate from the University of Utah with a
PR degree. Interesting course, but difficult exams.
It didn’t help that our professor had an eidetic memory, and could teach nearly word for
word from the text without it being anywhere near him. He had a difficult time realizing we
couldn’t recall everything like he could and his exams were hard as hell.
[–] CheesecakeTruffle 7 points 15 hours ago
Art history comprehensive exam. Three hours of two different slides per minute of every art
image from cave paintings to who painted pudding on their ass this morning. None of the
common works, only the obscure works. Not the Mona Lisa, but whose outhouse did DaVinci
spray piss all over when he was 8. Now name the location, year, and how concentrated that
piss was. Each slide had 3 blanks you filled in about it. The works were randomized.
Renaissance one slide, pop art the next. We had seniors who left without their degree
because they couldn't pass that Fucking test. Believe me, I was very grateful for a C+ on
my 1st try.
[–] EverGreatestxX 6 points 15 hours ago
Hopefully not the one I'm taking tomorrow...

[–] clarbri 17 points 18 hours ago
In terms of the material, definitely my Operating Systems CS class (both in difficulty and
sheer amount).
In terms of situation, taking my Linear Algebra final with a head full of vicodin (after kidney
stone surgery earlier that week) takes the cake.
[–] scratchy_mcballsy 4 points 18 hours ago
My first CS course was taught by a guy with a really really strong accent. First class,
couldn’t distinguish “Unix” from “Linux”, even with what context I thought I understood.
Was tough.
[–] daecrist 11 points 18 hours ago
I took an etymology course my freshman year. The class was fun an it was a breeze
because I already had a good grasp of what words meant which made parsing them for the
purposes of the class easy. The teacher was an awesome guy, and it was a pretty fun class.
The problem was I completely messed up when I put the final on my schedule. I'm sitting at
home finals week and I get a call from a number I don't recognize, but it's a university
number. I pick up and it's awesome prof. He says "Just wanted to call and see if you wanted
to come in for the final. I'm showing you'll get a B even if you get a zero, but wanted to let
you know if you want to keep that A."
The guy got everyone's number at the beginning of class to call them in just such a case. I
tore ass to school and finished the final in a half hour of the one hour I still had left. Got
that A, but getting there with enough time to finish was touch and go.
[–] MrRandyDarsh 8 points 18 hours ago
Toss up between Oragnic Chem and a class called "The Ceullular and Molecular Basis of
Learning and Memory". Don't get me wrong, I liked organic chem a lot but dang, you have
to keep a lot of shit straight. As far as the other class is concerned.....holy shit. Learning is
universally understood as a whole process but when you look into the biological processes
involved in it, it's insane. Objectively awesome, but the amount of content and processes to
remember were staggering.
[–] TRKYBRST 8 points 16 hours ago
African American Lit. The teacher was extremely intelligent, fair, and passionate but to
succeed in the class you had to match his intensity.
A lot of his colleagues wrote the criticism he referenced, and he would often go off-track
giving broader historical context. None of which makes for an unfair class or a bad teacher,
but unfortunately the rest of the semester was handing me my ass so his class happened to
be the one that caught me on reserve energy. And it was an intense class. I read maybe
half the required reading and would bullshit my answers when called on. I’d speak for about
a minute before rounding back to a somehow insightful response I’d just cobbled together
out of thin air.
By the morning of the final, I had already finished my other papers by way of all-nighter in
the campus Starbucks and was studying frantically in the hours leading up to the actual
test. I read summaries of the books I had skipped and flipped through them trying to cram
but my brain cells were fried to a crisp at that point. I reviewed everything in the syllabus
and all my notes but when I finally sat down for the test and skimmed the packet I knew I
was fucked.
So I answered the multiple choice section, hail maryed the short answer portion, and
skipped the huge essay at the end altogether. I was one of the first to finish because I
skipped the essay and the the smile he flashed as he saw me walking up told me he thought
I was one of his better students. I handed him the packet, he flipped through it, and I’ll
never forget the dumbfounded look of “really, dude?” that came across his face as he looked
up. I shrugged a completely exhausted and defeated “sorry” and walked out of the
classroom for the last time.
Trekking out of the building I called my mom and told her to order a pizza. Took it into my
room when I got home, ate the entire thing in one sitting, and slept clear into the next day,
ending the semester. Made it out of the class with a C-.
[–] TheBoogyMan_ 5 points 17 hours ago
Soundscapes or Physics 2. Soundscapes was like a music history class and omg was the
professor a know it all and expected everyone in the class to know it all as well. It was a
"gen-ed" credit and I bombed the H out of that final. Physics 2 was tough because I don't
always understand stuff you can't physically see. I am a bio major so chemistry and physics
were tough.
[–] symbaray617 4 points 17 hours ago
Rn it’s my primatology class. Fuck. Monkeys. Thats been my motto this semester. Too much
too fast and they all get mushed in my brain so I think I know what Ill need to know for
exams but hahaha nope.
Although my forensic anthro class is pretty hard but mostly bc it’s a once a week 3 hour
lecture.
[–] merriwetherjenkins 5 points 16 hours ago
A class about neuropsychology taught by a prof who wrote the textbook. Our midterm was a
take home opinions piece arguing for or against the existence of AI. I wrote against it. He
literally crossed out my entire first page with a red pen and wrote “NO”.
[–] 1gayWhale 5 points 16 hours ago
My fucking chemistry teacher had to have only been there because of tenure. Seriously was
the rudest, most incompetent teacher I’ve ever had. Her lectures were incomprehensible
and the textbook barely helped. Out of every exam we had, the highest score was less than
76%. The final happened to be curved by quite a lot, so much so that I got a 41% on it and
still passed the test.
[–] ItsTtreasonThen 5 points 15 hours ago
English course my junior year. It actually was not a hard final, we just had to write a 6-7
page essay. But what fucked me up was I was SOOOOO sick.
I actually had been having those horrible fever dreams for a few nights. I was drinking
endless amounts of liquids and trying to self-medicate because I did not want to deal with
going to the health center or a doctor.
Anyways, I knew the essay was due on Wednesday, but I kept pushing it off hoping the
fever would break. Well, Wednesday morning comes and it really has not, like... it’s not
even better, it’s just... the same.
Anyways, I hate writing when my head is foggy/cloudy, and the fever was certainly making
me feel that way. The worst part was actually the sources I had to find. My argument
somehow was actually sound. It was just backing it up that fucking sucked ass.
I didn’t fail, somehow. I think I got a C. And I still got a B overall in that class. Anyways,
being sick is really detrimental to finals! Who would have thought?
[–] Dafattyupp 7 points 15 hours ago
IT professor liked to experiment with lockdown browsers and online tests.
Final was 60 questions, all multiple choice. However all of the multiple choice questions
were "Select all that apply" So if 4 choices were given, the question could have 1-4 correct
choices.
Furthermore, selecting a wrong choice warranted a point penalty. So If there was only 1
correct answer, and you selected 3 of the answers, you were -2 points for the exam.
Not a good look
about help apps & tools <3

