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Made a fake login prompt to steal teacher’s credentialsVenue: 2nd year in engineering, data structure and algorithm lab exam.This is how lab exams are conducted in my college:Teachers make only 5 or 6 programming assignments. then they make about 10 xerox copies of each assignment. so that total number of assignment sheets are about 50 or 60. (Enough to cover the whole class)They shuffle all the papers, every student need to draw one paper from the pile.The student need to sit in a computer and complete the programming assignment. After it’s done the student need to make a zip file of the code along with his/her roll number.The teacher comes and accesses a remote shared drive and copies the zip file there.Later, when the exam is over, The teacher will check the codes from the shared folder to evaluate the students.The students does not have access to the shared folder. When the teacher double clicks on the shared drive, it asks for passwords. The login prompt looks like something similar to this:I was pretty good at Visual Basic at that time, I could build almost anything given ample time.However, the Lab exam was in C, which I never liked much, especially due to the lack of UI development scope.I decided that I will cheat using Phishing.I made a small stand alone windows application EXE file with Visual basic. When double clicked, it opens a window which looks exactly like the login prompt of the Windows security.It’s pretty easy to develop. Just a small Form, two text boxes, two buttons and some images and Labels, that’s it. When the OK button is clicked, instead of logging in, it saves both the username and password in a hidden TXT file.After the password is logged in the TXT file, my fake code shows an error message like:I could build one such application in less then 10–15 minutes.I took special care to ensure the dimension and look&Feel of the fake window matches with the original. I used the original icons by cropping it from screenshots, I also used color picker tools to carefully match the colors with 100% accuracy.Now one problem, How do I take the EXE file to my Lab? CD/DVD, Floppy and USB drives are disabled in the lab. However, they are allowed in Library, so I copied the file in one of the library computer and made a shared folder inside it. Noting down the IP of the computer so that I can access it from the Lab. Problem solved!Now in the lab I tried my best to solve my assignment, It was a complex binary tree sorting algorithm problem. I could not make it run successfully as programming C was never my forte.30 minutes before the exam completes, a lot of genius students who were expert in C, had already submitted their codes. and the teacher already pushed them in the shared drive with his credential.Time for some cheating!I double clicked my EXE file, the fake login window opened.I called the teacher :“Sir my exam is complete, Please upload my code to your shared area”He came, and typed his password in the fake form, as expected he got the Incorrect password message.He closed the popup, then double clicked on the shared drive again, thinking that he must have mis-typed his password for the first time.This time the genuine login prompt came, he logged in and copied my code in shared drive. Then he closed the shared drive, asked me to shut down the computer and leave the Lab.Then he returned to his desk.Before shutting down, I opened the text file and noted down his password! Before leaving the lab, I also deleted my EXE file.Next step: I ran into library and accessed the teacher’s shared drive with the stolen password.A lot of zipped codes are there which had just been submitted by other students.I know that since the number of question set is only 5 or 6, so there should be many students who got the same question as mine. After searching for several minutes, I found one zip file with exact match and guess what, the code runs too!I copied the code, made some changes in the comments, and replaced my code with that.Voila! Good marks in Lab assignment !Update:Some friends have asked how did I develop the application. It was almost 10 years back so I don’t have the code. Also Visual basic 6 is obsolete now, But there are lots of tutorials of C# which is just as useful. this is one example from youtube.Some friends have suggested why didn’t I use a keylogger. The lab computers were secured with norton antivirus which does not let keyloggers run in the background unless you whitelist them from Administrator account. A stand alone EXE is better suited for the job. I did not know if a portable keylogger existed back then. I had only Adramax keylogger which does not run parallely with norton.

Disclaimer: At the end of the day, ICAI is the boss.I am happy that finally there is a change and I have decided to stay happy by not thinking about possibilities beyond that, since at the end of the day …The change was long awaited and over due as well. It has been a decade since the last major change in syllabus. In a Profession like Chartered Accountants, this is like trying to file Returns for FY 2014–15 in FY 2017–18. On the contrary, Institute of Cost & Management Accountants of India (ICMAI) has already resolved to bring New syllabus, every four years. This is not just a resolution, but also very smoothly implemented plan, as ICMAI shifted from Syllabus 2008 to Syllabus 2012 and now Syllabus 2016, trying to keep its syllabus up to date with the trends.Before someone confuses New Syllabus with Devil’s curse, let me explain why changing syllabus is for the benefit of all, with no hardship involved.As I have explained in the past, New Syllabus will be applicable only to students who register for CPT, IPCC or Final after 30th June.For Students who have already registered or will have already registered by 30th June, for any particular level - New Syllabus will applicable to them for the next level.For existing IPCC students, Final will be under new syllabus, similarly for exisiting CPT students, Intermediate & Final will be under new syllabus. The syllabus is not dependent on your exam attempt but your course registration date.So please understand, there is no impact on the efforts that you have already made, books that you have bought or classes that you have joined.Changing course syllabus keeps the students up to date with the trends in the profession, which directly affects their employability. Else, companies would have to invest heavily in training of such Chartered Accountants and they might start considering alternatives.Besides, even ISCA subject has been dropped, IT subject has been streamlined. So if any of the above