Yeah, see, in my PhD program, which was about mastering a bunch of facts about languages, it was *all* about the classes and qualifying exams. After you did a few years of those, you got a couple of years to work on research to finish off your PhD, and okay, some people did take many years on their dissertation, but I only took two and was told I had a first-rate dissertation, and I was hyper-successful in the program.
I mean, our main official requirements were:
- Coursework in Indo-European linguistics, archaeology, and mythology. - Qualifying exams in Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, another language, and Indo-European linguistics. - Reading proficiency in French and German. - Dissertation.
And then there were the unofficial expectations, like linguistics coursework, TAing, conference talks, as many language courses as you could find time for, etc.
There were people who went crazy with stress over the classes and exams, and some people even had to repeat exams, and then there was me, who kept going, "But I can do this in my sleep?" And then there was the time a grad student from Harvard was visiting for a conference, and he complained about grad school being hard, and one other student in our program (he was one of the only other students who I think also found it too easy) said something like "???" They stared at each other, and then Harvard!student went, "...Right! State school."
:P
But even with my research, i.e. my dissertation, one reason I think the standards were too low was because I was trying to do quantitative linguistic research and I was allowed to do that without learning statistics. And I don't think it's Dunning-Kruger syndrome but actual low standards that has me saying, "No, I should have been made to learn statistics and do it properly." Even at the time, I was getting that feedback from other scholars, that this was not responsible research, but from my own university I just got, "First rate dissertation! What is this statistics of which you speak!" I really needed the bar to be held higher there. And I knew it at the time and that was why I complained.
Not to mention they let us come out of that program with requirements for "French reading proficiency" and "German reading proficiency" the results of which you have seen in salon, i.e., I could not read a paragraph of either. But somehow I got an A+ and was the top student in the class that was supposed to evaluate our ability to read German for academic research purposes!
I mentioned the problems with the French and German standards the last time I interacted with a couple people I went to grad school with, and one of them started making exaggerated faces and going, "I can read French just fiiiiine!" in a sarcastic "This is fine" meme style.
On the other hand, my Latin experience teaches me that if the way they want you to learn a language is to look up every word in a dictionary and grammar and never move on to the next word and sentence until you know every single thing about this word and sentence, you will never get to the point where you can read a paragraph on your own, at least not until you have a PhD with a focus *in that language*. So I guess if you're going to insist your students use these methods on research languages like French and German, you have to hold the bar really low. (And then you complain your students don't learn Russian because there's important research that's being done in Russian and not translated, but then you've taught them the only acceptable way to learn a language is to look everything up one word at a time, and then they quite understandably balk at doing this exercise in a non-required language.)
In the Indo-European historical linguistics courses, which were not language mastery but linguistics, people used to freak out and study for hoooours and super stress over the exams, and I was super confused because the prof would tell us which questions were going to be on the exam and what the answers were? Like they were essay questions and he would give us an outline of what he wanted us to cover in the essay, how much easier do you want it to be? But I guess being a third-year when the other students were first- and second-years helped: I had seen much of the material before just from existing as a student in the Indo-European program, and the other students were largely getting it for the first time in this class.
I remember one time we had a study group the night before the exam, and as we headed out, one student went, "Okay, we're going home to study until bed, and then we'll meet again in the morning and study together right up to the exam, right?" and everyone went, "Right!" And I went, "...It didn't occur to me to study more. Am I over-confident?" And then I got a 100% on the exam. :P All my grades in those classes were 97% or above.
And in Medieval Welsh, since you mention that, we were supposed to take 3 quarters to read the Mabinogi, and I had read the entire thing on my own outside of class before the end of the 1st quarter. And in 3rd quarter, Royal Patron said he was spending 5 hours a week on the reading assignment (which was like 2 pages) for this class and it was so exhausting, and I was like, "It's 2 pages. I spend 45 minutes a week on this class. I'm not sure the course should be worth this many credits." And we each stared at each other like the other was some kind of alien. (Yes, it is a problem that in the third quarter I was still taking 45 minutes to read 2 pages, but [insert pedagogy rant here].)
And then there was the undergrad "Intro to Indo-European linguistics" class that was for some reason required of me as a grad student. Halfway through, the prof gave an exam that everyone failed, except I got a 100%, and so he had to re-adjust the structure of the class so that the first half of each class period was new material and the second half was review, and I was excused from the second half.
And the archaeology course where I managed to make 100% plus full extra credit on all the quizzes, a 100% on the midterm, and a 100% on the essay, and so I was going into the final basically just needing to show up. And so on. A lot of grad school was like just being an undergrad again but with additional years of coursework.
