This is definitely the case with the lousy profs that don't challenge you. Although, I have had friends of mine fail one of my favorite prof's tests because they didn't think for themselves and just regurgitated what she said. Basically, it sucked and they got "Don't be a parrot" written on the exam. In the UK, they truly just want you to regurgitate. Little original thought is neccessary to get a first. In fact, if you include too many of your own ideas on an essay/exam, they will dock you points. In upper-level US classes, profs EXPECT you to do your own thinking and go beyond comparisons and into analysis. Of course, most freshman-level courses aren't like this, but I've only take a couple of 100-levels (only as many as was required for my major/minor) and I avoid them like the plague for this - among other - reasons. Work load is often doubly intense in 100-levels because they are "breaking" you at times and have to educate even the kids who are just taking the class to get a social science, hard science, or humanities credit. I had a bio teacher from hell who taught the class at a higher level than she taught her class for bio majors because "we needed to know our place". Oye.

GasMenagerie wrote:
Misinformation: informing FiSHes for 3 years now.