reasons doesn’t seem acceptable, atleast this would be.On one hand students cry for not getting well paid jobs, and then they also curse ICAI for making any change in the syllabus. “Chit bhi meri, patt bhi meri” (Heads is mine, tails too) will not work in your benefit. So, it is highly important to keep changing the Syllabus as per trends.For beginners, refer New Syllabus[1] & Old Syllabus[2][3] through footnote links.CPC BECOMES FOUNDATIONMore Accounts, Nightmare for Science Stream Students - Good move.Earlier Accounts was for 60 marks, now 100 marks. The increase in marks is coupled with some IPCC topics like Average Due Date, Accounting from Incomplete Records & Financial Statements of Non Profit Organization being introduced at Foundation level. This further strengthens the base for Accounting and for students joining from Science stream, this could be a nightmare.No restriction on other medium students, but learn English before you join CA course - Highly appreciative move.This is what the second paper’s structure says, Law for 60 marks with 40 marks General English. Limited Liability Partnership Act & Introduction to Companies Act has been added to the Foundation level. General English covers Articles, Reports, Emails, Formal Letters, Grammar, Comprehension, Anonymns, Synonyms, etc. Basically, the 10th / 12th standard English subject, compressed into a zip file. Another good move. One reason why many CA students lacked good English skills because there was no restriction on which medium school or college you come from. There is still no restriction, but ICAI has closed that loophole by introducing English. So Non-English medium students will now have to learn English properly and in-depth, before entering CA course.More Mathematics to keep students out of CA course - Good moveMathematics & Statistics has been expanded into a full 100 marks subject rather than the 50 marks zip version. Now this subject is value for study, as earlier too many topics were for too less marks. There is also a 20 marks logical reasoning included. While Mathematics & Statistics may not be extensively useful in CA profession, the knowledge of the same ensures strong reasoning & logical thinking capacity, which is highly important while auditing. This subject will also ensure students do not pass CA foundation in bulk quantity as before, but a check on the same can be maintained.Improved Understanding of Business - Requesting practical questionsEconomics is same as before, with 10 additional marks and Business Cycles as additional topic. Business & Commercial Knowledge is a wonderful subject added, only if the questions are more practical. The best part of this subject syllabus is the following part - “Students are expected to read atleast one financial newspaper and one business magazine.” Wow! This line says a lot. So question paper may contain some practical questions about ongoing issues. If this is true, then it would be a really great move.No more MCQs in Accounting, Law & English. Negative marking for Economics, Statistics & Mathematics - Great moveAccounting, Law & English are some important subjects which test the writing skills of the students. While Mathematics, Statistics, Economics & Commercial Knowledge is merely objective. Usually all subjects are tested at the same standard, however, ICAI took the brave decision of distinguishing the standard of evaluation for different subjects at the same level. This will definitely improve the competitiveness of the Chartered Accountants. Negative marking is same as before. It keeps answering merely by guess i.e. randomness of answering under check.IPCC BECOMES INTERMEDIATEShifting of Accounting Topics - Nothing special hereSome topics of Accounting have been shifted to Foundation while some topics have been borrowed from Advanced Accounting. Good thing is including all Accounting Standards in Accounting & Advanced Accounting subjects leaving behind only advanced issues for Final level. This will help students during articleship.Inclusion of useful topics at early stage in Law - Good moveTopics like interpretation of statutes, drafting deeds & documents, etc. have been included at Intermediate level itself. Consumer laws & brief introductions to labour laws has also been included. This ensures that the student is not completely blank about interpretations & legal documents. With this knowledge student can further build on with the practical knowledge he/she obtains. Certainly, Intermediate level has been designed keeping Articleship in mind and this is certainly a change for good.Learn the entire Costing all at once - Eat with two spoons nowThere’s one extra subject at Intermediate level, as Costing and Financial Management have been split into two 100 marks paper. The earlier Costing syllabus was certainly not enough for 100 marks paper, so now entire Costing i.e. the Costing at IPCC and Costing at Final level, both have been accomodated in one subject. I am doubtful, how good this move would be. Students have faced difficulties in Costing even at Final level because of multiple methods that can be used. Introducing such difficulty at Intermediate level is a big burden on students. All of this to insert one additional subject at Final level. Keep reading.Tax Subject is same as before. - Too much for too less.I still feel and this is with respect to all three ICAI, ICSI and ICMAI - either select certain chapters of tax laws or make them two different subjects. This is too much to read for so less marks, especially Direct Taxes which is a vast subject. Since ICAI’s motive is to accomodate more & more subjects in the syllabus, this is a move that they have made. As we know, at the end of the day …Advanced Accounting looks like dead end of Accounting - Not sureICAI has included Guidance notes in Advanced Accounting. There are only 5 other topics in Advanced Accounting which means each Guidance Note will now be tested in much deeper sense. In my opinion, it is too early to introduce Guidance notes. The syllabus of Foundation or Group 1 Accounts could have been spread over and shared with Group II Accounts, but ICAI seems to have decided something. I am adding an attention flag, it doesn’t seem appropriate.Audit subject seems quite improved in content - Very Good Move.The Auditing subject under the old course was too simple & pointless. Now the subject has been divided into topics as we have in Audit Plans. This is a significant improvement from the old syllabus as now it seems to include more practical subjects. We will only know how much they have improved the subject when the books are published, but as of now, looking at the topics, it looks