Top 10 Worst Types of College Professors

I seriously cannot comprehend why some professors are like this. Granted, some classes are difficult - that's normal to expect. If a professor sets the expectation that the class is going to be difficult, that's fine, but they need to make sure that getting a good grade in the course is actually doable.

I'm referring specifically to those professors who intentionally make their classes as difficult as possible and have the most complicated assignments and tests. They'll give some philosophical answer about how they don't believe in giving out A's, and why their grading system is correct and is the only way things should be done - or something like that, filled with so much nonsense.

It feels like every single school in America has at least one of these types of professors, and it's generally one of the most miserable experiences you can possibly deal with in college. Let's be clear about one thing: having so many students fail a class is not something any professor should be proud of. It's not necessarily a reflection on the students if over half the class is failing and it's a consistent trend. That's more a reflection on the professor in question, showing an inability to explain the subject matter in a clear and concise manner.

If you have one of these professors, do whatever you can - run fast and run far.

It seems like every school has at least one of these professors. They assign an opinion writing assignment of some kind, but what that translates to is they want to hear their ideologies repeated back to them. These professors are very biased in terms of their grading, to the point where students will fail assignments if they have different political beliefs than the professor. This is just to feed their massive egos and say that the student is wrong in this situation.

Not only is it a terrible way to "educate" students, but it also discourages students from thinking for themselves - which is one of the main objectives of college: to provide students the tools and resources they need to make educated and informed decisions for themselves. It's okay to have different opinions and political beliefs. Telling students that their beliefs are wrong simply because they are different, with no other legitimate reason, is absolutely diabolical.

Even better is when they love to go on political rants about why they're correct and everyone else who disagrees is immediately wrong. Drop that class immediately.

Another type of professor that every school seems to have is this one. For the record, attendance is important in order to be successful in your classes. Therefore, it's reasonable to expect some sort of attendance policy. There's a valid expectation that you should attend your classes because you're paying the school to be there in the first place. In addition to that, in the real world, you miss a day of work and you're basically terminated.

That's all fine. I'm not talking about attendance policies that are reasonable because, let's face it, life happens. I'm referring specifically to the professors who don't seem to understand or care about that. There are plenty of horror stories out there about this type of professor. We're all human, meaning if you're vomiting sick, in the hospital, or have a family emergency come up, it's okay to miss class and not be punished for it.

Granted, most professors can spot a faker from a mile away, but if it's legitimate, then there's absolutely no reason why students should be punished for something completely out of their control.

I feel bad if you get stuck with one of these professors. It's just the laziest style of "teaching." If a professor has PowerPoint slides that I can read, I expect them to actually explain what's on the slides further. These types of professors just explain things under the assumption that the students already know what the concepts are.

It's pretty easy to tell the difference between a good and a bad professor. A good one will actually explain the slide in detail and teach. The bad ones simply read word for word off the slide and that's it, with no additional explanations. Even worse is if they don't post the slides somewhere accessible after class. It's funny because, in every PowerPoint presentation I've ever done since middle school, the teacher would always say to the class, "Don't just read word for word from the slides." I guess these professors never got the memo.

At some point, you'll probably have a professor who has a strong accent, which probably means English is their second language. Most of the time, they are probably Asian. This is something I've dealt with before, and it's not fun. Typically, they speak too fast or are just impossible to understand because they have such a strong accent.

This is something you should figure out on day one. If you're having problems understanding them on day one, then your best bet is to drop if at all possible. It's not worth sticking it out for a semester, I promise you that. If you do decide to stick it out, be prepared to teach yourself most of the course. I can promise you it won't get any better throughout the semester. The worst is if it's a required course and/or the class is extremely difficult. In some cases, you're just out of luck.

Professors are supposed to be there to help you learn and understand the concepts of the class. Nothing is worse than being in a class with a professor who apparently goes out of their way to ignore any questions students have in class. Outside of class, they're seemingly off the grid and M.I.A. whenever you actually need them. They only have office hours by appointment, and lo and behold, they are never actually in their office and somehow never have any time available.

Emailing them is also worthless because they say they will respond in a timely manner, yet we all know it'll take them several business days before they can even read it. All I'm saying is that professors should dedicate time to helping students and answering questions they have. If you're going to have office hours by appointment only, at least be there so people can schedule appointments.

In other words, you're on your own when it comes to answering questions because it's almost not even worth trying to contact this professor. Even in the off chance they do respond to your question, it's almost always a vague, general answer that doesn't really answer your question and only leads to more confusion. Just knowing how to communicate effectively will go a long way. Unfortunately, some professors are just not good at that.

You know how frustrating it is to not know your grade until the last minute? Yeah, thank these professors. I don't know how or why they do this, but some professors are very lazy about grades and very secretive about their grading process.

It's that one professor who doesn't use the online portal system that shows all your grades, and it's infuriating trying to calculate your grade for that class. You ask them, and they're bound to give you a very vague answer like "you're doing alright." Like, define "alright" - does that mean an 81 or a 100? Most of the time, they only submit grades when the school requires them to. If you take a test or do an assignment or project in said class, good luck ever knowing how well you did.

All of this only adds additional stress towards the end of the semester because you have no idea how well you're actually doing. Just be transparent with the grading process and post grades in a timely manner - that's all we ask. If they don't like to grade assignments, well, they are literally in charge of the course, so they should lighten the workload or invest in one of those online textbooks that have assignments and instant feedback. Anything is better than finals week approaching, where you think you're doing well and then all of a sudden find out you're not.

I'm all for professors telling life stories from time to time, but class time is not therapy. I'm not paying to listen to a professor rant about their personal life problems or crazy political conspiracy theories. It's just a bad sign if they constantly do this every single class. Usually, it means they're in over their heads and have no idea what they're doing, or it's a telltale sign that they're mentally unhealthy.

If they tell stories that add to the discussion or just pass the time and break the ice a little bit, that's fine and all. But if they're just ranting about their personal problems all day, it's borderline psychotic and not something that should be worth your time. If that's all they do, then get out of there because you're wasting your tuition money on that class.

Some professors literally don't know how to teach the course material. We're talking about the professors who show up late, have barely a syllabus, and never post grades. If I'm paying to be there, I expect to at least get some value out of it. These professors are the ones who literally never actually teach anything, which makes attending classes pointless.

They will literally show up every time and say, "Okay, Chapter 5.1 is posted," and then just do the most random things on their laptops besides their job. Other characteristics of a lazy professor include having a large number of guest speakers to take up time, consistently showing YouTube videos with someone else explaining the topic instead of actually explaining it, or just using recorded lectures from several years ago that haven't been updated - and that's all they do.

Sometimes they aren't all that bad, but they certainly aren't good. You shouldn't leave class feeling like that was a waste of time. You're there to learn something, not to sit there in a glorified study hall.