Surviving Classes at UC Berkeley and Elsewhere

30 Oct 2022

Dealing with Common Pitfalls of University Education 🎓

Inevitably, to earn a university degree, you’ll have to take university classes. Some university classes can be incredibly tough—the material can be conceptually arcane, the labwork so time-intensive that you spend several weekends and evenings working, and the exams difficult and extensive enough to throw the whole class for a loop.

However, there are also some common pitfalls with the way university classes are taught that come from systematic roots at R1 research institutions. R1s are those universities classified as having “Very High Research Activity”, and that also tends to be their specialization and focus. Therefore (to be more blunt) many classes become a sidenote for professors and graduate students to teach, whereas their research is their main locus of focus.

The bulk of the classes I’ve taken are in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and computer science at UC Berkeley, Caltech, and Carnegie Mellon University. Although most of my college education comes from R1 research institutions (and some from community college), I still appreciate the R1 system for what it is. Incredible research is done by the very same professors teaching your classes, and they are often expert scientists in the very fields that they’re teaching. The way these professors teach can tend to be more research focused—meaning more theoretical and more mathematical than most students will use on a day-to-day basis in their careers—however, having the ability to think and solve problems the way research professors and grad students do can be a valuable skillset.

Still, this does not mean that professors and grad students can’t improve the way they teach, and I would argue there are very common pitfalls in the ways that professors and graduate students teach. The following are some ways to help deal with these common issues:

🔬 Pitfall 1: Professors and Grad Students have Expert Amnesia

Expert amnesia is the concept that experts in any subject have difficulty remembering how they learned the subject for the first time, and especially how difficult it was to do so. This common pitfall means professors and grad students who are not careful will introduce ideas in a way that is not optimized for a beginner, but optimized for someone with a lot of experience in the field. This means that university educators tend to have a big blind spot in properly introducing ideas. These experts may also use field conventions that are common in their fields, such as variable names without a proper introduction to the notation that may help make it more intuitive for the student.

Solution: As soon as you can for a new concept, read the Wikipedia page or other basic external source. It will most often help to read the definition carefully, remember it, and see some examples.

When professors are aware of this pitfall, they will be careful about introducing a concept. They will make sure the definition is clearly stated. They will also ensure the new concept is illustrated by good examples, especially when there are clarifying differences between each case. It also helps when they take their time with these introductions. You’ll often see professors thoughtfully reintroduce concepts and even notation, at least a couple of times, especially throughout multiple lectures. Something like:

As a reminder, F_x means df/dx in optimization/differential equations as a shorthand,

would help make a lecture more clear for more students. It’s common for students to not hear an introduction the first time since it really is hard to focus well for an hour or more. I have noticed that some professors get so used to reintroducing ideas, that they start doing so in conversation.

🚀 Pitfall 2: Professors Tend to Teach Fast

This is a consequence of expert amnesia, and the professor’s interests in the more advanced/non-trivial parts of the lecture. The parts professors are more interested in teaching tends to be the parts that are non-trivial to them, so classes can tend to be more difficult as a result. Professors also like to fit more material into their lectures. They seem to want you to know as much as they do, although they have several years more experience. Feeling that a class’s pace is fast is a common cause of imposter syndrome, and you really shouldn’t feel bad since it’s often an error by the ones who designed the curriculum or those who didn’t define the prerequisites well.

Solution: Same as above. You’ll have to be introduced to the idea well, and you can often do this well through Wikipedia, or a good Youtube video. It also doesn’t hurt to tell the professor that they are going a bit too fast. This can be done naturally by asking questions during class, although you shouldn’t ask too many as too bring the lecture to a standstill.

✏️ Pitfall 3: Mistakes on the Whiteboard or Unclear Handwriting

Anyone will make mistakes when teaching, especially when writing in real time. These inevitable typos are something to be aware of. They can be really confusing to a student.

In a related matter, many educators that teach math at the university level have pretty unclear handwriting that can make it easier to make mistakes. It likely comes from writing quickly as a habit in order to solve their problems very quickly. Conversely, from my experience, a professor with good handwriting is a breath of fresh air since there is less cognitive load in deciphering the handwriting.

Solution: The solution here is to look up a different source as soon as you can about something you found ambiguous, or see as a mistake. It will also often help everyone if you can point out a typo in real-time in class (you’ll also be paying more attention, which is a time-effective habit in lecture). If you are not able to do so in real time, you can ask the professor after class too. Asking for this clarification will inevitably be helpful for your understanding while you have the professor’s time.

🖇️ Pitfall 4: Vague Problem Sets

Oftentimes, problem sets are vague in the way that they are written. This occurs because the professor is used to their field to the degree that they know what the standard assumptions are when they write questions. From my experience, this is a common problem in some electrical engineering classes, although it certainly occurs in other classes.

You don’t want your grade to be based off of chance, so you should try to resolve such ambiguities.

Solution: Ask the TA or professor exactly what they mean in the question. Use office hours, Piazza, or email to do so. This can often mean starting your problem sets early enough to know what looks ambiguous, since figuring out the ambiguity from a TA or professor may take more than a day and office hour times can be limited. You may also ask your peers how they interpret the question, since some of your peers may have more experience in the field and are more likely to make the correct assumptions.

📚 Pitfall 5: Assumption of Student Background

Oftentimes, professors assume the background of most of their students are much stronger than they are, even in introductory classes. However, students in any class always come from all sorts of backgrounds. Professors tend to be some of the stronger students when they were at university, so they may be biased toward tailoring the way to teach to stronger students.

Solution: Oftentimes, it will help to build up your background as much as you can, and to do some scouting in advance on how difficult the class will be for someone of your background (e.g., if you don’t have a strong background in linear algebra, will you be fine in this class?). You can also talk to the professor in advance about your concerns based on your background, and they may be more than willing to help out in that case.

💬 Pitfall 6: How Academia Communicates

Unique to any new environment is the way people communicate, which includes etiquette and a number of unspoken rules. Professors and teaching assistants tend to be pretty busy. They schedule many a meeting in order to meet with collaborators to design new research projects, progress on research tasks, and just talk literature with their peers. At many R1 universities, research really does tend to be the priority, and that can be the priority with a lot of those paid by the university. Due to busyness, many professors I know tend to not be very responsive by email. Even many graduate students are not. Communication channels that people use does differ from person to person, and even the days or weeks when they are responsive can differ (due to paper deadlines).

Solution: Do your best to be persistent about emailing professors or TAs when you need help. They understand that they need to be responsive to students, however there are certainly times in which many miss emails due to the high rate of emails many professors or TAs can receive. Alternatively, if you have difficulty accessing a professor, finding a graduate student that they work closely with (someone in their lab) may be the better route. The professor tends to talk to the graduate students in their lab a lot, especially through channels that are less saturated for the professor, such as Slack. Meeting students or professors through office hours are a good route, since these are times they dedicated to be open to anyone that goes to their office hours. There are many times where even graduate students try to find their professors during office hours since they know it’s a good time they can get undivided attention for at least 15 minutes when a discussion of length is useful for you.

I added this section in response to a suggestion by someone pursuing a Masters in Education. Thanks for the suggestion!