AAAARGGHH

[fahye]

There should be a rule. Or a law. Or something. People setting undergraduate assignments should not be stupid and should be forced to proofread before they hand a third-year psychology class a data set that is not only based on an incredibly poorly-designed experiment, but contains analyses that are not only missing a whole lot of stuff that would be really helpful, considering what we're trying to examine, but also wrong. Because they have omitted, inexplicably, three points from a six-point scale and then tried to pretend that one can plausibly run statistical analyses comparing this mean to two other means from scales that actually did use all six points.

(Look, I don't care if that made sense to you or not, I just need to vent.)

So far my Discussion section contains nothing except for a dot-point list of 'suggestions for improvement of future experimental design'.

One of which is: 'Well, the correlations are FUCKED, aren't they?'

My academic-speak is evaporating through the sheer force of how pissed off I am. This is worth 50% of my semester grade, I have two other assignments to be working on, and I do not have time for this shit.

*mutters darkly*

Comments

[nextian.livejournal.com]

Because they have omitted, inexplicably, three points from a six-point scale and then tried to pretend that one can plausibly run statistical analyses comparing this mean to two other means from scales that actually did use all six points.

... What the fuck, my friend, that is the worst stat result I've ever seen. And I don't even understand statistics properly. I am so sorry! I, er, HERE HAVE AN ACADEMIC COOKIE.

(My academic-speak is evaporating through the sheer force of how pissed off I am.

That happened to me with my final MAUS essay, because he says right there in the book not to psychoanalyse him too deeply, because it's the truth, and it's damn hard to analyse something that's literally true, and this relentless rehashing of his psyche is cruel and disrespectful to a genuine sort of experience, and my teacher needed to shut up about the panel sizes, because sometimes comic artists just draw things that way because that's how they draw them, and Art Spiegelman is not the most self-aware narrator in the history of the world.

If it helps, I got an A.)

[fahye.livejournal.com]

*giggles*

Perfect application of that icon, may I say. And ugh, I don't think I can get an A, at least until they tell me how they reached their bizarre statistical conclusions. Blah.

[schiarire.livejournal.com]

GOD it would be awful to analyze Maus [in that way]. I would weep. You deserve two cookies for even attempting it.

[nextian.livejournal.com]

*eats the cookies, forlornly*

Especially after doing Gatsby in this brilliant burst of analysis; it was a bit of a comedown.

Y'all don't read it in American Voices, or whatever the class would be called? Stupid sophomore year. I am still bitter.

(TEACHER: So, later, you have an assignment to write a little graphic novel for class.
NEXTIAN'S FRIEND: The assignment says one page, though.
TEACHER:Yes, that's correct.
FRIEND: But, it's a graphic novel. A one-page graphic novel.
TEACHER:...I don't see your point.

TEACHER: *goes on half-an-hour explanation of the difference between "affected" and "effected"*
NEXTIAN: *yawns, but is grateful*
Then, later:
TEACHER:*writes* "The Holocaust has deeply effected Vladek."
NEXTIAN:*does not have enough balls for this either*
NEXTIAN'S FRIEND: *makes an audible "facepalm" noise*)