blog site rules Reddit for iPhone reddit premium
about Reddit help center Reddit for Android reddit coins
advertising wiki mobile website redditgifts
careers reddiquette
mod guidelines
contact us
Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy. © 2018 reddit inc. All rights reserved.
REDDIT and the ALIEN Logo are registered trademarks of reddit inc.
Advertise - lifestyles

For Those Who Are Currently In, or Have Gone Through College, What Was The Hardest Final You'Ve Ever Taken - AskReddit

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

For Those Who Are Currently In, or Have Gone Through College, What Was The Hardest Final You'Ve Ever Taken - AskReddit

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

12/13/2018 For those who are currently in, or have gone through college, what was the hardest

at was the hardest final you’ve ever taken? : AskReddit

Want to join? Log in or sign up in seconds.

BECOME A REDDITOR and start [ SERIOUS ]

submitted 19 hours ago by Bcunningham3

sorted by: best

Want to add to the discussion?

[–] Lomelinde 671 points 17 hours ago

The professor spent every class just writing

Came here to say same thing. Lost my temper

[–] pterrorgrine 76 points 10 hours ago

[–] SecretRedditOverlord 31 points 7 hours ago

This gives me a raging justice boner. So

load more comments (2 replies)

< > discussions in r/AskReddit X

I'm happy to hear someone had a good 30.6k · 7663 comments

load more comments (51 replies)

[–] uberman35 254 points 18 hours ago

[–] BringemYoungU 106 points 16 hours ago

Taking my LE practical and written tomorrow. It's going tibia great!

[–] Grammarisntdifficult 27 points 9 hours ago

Tibia great experience?

load more comments (2 replies)

[–] c00kiebreath 22 points 16 hours ago

load more comments (8 replies)

[–] FTFallen 1153 points 18 hours ago

[–] IssaDatBoiMura 984 points 14 hours ago

[–] BullshitSloth 666 points 13 hours ago*

Why say lot word when few word do trick?

[–] zimbleeder 60 points 12 hours ago

[–] Venra93 158 points 12 hours ago

[–] EndlessKillz 22 points 9 hours ago

[–] Elpacoverde 9 points 5 hours ago

load more comments (2 replies)

load more comments (1 reply)

load more comments (7 replies)

[–] NAMEBANG 11 points 12 hours ago

Cold go down, heat go WAY up.

[–] TheSloppyJanitor [ ] 136 points 15 hours ago

load more comments (2 replies)

[–] Vitis_Vinifera 57 points 15 hours ago

load more comments (4 replies)

[–] ThatOtherGuy_CA 54 points 13 hours ago

Heat goes in Heat goes out.

load more comments (2 replies)

[–] Downvotes_hype 25 points 12 hours ago

Goes from hot to cold. Next question.

load more comments (1 reply)

[–] HOOKshoTT_ 52 points 12 hours ago

[–] nattysharp 38 points 6 hours ago

load more comments (1 reply)

load more comments (7 replies)

[–] Dapper_Presentation 17 points 9 hours ago

load more comments (2 replies)

[–] ThePlanckNumber 12 points 14 hours ago

I took HT last semester, do you remember what the question was?

[–] FTFallen 21 points 6 hours ago

load more comments (1 reply)

[–] A_Bit_Fishy 14 points 10 hours ago

[–] rowdserling 6 points 7 hours ago

Pray brother, and hope someone listens

load more comments (3 replies)

[–] Tubby-Tubbs 12 points 12 hours ago

[–] electricSheep94 187 points 17 hours ago