convincing.Business Economics seems repetitive - Not so good moveFinancial Management is same as before, and now it feels like the only subject which is true value for marks. There is no cramming of topics in this subject and 60 marks is appropriate. However, the balance 40 marks Business Economics is like History of Finance & India Economy, which is good stuff, but these topics are already covered in Class 11th & 12th. Students already get the basic knowledge of Economics before CA course, so Business Economics seems repetitive. Again this would be a purely theoretical subject from the syllabus, a big question mark here.IT subject streamlined, SM same as before - That’s awesome!In original draft syllabus, ICAI had kept Information Technology subject in tact, but they have now streamlined the subject. As you can see the name is now “Business Information Systems”, thus, certain topics from ISCA will be introduced in IT subject. Only topics which are really very relevant have been retained. Strategic Management has been kept in tact. I wish there are more Case Laws in both IT and SM, it would have made subject more relevant. In CMA course, there are case laws from industry mentioned in Study Material, for students to understand concepts practically which are not asked in exams. I hope ICAI either now or later introduces such case laws.FINAL STAYS FINALFinancial Reporting has fewer topics, means more difficult- Not sureThe syllabus of Financial Reporting stays same except for exclusion of certain topics and shifting them to Intermediate level. Now although looking at syllabus, a student may think of it as a scoring subject, I feel the Financial Reporting subject will get more tougher because the topics which have been eliminated were the easier ones. This seems like a Lion’s den to me. Accident prone zone. Guidance Notes are going to bring in tough questions.Financial Management now looks interesting - Very Good moveThe old syllabus didn’t cover valuation in depth. Now there is an entirely new chapter on valuations. Besides, introduction of Islamic Finance is a great move. It would be an interesting topic to read, not sure about exam questions, as they would probably be theoretical. Interest rate risk management has been added considering the need of hour. The syllabus seems better, but I expect inclusion of Practical case studies like ICMAI modules which helps in understanding the practical aspects which students cannot learn in articleship.Advanced Auditing subject seems same - Requesting Case StudiesAdvanced Auditing subject has only been consolidated in a better manner. The subject under old syllabus lacked case studies and I feel the same would happen in new course as well. The way we learn Auditing and the way we apply in real world is different and this gap can only be filled in by Case Studies. Dear ICAI, Auditing is our key subject. Please include Case Studies here, make it more difficult but more practical so that it guides in real life situations as well.Allied Laws is like ‘Yeh bhi padhlo, woh bhi padhlo’ - Worst moveEither increase the weightage of Allied Laws or reduce the number of laws. ICAI did neither of them, but only included more laws without improving the weightage. This subject looks so crammed up. It was already so crammed up, and now they further added more laws to it. Now there are 17 Laws for 30 marks! I won’t say a word further about this, since you know, at the end of the day …Strategic Cost Management & Performance Evaluation, Copy cats! This war between ICMAI & ICAI is getting hotter - Great moveThis is an open war with ICMAI. In Cost & Management Accountant course, you have exactly the same subject at Final level with same name and same topics. This subject is certainly introduced to keep competition with ICMAI in check. This is great subject, in my opinion. It was the biggest difference between CA and CMA course which has now been eliminated. This subject might be partially practical and partially theory. Quantitative techniques have been reduced to four topics which is a good move. I wonder, would ICAI and ICMAI merge in future? They are eating each other’s scope, crossing the lines & raiding territories. When will this war come to an end!ISCA teachers go Jobless; Faith in ICAI restored - Legendary move!In draft curriculum, ISCA was retained with some relevant topics only. However, in Final Draft, they have removed the entire subject and introduced concept of ‘Elective Paper’. This is an absolutely welcome move. The choices in elective paper are nice. In future we may have more elective papers being introduced as per need. Now ISCA is covered in Advanced ICITSS course where ISCA would be an Online / OMR exam with multiple choice questions. ISCA wasn’t entirely relevant, hence they move the important topics to IT subject in Intermediate and some parts to the ICITSS course where I believe it won’t be too difficult. Now we will have Chartered Accountants with one specialization area. This is the future we were talking about. Hatsoff to ICAI, people in committee who stood for this suggestion.Direct Taxes is now more Comprehensive - Good moveThere is now a separate section for International Taxation which is actually very important. The 70 marks syllabus for Direct Taxes is same as before, however, I expect now questions would be more advanced and related to Assessment procedures as the Basic part has been covered in Intermediate level. Direct Taxes subject will require more practical knowledge, case laws would become important. Simple calculation questions won’t be asked.GST is the New Subject - Not ICAI, it’s Ex-FM Jaitley’s good move!The credit for this subject cannot be given to ICAI. It truly belongs to Arun Jaitley’s thoughtfulness and approach. GST is going to be effective soon and the new syllabus will include GST. There is nothing to worry about, as one GST law for 70 marks means many simple questions will also be asked. I am pretty sure, the first few attempts will see, many simple papers. Subject will be easier to pass & score than the other subjects especially because the syllabus isn’t vast and nor difficult. The Law is new and therefore, there aren’t as many complications as in case of Excise. Further, very few case laws would be applicable for first few years, almost negligible.OTHER CHANGESISCA exists, but in a different manner - Good moveThere has been a lot of confusion over ISCA subject, but the above picture will guide you. ISCA is not a theoretical subject anymore, nor it is part of CA Final. It is now a part of AICITSS course as a MCQ pattern paper. This exam will be similar to the old ITT exams, however, with a significant change in the