Chemistry was a killer at Florida when I was there. I still have nightmares about P-Chem. It was the most difficult class I ever had including my PhD program.
Jerry From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, October 14, 2009 10:42 AM To: gatortalk googlegroups Subject: [gatortalk] RE: [gatornews] [SUN]: "The Chalkboard" -- UF exception in study finding low math passage (Crabbe) Dang. When I was at UF - pre engineering - all math, science, chemistry, etc classes were "weed out" classes. I think there were three chemisty classes plus a test to even get into the first chemistry class. I think it was like 2,000 applied to start chemistry and only 200 finished. I think one of the bad chemistry teachers was Dressner. There use to be stop signs around campus where below the word "stop" was "Dressner" I hear that now classes are much easier and they try to pass students through instead of flunking them out. -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [gatornews] [SUN]: "The Chalkboard" -- UF exception in study finding low math passage (Crabbe) From: Shane Ford <[email protected]> Date: Wed, October 14, 2009 8:53 am To: [email protected] <http://www.gainesville.com/global/graphics/blogs/gs/hdr/The+Chalkboard.gif> October 13th, 2009 02:00pm <http://chalkboard.blogs.gainesville.com/11440/uf-exception-in-study-finding-low-math-passage/> UF exception in study finding low math passage by <http://chalkboard.blogs.gainesville.com/author/crabbe/> Nathan Crabbe (Gainesville SUN) A new study finds that more than a third of students who enroll in introductory math classes at state universities do not pass, although the University of Florida is an exception to the trend. About 37 percent of state university students fail or withdraw from “gatekeeper” math classes such as college algebra and trigonometry, according to the <http://enlacefl.usf.edu/enlaceblog/p4/index.html> study by ENLACE Florida. Students at Florida Gulf Coast and Florida International universities were more likely not to pass than succeed in those two particular classes, the study showed. UF, on the other hand, had passage rates ranging from 77 percent in pre-calculus algebra to 96 percent in math for liberal arts II, the latter rate being best in the state. UF also had the top passage rates among state universities for college algebra (84 percent), pre-calculus (82 percent) and math for liberal arts I (85 percent). UF’s selectivity and the higher income level of its students as compared to other state universities could be responsible for the higher rates, said Paul Dosal, executive director of ENLACE Florida. He called on university math departments to do a better job, even at UF. “I don’t know if I would ever rest on my laurels, because we could always do better,” he said. ENLACE Florida has posted a <http://enlacefl.usf.edu/Gatekeeper%20Courses%20Data%20for%20Publication.xls> database on its Web site showing the data, which comes from the 2007-08 academic year, broken down by individual classes and universities. UPDATE: I spoke with UF Provost Joe Glover, who said the failure of students to pass could be due to a lack of preparation in high schools or students having difficulty adjusting to the workload of college. He said even UF, which has “some of the best prepared students in Florida,” has room for improvement. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
