I took this class hoping it would broaden my film taste and introduce me to films I had never seen before. This never happened.
If I had known what Professor Small was like I would never taken this class. But there was no way I could know and was determined to continue with it.
One of my roommates was in this class with me. This was either my first class (or one of my first classes) and my roommate had already had been to her other classes. I remember when it ended the first thing she said to me was that it had been her worse class so far. I had to agree it was particularly boring but I was still willing to give it a chance.
It didn't take long for me to realise she was right. It ended up being my worst class too. It was boring, unhelpful and they lost my mid-term exam paper. So yeah, it was pretty bad.
The worst thing about it was, not only did they lose my exam paper - the teaching assistant (Rich Housh) decided it was my fault rather than apologising for it.
Part of it actually had been my fault. A lot of exams in the States are multiple choice, and having never taken a multiple choice exam before, I didn't know I had to score my name using the boxes at the top. I just wrote my name on it, but then the computer system didn't pick it up. I wasn't told I had to do that though, so how was I supposed to know that?? Surely they should give you all that information at the start, no matter how stupid it seems. Any exam I've ever taken in Scotland, they tell you exactly what to put on it before you start.
So yeah, I took the exam. I was definitely there and had evidence as I asked a girl nearby to borrow her eraser. But basically most people in the class, including my roommate had got their grades back so I emailed the teaching assistant to find out mines. He then got back to me saying that I 'obviously' hadn't taken the exam which is why there was no result. Why would I have asked for the results for an exam I never took??? Retarded or what...
As soon as he emailed me that back I was angry. I put it all over my facebook, and was like how the fuck can they accuse me of not taking an exam even though I have proof I was there! They obviously had lost it and tried to blame it on me. I emailed him back assuring him that I had taken the exam and that I had proof. A lot of my friends on facebook were supportive and agreed it was a complete disgrace. Cheryl then told me to email the head of the film dept and said she would go to the Dean for me. I didn't think it had to go as far as the Dean, but I emailed the Study Abroad office straight away who then offered to complain to the head of the dept for me. Of course, after this they obviously made more of an effort to look for my paper.
Housh then got back to me saying, 'Well, we never found your paper, but we did find one with no name on it so we can assume that's yours and give you the grade. It's a B+.'
Thinking a B+ wasn't bad, I agreed that that was okay. Professor Small then offered me a personal apology and explained my paper was sitting on his suitcase in his living room and that we could go over the grades together if I wanted. He said he had looked over it and was certain I had got a grade around a B+. I accepted the apology and agreed that was okay (my real grade was probably shittier to be honest). I was just grateful I didn't have to sit the exam again.
Small gave us a lot of background knowledge in this class. Well, at least I had thought it was background knowledge. It turned out it was actually stuff we needed to know for our exams. Yeah, apparently knowing the original name of the film building at KU is useful in the field of documentary. The most annoying thing about it was that so many people failed the midterm, that Small was made to give us a list of possible exam topics for the final exam. So apparently, I was an idiot that studied the possible exam topics - none of which appeared in the final exam! I was mad.
Ended up getting a B- for the class overall. Which I didn't mind...until I realised this was the equivalent of a 2D-2F in Stirling grades! Ugh...worst class of my life. The most recent documentaries we studied in that class were from the early 1990s (if we were lucky). Did not see any documentaries from this century, you know which would have been nice but oh well.
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