syllabus.You can switch to New Course at any time - As expectedAs mentioned in above FAQ 41, you are allowed to switch over to new course at any point of time if you wish to. Probably the option would exist in the Examination Form that you fill up.Pass any Group of Articleship - A move for benefit of students.You can pass any Group of Intermediate, complete ICITSS training and start Articleship i.e. even after passing Group II, you can start Articleship.Combining IT Training & GMCS - Good move.ITT, Orientation & GMCS have been combined to form ICITSS and Advanced ICITSS. The first one has to be done prior to Articleship, while the other one in last two years of articleship.Final exam 2.5 years rule retained same as before - Good decisionIn Draft rules, it was mentioned, final exams can be given only after completing entire 3 years training. However, ICAI has after re-thinking, restored the rule to same as before i.e. after 2.5 years you can give your final exams.Alert! Irrespective of your Registration, ITT/Orientation/GMCS will be under New ICITSS course only - owing to administrative reasonsEven if you are registered under old course and you have not completed your GMCS or Orientation & ITT course by 30th June, you will be required to pursue ICITSS course instead of existing courses.Conclusion: Almost all remarks are appreciative. See why I am happy. There is change and the change is good. This is something that everyone will accept. The only problem here is, we are human beings. We have a lot of expectations. Our expectations have no boundaries and therefore, the more we think, the more we will be discontent. I feel happy that atleast some appropriate changes have been done. There can be so many more changes that we could imagine, but the Expert committee does consist of Experts who would have considered everything. No point in pondering over what could have been done or what should have been done, since at the end of the day …Friends who feel there could have been more changes or better changes - Yes, maybe you are right. However, let’s first appreciate the changes that have come after waiting for a decade and stay happy with what’s happening, instead of bothering over something that is not happening or not going to happen atleast in next few years.Edit 1 : The answer has been updated to reflect changes between draft curriculum & final curriculum. Feel free to ask queries about New curriculum in comments. If queries are personal, visit my profile for contact details.Related queries[1] In the CA final paper 6, which subject will have better career options?[2] What is the most significant change in new curriculum of the CA course?[3] Who will be most adversely affected by the new curriculum of CA course?Footnotes[1] http://resource.cdn.icai.org/45557bos35643.pdf[2] http://resource.cdn.icai.org/45099bos35101cpc.pdf[3] http://resource.cdn.icai.org/45100bos35101ipc.rar

Wheewwww…this is gonna be a long one, and I apologize. There’s a lot of trauma here.If you’ve done engineering at WVU in the last 30 years, there is no question. No debating. No pondering needed.If you are a WVU Statler alumnus, you already know the answer, and you should probably leave now to avoid remembering the pain.MAE460. Introduction to Automatic Controls, by Marcello Napolitano.Affectionately referred to as “Napy”This guy is probably the closest thing that I would refer to as evil in a casual sense. He was not at all evil in the way that Hitler was evil, but I just can’t really find any other word for it.The pain this man inflicted into students was just unbelievable.As indicated by the number, 460, this class is supposed to be a 2nd semester senior level class. One of the last you should take before graduating.But it was frequently recommended that you try to take it the summer before your senior year, or in your 1st semester of senior year in case you need to take it a 2nd…or 3rd time to pass.The most unfortunate part is that the material itself really wasn’t that difficult, compared to our journey through the engineering path. It really was just kinda inline with the steadily increasing difficulty of engineering stuff. Like going from 1st grade to 2nd, to 3rd grade.Like, when you would read about the concepts of Automatic Controls on wikipedia or scholarly sources, it just made sense. It was pretty simple stuff, actually.But somehow, this man made it into literal rocket science. He made EVERYTHING so much harder than it had to be.I’m having trouble finding the words, but this man ‘cranked it up to 11.’ In every possible way.As I’m trying to write this, I’m literally having flashbacks of anxiety, anger, depression, fear and concern for my classmates.See, I was lucky. I worked through school and dragged my feet through community college. So I transferred into WVU as a 22 year old, and turned 25 during his class. I had time to develop tough skin, out in the real world. I had much more emotional and mental maturity than my 21 year old self did.I kid you not, if I was in his class as a ‘regular college student’, at 21 years old, I would have probably gone home and cried daily or weekly and likely dropped out of WVU in my last semester, 15 credits short of my mechanical engineering degree.And I’m a “tough guy”. I bust my knuckles working on cars, I climb in and cut down trees for my landscaping business, I’ve had rough break ups, I grew up in a rough part of town, I’ve studied personal development and mental techniques and communication methods extensively. I have experiences/situations weekly that some of my peers would think is just a bad dream. I’ve had drunken people yell in my face, getting covered in their spit as an 8 year old. I’ve been hit from the back on a motorcycle, gone sliding into traffic, thinking I was going to get run over by a car while sliding on the road. Like, whatever you can throw at me, it’s fine. It might be uncomfortable, and might be unfair, and it might suck, but just ‘grin and bear it’, right?I’m very engineering minded. I see things in ‘black and white’ (much to the anger and annoyance of some of my ex-girlfriends :/Things are what they are. If you can fix it, no reason to stress, if you can’t fix it, then it is what it is. Accept it.In a job interview, I would blow 9 out of 10 of my classmates out of the water.But this man nearly destroyed me. For his own enjoyment, sometimes I think.And he wasn’t ‘picking on’ me or anything. This is just how he ran his class.I’ll give you some examples and details.So, first of all, understand that most students are taking 4–6 classes during this time. So still taking a full course load, complete with obligations and time commitments for those