haha. As you go higher up, those first year courses that you thought were impossible seem like child's play.
I remember the joys of advanced gas turbine theory. 46% class average. If you got at least a B, you were guaranteed a job at one of the big players(GE, P&W, etc).
Then there was this one robot kinematics course with equations that went on for PAGES. The sadistic prof wanted us to solve them by hand. 5 people were left in the class by the end...
Welcome aboard, sir.
Cheers!
“haha. As you go higher up, those first year courses that you thought were impossible seem like child’s play.”
My mistake. OU had a strange class numbering system back then. Math 201 was a third year class. 0XX courses were first year. 1XX course for sophomores, 2XX for juniors. Math 201 was Differential Equations for Engineers and Scientists. There were eighteen semester hours of other math prerequisites.
Lafond was just a the kind of professor who delighted in flunking folks. In fact, there was another equivalent course in Differential Equations restricted to Math majors. Lafond was not allowed to teach that course. IOW, Math 201 was ‘too difficult’ for math majors.
I remember the first day of my first attempt. Lafond walked in, looked around the room, and noted that at least half the class was back from last semester and that he expected fully half of us to be back the next semester. I dropped the course later that day.
The trick to 201 was to take the class at 8AM when there were two sections offered. If Lafond showed up, you dropped and enrolled again the next semester. Lafond taught all other 201 classes.
The problem was Lafond gave really tough exams. Did not grade on the curve and any error was a 25 point deduction.
On my second attempt I got a different professor, took my C and went on to complex variables.
“I remember the joys of advanced gas turbine theory. 46% class average.”
We had one of those too. Think it was called Advanced Gas Dynamics. Taught by a 24 year old PhD who wrote differential equations faster than you can write sentences. Actually, passed out xeroxed class notes since most in the class couldn’t take notes as fast as he wrote. Extremely disdainful of ‘practical engineers’. Not one of my favorite classes.