classes. Homework, class time, studying for exams, etc. Maybe some students are taking an elective or two, but I was taking 5 classes, all of which were legitimate core classes with real work involved.He assigned weekly homeworks that regularly took 10–15 hours.I had heard this prior to taking his class. I thought it was some weird joke or over exaggeration.It’s not.The packet of your homework assignment you turn in should be at least 25 pages, often more. Some students even turned in their homework assignments in binders.This is a weekly homework assignment of mine:Meanwhile, we have homework from 4 other classes to do as well.Late homework was absolutely not accepted. No exceptions. Class started at 11am. If you turned in your homework past 11:05, he would remove it from the pile.Even if your mom died 3 days prior, and you went to his office to explain, he would say “sorry, no exceptions.”The homework itself really wasn’t that difficult on a conceptual level, but it had to be formatted perfectly. This was really the time-suck. Most of it was programming to yield a proper graph of the solution. Each graph had to be specifically titled, each axis labeled and scaled correctly. The graph had to then be inserted into the Word document, carefully formatted within the page, and then had to write out the parameters of each problem.Most of the lines would be something like this:This is a screenshot of one of the Word docs I turned in for homework. Each problem has like 7 different possible outcomes based on a specific range of inputs, K. So you have to write the script for the problem, run it, and product an output graph. Then you repeat this for each range of “K values”.Then copy/paste the graph - WITH LABELS! - into Word, and write the captions.Do you know how annoying and disorienting it is constantly switching back and forth between superscript and regular script on your 25th page of homework at 2am?He gave out his own packets for each chapter. I will give him credit that he was very well organized, but the packets desperately lacked explanation of concepts and methods.He went through and made his own material for each chapter.So, weekly, you received a packet like this:Some of them are just a few pages. Most of them are 25–35 pages thick. Sometimes you would get 2 in the same class period.They were kind of neat, except the explanations sucked. He developed his own terms and abbreviations that you couldn’t search for online. Abbreviations he never explained, or wrote out in full, so you didn’t even know how to search for it in different terms. Several times I wondered for weeks “what does that even mean?!” tearing through the textbook desperately trying to figure it out. Only for it to hit me like a dump truck weeks later reading MIT’s educational material posted online. “OHHHHH! That makes so much more sense! It’s that simple?! Why did he make it so hard???”And his quizzes were literally meant to beat you down. They were all unannounced. He took “pop quizzes” to the nth degree. We had our first quiz in the 3rd day of the semester. We had no idea how he did things.The quiz was on the material that the 1st homework assignment was to cover, BUT that homework assignment was not yet due, so we had no obligation to have mastered it yet, as things would normally go.He didn’t care. POP QUIZ, he said.We’re all caught off guard. “A quiz on what…? We haven’t done anything yet”He passes out the quiz at the very beginning. We’re trying to slowly and carefully read through it, trying to make sense of this brand-new-to-us material, that we barely learned the day before.8 minutes, on the dot, passes and he says “time’s up!”The entire class, collectively, frantically looks up and around in confusion. Is this real? Is he serious?Most of us had barely made it past the 1st page.I admit, the problems were actually quite easy, but the environment and conditions were horrid and set up to fail you. The amount of time he gave was laughable.Surely this isn’t how things are done. He must just be punishing people who skip class.Oh yeah, he passed around an attendance sheet…every single class. If you missed more than 4 signatures, he automatically failed you.He passed back our quizzes to be picked up in our mailboxes. We retrieve them and see our scores.REALLY? He gave me a 1? What’s even the fucking point?In most classes, if you completely bomb a test or quiz, the professor will at least throw you a bone. Maybe give you a 30% if you were horrible, or maybe a 50% if you at least wrote down relevant formulas and had some coherent thoughts written down. Obviously, a 50% is still failing, but it at least gives you the chance to improve yourself and salvage your grade into passing status, maybe a high D or low C.Most professors want to fail you if you deserve it, but have no interest in “crushing” you or being unnecessarily mean.The next class, he stops talking about the material about 12 minute early, and he jokes that most of the quizzes were littered with scores of 0 or 1…out of 150.If you have not seen yet, please visit your mailbox.Okay.QUIZ!And we had ANOTHER quiz. I’m not fucking kidding.The same deal. Except he was ‘generous’ and gave us 2 extra minutes.We’re tired, we’re defeated, we have no idea what’s going on. We thought we were safe, paying our blood toll on the slaughter of quiz 1, just hoping we can double down on the homework due next class and actually understand what he’s talking about.Quiz 2, I got a 32/100. Improvement, right?After this point, we were shaking in our boots every class. By 10:57, every student was glued to their seat, all their pencils out, eraser, absolutely convinced today was the day he was going to swing the bat all the way instead of stopping right before your head and tickling it against your ear while laughing at the tears rolling down your cheeks. “What’s wrong? I’m not gonna hurt you!” While you’re still bleeding from the last hit.And every single class, he walks in at 11:01, holding a bin against his hip. A clear, plastic storage bin. Full of papers.What’s in the bin? Are they quizzes? Homework assignments? Material packets?And he stands there. Talks for a few minutes. Jokes with us about the weather, about the sports team.Then he sets the bin down on the table. Opens it up. We’re all dreading what’s inside.He takes his time. No rush.He pulls a stack out, and tells the front row to pass it around. You still don’t know what it is until the stack gets passed to you.And every class, we sigh a sigh of relief when it’s not another quiz.But every class…we’re waiting for the other shoe to drop.Every quiz is unannounced. And now we know they would be at the beginning, or the end. So even if he doesn’t pass a quiz around in the beginning, we’re still not safe.Can you imagine this? Trying to legitimately focus on and learn the material while you’re constantly scared shitless that an impossible quiz is coming your way? It’s September. You’re supposed to graduate December 21st. Your parents already booked the hotel. And this class, this man, holds all the power if you’re gonna walk or not. And it all falls on these quizzes.ANOTHER failed quiz?! Is it even possible for me to pass anymore??I saved everything I ever got related to his class. I promise you, every single paper in this bin is from his class. A one-semester undergraduate level class. NOT a phd class, or master’s or anything else.Quizzes, homework assignments, tests, his own packets he gave out.I’ve only kept it to use one day for scrap. I hate to waste that much paper.So we only have those 2 quizzes in the beginning of the semester, then days and weeks pass. No more quizzes. Just homework assignments.And then the 1st exam comes. And it’s like the quizzes, but 5 times worse. Each test is 5 problems, which would normally take 20–25 minutes each to do carefully, if you had perfect conditions.You know, a properly air conditioned room, peace and quiet, no stress or anxiety. Just casually doing a problem, like some homework practice. And a few minutes to re-read the problem and check your work.Here’s the thing: we had precisely 42 minutes for each test. In a classroom with 80 other people. Every seat was filled. We had a writing platform roughly the size of a small cutting board.I believe this is the exact classroom that I had his class in. You can see the writing platforms (the pale piece of wood near the arm rest, stowed away in the picture) for each chair.People are sniffling, coughing, breathing heavy. People frantically erasing utter nonsense that they wrote, but can’t figure out why. Up to 3am studying for the test, but had test for another class at 8am that day.And the 35 page homework assignment was due.So what choice did you make? Did you study for the exam? Did you spend 12 hours on the homework that you can’t turn in late - an assignment that barely prepares you for the test? Did you choose to study for your other class instead?He says “time’s up” and you’re literally in disbelief.We’re going to split the exam into 2 parts and finish it next class, right…???Nope. What ya see is what you get.So you turn in your exam, barely done with problem 2, even after you’ve scribbled your pencil faster than you have in years.No way. This is impossible.This was exam 2, I believe.So we’re freaking out. A busy crowd of students talking after class.How did you do #3?Did you finish???What’s up with this guy?And then you find out someone in class got a 94% on the exam. You ask them how. And they just casually say “I got old exams from a friend who already took this class”.And then it hit me.It’s all just rigged. The only way to pass is to already know exactly what’s coming.Very next class after test #1,“QUIZ!”You don’t understand how close I was to having a teacher-student standoff at that very moment. Taking a stand as an older, more mature adult in a sea of defenseless teenagers.“Why are you doing this? What is it you’re trying to accomplish? Do you understand this is a horrible way to run a class? Do you know how many studies there are saying that pop quizzes are a horrible and completely ineffective form of learning?”But I didn’t. I just closed my eyes and felt the bat smash into my temple for the 4th time.Homework #2 was passed back in our mailboxes that morning, picked up before class.“What’s the point?” I thought, utterly defeated. An assignment I spent 8 hours on, but new I should have put 12 in. I thought I’d get a 70%, take my lickings, and move on. I had other assignments due. Remember what I said about those graphs needing to be properly labeled? This is the punishment that makes you never forget or say ‘eh I’ll only lose a few points’. A 65-point deduction on a 130-point assignment. Not too shabby.There was no rubric or criteria provided. We have no idea how we’re graded, and only find out after the fact.It’s okay though. I check the syllabus again, and homework is only 10% of our final grade. Quizzes are only 15%, so those barely matter, right?And the remaining 75%? All exams, baby.No labs. No credit based on participation. No research papers. No show-and-tell projects. Nothing. Nothing that would actually show our real-life grasp of the material. Just these impossible tests.Oh, well that’s not exactly true. We are graded on class attendance, but not like in an extra credit way. More like for each class we miss, 2% is subtracted from our final grade.And being more than 5 minutes late is considered an absence. So there’s that. I’m not sure about you, but that last bit definitely helped me sleep better at night.So it’s about 1/3 of the way through the semester, and I’m SHOOK. Like, I’m fucked up. I can’t think straight. I can’t figure out which way is up. I can’t focus on any other classes. My mom is calling me twice a week “the hotel reservations are still good, right?”.I calculate my grade in the class based on my returned assignments. I had like a 36% going into exam 2.I’m fucked. I’m screwed. I’m dead in the water. Even if I manage to somehow pull some miracle 100% out of my ass on the next 2 exams and the final, best case scenario is like a 73% in the class.So I go talk to him. I was extremely mature and level headed about it. I tell him how messed up his class is making me. I say how I’m not alone.I was VERY careful to not accuse him of anything. I very carefully say things like “I’m not sure if you are aware, but some of your behaviors are causing us lots of anxiety. The pop quizzes, for example.” Stuff like that.Kinda like that ‘Dutch Uncle’ thing. Like I wouldn’t say that you’re intentionally causing the students’ anxiety level to go off the charts, but SOMEBODY might say that.At this point, I was spending so much time on his class, I started to fail other classes. I hadn’t done laundry in 2 weeks. I kept buying shitty overcooked chicken tenders from the school shop because I hadn’t gone grocery shopping in weeks. I was on campus 13 hours a day. I went to the gym maybe 1 day a week, down from my usual 4–5 times.I was a wreck.“Like, for example, your class is tough, and - don’t get me wrong! - I respect that. I know it’s very important material, and we have to know it. We shouldn’t just be given a free pass, a rubber stamp. - but, like, my mom is calling me weekly asking if I’m still going to graduate. Is there any chance for me at this point? I know it’s my fault, and it’s up to me, but is it even possible?”Totally kissing his ass in hopes to avoid it turning into some weird fight how I’m somehow accusing him of XYZ. (Some of these professors are on some ‘power trip’ nonsense).And he says “I write it clearly in the syllabus that I will not be held responsible if you do not graduate. I say that I will not give you any special treatment due to that. Look again.”So I pull out my syllabus, and it clearly says that on page 3. He’s right.“As far as you passing the course, I cannot guarantee anything, but I would not advise you drop at this point, premature of the ‘last drop date’. “I ask him what the deal is with all the pop quizzes. Why are they ALL unannounced? Why do you not tell us about a quiz in advance? What’s the point?He says “I do have announced quizzes. They are called TESTS.”We talk about how there’s not enough time for the tests. He shrugs and says other students seem to manage. “I do not give special treatment”.He’s referring to the students who already have the answers from the old tests they’ve gotten from friends.I bring that up, too. He says “nothing I can do about it.”He then goes into some weird form of trying to cultivate sympathy from me toward him - he uses this phrase “I’m like a train without a station”.“I write textbooks with practice problems at the end. Within 6 months, the answer key is hosted on a piracy website, free for all. I write exams, and they get passed around the students. I am on a never-ending mission to write new problems because the demand for the answer key is so strong. I can never stop. I have no station to pull into. No chance to rest.”And I’m screaming in my head - DUDE! YES! BECAUSE OF THE WAY YOU SET YOUR SHIT UP. You set it up with 100% emphasis on scribbling down the correct answer as fast as possible with no actual verification if the student understands the concept!Just like a game show. Regis Philbin doesn’t give a shit if I know how the big bang happened as long as I can utter the phrase “the big bang” when the $64,000 question comes up asking about it.Our meeting is over.If you don’t know, the last drop date is the absolute last day that you can officially ‘drop’ a course without taking an F in the class. If you drop before that day, it is marked as a W for withdrawal, but does not have a grade attached. If you drop after, your grade is marked as a F and it is averaged into your GPA.This grading mechanism is taken into account when forming a strategy on whether to drop a class or not, because there are penalties both ways.And he gives me a few *wink wink* type of comments. Some professors beat you up in class, to give you a tough skin, but then you pull through with a B. Like they over-challenge you, so that when you come back to down the proper level of difficulty, you’re suddenly over-prepared.Sort of like, you train like an Olympic athlete for a casual, neighborly 5k marathon.So I decide to tough it out. Because, if I drop it to retake later, then I cannot graduate, at all.Fuck it. If I fail, then at least I stuck it through to the end.And test 2 comes. It’s even more of a slaughter than the 1st. The day before in class, he claimed it was shorter and easier than test one. “The hardest is behind you”.Yeah, well that was a fuckin’ lie.And test 2 was given ON the drop day. So you did not receive your score until after the drop day. All you had was your feeling of how you did to reflect back on.I stuck it out. The next class, I pick up my test 2, and I got a 26/100. Even worse than the 1st test.I walk into class, just furious at this point. Ready to cuss the guy out in front of class for jerking us around like this. Making jokes about it. Joking about how we’ve “lost brain cells” due to drinking too much beer at campus football games.He even spent 5 minutes on the chalkboard, calculating how many brain cells you would lose if you drank 3 beers per day for all of your college years.It was quite odd. Then he made ‘brain cell’ jokes for the rest of the semester.He then spent another 15 minutes berating the class, “what’s the deal?”He ‘rhetorically’ asked 10 times over. “What’s wrong, guys?? I go over the material. I give you homeworks. I give you packets. Whats the problem?”I say ‘rhetorically’ because he asked it several times, pretending he wanted someone to speak up, but we all knew better. We knew he knew. He’s been here for 30 years. He knows. We’ve heard the tall tales of his existence in the hallways, heard horror stories from older students. So had he.Other professors used to be students of his. They know. They all know. Faculty knows. The administration knows.He knows exactly what he’s doing.His reviews on http://RateMyProfessor.com don’t hold back.His end-of-year student evaluations are not kind.My complaint against him to the department chair was not a surprise.I was venting to another classmate about it. She said she cried in his office right before. Not even on purpose as a manipulation tactic. She just couldn’t pack up fast enough to leave the room before busting out in tears.She already had a job lined up, and had straight A’s her entire college career except this class, which she might fail and not be able to graduate over.I’ll tell you about exam #3 then wrap this up.So, apparently I have A.D.D.I recently self-diagnosed, but never associated myself with someone who had that disorder. I just hated studying. I would much rather work on cars than bury my head in a textbook for 8 hours. I don’t even think that’s natural for humans anyway.I’d only been officially diagnosed and medicated for ~6 months prior to this class. I decided I had to use every tool and trick I’ve got, short of cheating. I got to the Student Services department and get approved for accommodations: extra time on tests, and a quiet environment.So I got anywhere between 1.5x and 2x time on tests and quizzes.The next quiz, I get 100%, bringing my average up to like a 16%. Unfortunately, that was the last quiz of the semester.Test #3, I end up getting like 2 full hours. It was insane. I was in a private room.I did it all. I went and got a stack of old exams, and went through them. Literally unbelievable that someone could even WRITE that much in 40 minutes, much less actually formulate it with their brains, on the spot. Even if I was doing copy/paste via pencil, I still couldn’t jot all that down in 40 minutes.So I take the test, and it’s thoroughly mentally exhausting. I’m scrambling because I don’t know how much time I get beforehand. Just waiting for the “time’s up” announcement.For the first time ever, I have a chance to actually re-read the questions and make sure I’m doing the right thing. I have time to check my work. It’s crazy.But still, not easy. Still having to do extremely complex problems if you miss 1 step, it’s ruined. I was defeated. I had to muster mental energy to even blurt out nonsense for the last question.I turned it in and left. I went to the bathroom to recoup and just burst out laughing. Maniacal laughter. Just laughing like a madman. Like when you can’t tell if someone is laughing, screaming, or crying. That jagged breathing in between the waves.I felt like maybe I finally had a chance. “Maybe I actually passed that one” No, not gotten an A or B, but just PASSED it.Maybe he will show mercy if my grades show a trend of improvement. Maybe I can scrape a 53% which will somehow be curved into a 59.5% and rounded to a D.That was my only hope.I also felt awful. I got 2 hours for a 40 minute test. I relived the agony and hopelessness that I felt during prior tests, and how I’m sure my classmates felt during the test I just took.It was the most difficult and most technical test of the 3 so far.I laughed like a maniac again. All I could think of is how impossible it was. I laughed at the hopelessness of it.For some reason, this one analogy hit me in the moment and stuck with me:It’s like if someone gave you duct tape, WD-40, and a hammer, and said “build a space shuttle in 45 minutes, or we’re going to kill you”You wouldn’t even try. You would just laugh at the insanity of it, and throw your arms up, and say “shoot me”.You would walk up to them, right up to their outstretched arm, and carefully place your forehead directly on the barrel of the gun, wishing, hoping beyond hope they would pull the trigger and finally put you out of your misery.Next I thought of when animals in captivity or experiments exhibit self-harm. When you repeatedly give electric shocks to monkeys with no pattern. They can’t figure it out, and have no idea when it’s coming or how to trigger it or prevent it. So they start pulling their hair out, hitting their head against the walls, scratching their skin until they bleed. I guess, on some level, it’s a way for them to recover the mildest amount of control over their situation and their own suffering.That’s what I thought of.I managed to get a 78% on that exam. A huge relief, but too broken to care.This man broke me, and I stopped caring.If I study for 8 hours, I fail. If I study for 16 hours, I fail. But I understand the material and theory, just can’t be rushed to pump out formulas during tests.I have other, much more interesting classes to pay attention to. I’m overdue in taking care of myself. This is no way to live.I would walk by the halls and see students frantically studying for the final exam. I just laughed and felt sorry for them to still be chained, a slave to that class. I did the bare minimum on homework and studied for that exam in equal proportions as other classes.I took the final exam, which was a nightmare. Most professors give you a little bit of a break at the end. A little reward for making it to the end of a long and difficult semester. They usually make their final exams slightly less difficult than the unit tests. No need to beat a dead horse.Napy was the opposite. Instead of 5 impossible questions, there were 10 of them, with 2 “bonus” questions.With extra time, I ended up getting nearly 5 hours to work on it. Just ragged insanity. Time wasn’t the issue, it was just mental exhaustion. Not even being able to think straight. Too busy obsessing over the consequences to be able to think about the problem in front of me.Too busy hating this man for intentionally setting up his class this way and cracking jokes about it after he had been made abundantly aware of the effects of his mental abuse on his students.I don’t know what I got on the final exam. But he gave me a D- in the class. Yes, he went out of his way to give me a ‘minus’ in a school that doesn’t differentiate within the letter grade. As far as GPA is concerned, a D- is the same as a D is the same as a D+.Literally no reason for him to give me a D- rather than a plain D other than just disrespect.Ironically, immediately after graduation, I got hired at Siemens as a Systems Specialist for their HVAC branch. My job is literally all automatic controls! They are putting me through their own proprietary training curriculum to design and program their HVAC systems and I’m very excited to get out in the field.Unfortunately, he caused me to hate the material. Hate the subject. A rather interesting and extremely useful and relevant field of study in today’s advancing technology. Even though I put 3 or 4 times as much effort into his class as any other I’ve ever taken, I can barely seem to remember any of it compared to other classes. My best guess is I’ve repressed it. Either that, or his method is horrible for concept retention. Who knows, right?I’m not saying I would try to hurt him, or wish ill will upon him. All I’m saying is…Look, if I was on a jury for someone who assaulted him or attempted to murder him, I wouldn’t agree, but I’d understand.All I wish for him in life is that he have an invisible thumbtack in his shoe, right under his big toe, that he can never see or be able to remove it.I’m not mad about wanting to be a thorough professor, or just having high expectations. I actually appreciate him pushing us to explore the material better and having a legitimate mastery of it, rather than some other classes you could BS your way through, but mental games gotta stop.If you want to be open, and acknowledge it, that’s fine, but don’t wear a mask, jump out of a dark alley, beat the shit out of someone, then the next day tease them for having a black eye.Oh, and my advice for other students? Just take it over the summer. That’s the only session that he doesn’t teach. It’s SO much easier with a different professor. Just avoid him.Horrible that you have to go out of your way to take a summer class to avoid a single professor, but that’s life sometimes.EDIT: Like similar answers, talking about the corruption of college politics and such, I’m anticipating people calling me a loser or whatever. “You’re just mad he didn’t give you an A” or “lol probably playing too much video games” or whatever else.I’m not interested in convincing anybody one way or another. Obviously, my answer here is pretty much irrelevant if you won’t ever have this professor, but I’ll post some public grading records from WVU.Napolitano’s grades are consistently the lowest across MAE (mechanical and aerospace engineering).You can also see a very significant 1/2 letter grade difference between Napolitano’s grade and another professor, Andrew Rhodes.You can browse all of WVU’s grades here:WVU Fall 2018/Spring 2019 Average Grade and GPA Checker