And so it was that grad school was too easy for me. Although everyone else except for about 2 or 3 other students seemed to find it very hard and stressful. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Oh, the only time I was glad they lowered the bar for me was when the one time there was a non-alphabetic writing system involved. My brain struggles with visuals like writing systems and fonts. I was given a pass on the Sanskrit exam with a note that said, if I read between the lines, that the pass was only because they knew I was never going to look at Sanskrit again and so they were not unleashing an incompetent scholar onto the world of research. They were effectively allowing me to climb onto a chair and step through the one hoop I couldn't jump through in order to complete the requirements. Mind you, I had told the head of the program that if I couldn't pass Sanskrit, I was going to drop out of the program and switch to Classics, and I don't think they wanted to lose their top student, so there was that...
Grad school
I mean, our main official requirements were:
- Coursework in Indo-European linguistics, archaeology, and mythology.
- Qualifying exams in Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, another language, and Indo-European linguistics.
- Reading proficiency in French and German.
- Dissertation.
And then there were the unofficial expectations, like linguistics coursework, TAing, conference talks, as many language courses as you could find time for, etc.
There were people who went crazy with stress over the classes and exams, and some people even had to repeat exams, and then there was me, who kept going, "But I can do this in my sleep?" And then there was the time a grad student from Harvard was visiting for a conference, and he complained about grad school being hard, and one other student in our program (he was one of the only other students who I think also found it too easy) said something like "???" They stared at each other, and then Harvard!student went, "...Right! State school."
:P
But even with my research, i.e. my dissertation, one reason I think the standards were too low was because I was trying to do quantitative linguistic research and I was allowed to do that without learning statistics. And I don't think it's Dunning-Kruger syndrome but actual low standards that has me saying, "No, I should have been made to learn statistics and do it properly." Even at the time, I was getting that feedback from other scholars, that this was not responsible research, but from my own university I just got, "First rate dissertation! What is this statistics of which you speak!" I really needed the bar to be held higher there. And I knew it at the time and that was why I complained.
Not to mention they let us come out of that program with requirements for "French reading proficiency" and "German reading proficiency" the results of which you have seen in salon, i.e., I could not read a paragraph of either. But somehow I got an A+ and was the top student in the class that was supposed to evaluate our ability to read German for academic research purposes!
I mentioned the problems with the French and German standards the last time I interacted with a couple people I went to grad school with, and one of them started making exaggerated faces and going, "I can read French just fiiiiine!" in a sarcastic "This is fine" meme style.
On the other hand, my Latin experience teaches me that if the way they want you to learn a language is to look up every word in a dictionary and grammar and never move on to the next word and sentence until you know every single thing about this word and sentence, you will never get to the point where you can read a paragraph on your own, at least not until you have a PhD with a focus *in that language*. So I guess if you're going to insist your students use these methods on research languages like French and German, you have to hold the bar really low. (And then you complain your students don't learn Russian because there's important research that's being done in Russian and not translated, but then you've taught them the only acceptable way to learn a language is to look everything up one word at a time, and then they quite understandably balk at doing this exercise in a non-required language.)
In the Indo-European historical linguistics courses, which were not language mastery but linguistics, people used to freak out and study for hoooours and super stress over the exams, and I was super confused because the prof would tell us which questions were going to be on the exam and what the answers were? Like they were essay questions and he would give us an outline of what he wanted us to cover in the essay, how much easier do you want it to be? But I guess being a third-year when the other students were first- and second-years helped: I had seen much of the material before just from existing as a student in the Indo-European program, and the other students were largely getting it for the first time in this class.
I remember one time we had a study group the night before the exam, and as we headed out, one student went, "Okay, we're going home to study until bed, and then we'll meet again in the morning and study together right up to the exam, right?" and everyone went, "Right!" And I went, "...It didn't occur to me to study more. Am I over-confident?" And then I got a 100% on the exam. :P All my grades in those classes were 97% or above.
And in Medieval Welsh, since you mention that, we were supposed to take 3 quarters to read the Mabinogi, and I had read the entire thing on my own outside of class before the end of the 1st quarter. And in 3rd quarter, Royal Patron said he was spending 5 hours a week on the reading assignment (which was like 2 pages) for this class and it was so exhausting, and I was like, "It's 2 pages. I spend 45 minutes a week on this class. I'm not sure the course should be worth this many credits." And we each stared at each other like the other was some kind of alien. (Yes, it is a problem that in the third quarter I was still taking 45 minutes to read 2 pages, but [insert pedagogy rant here].)
And then there was the undergrad "Intro to Indo-European linguistics" class that was for some reason required of me as a grad student. Halfway through, the prof gave an exam that everyone failed, except I got a 100%, and so he had to re-adjust the structure of the class so that the first half of each class period was new material and the second half was review, and I was excused from the second half.
And the archaeology course where I managed to make 100% plus full extra credit on all the quizzes, a 100% on the midterm, and a 100% on the essay, and so I was going into the final basically just needing to show up. And so on. A lot of grad school was like just being an undergrad again but with additional years of coursework.
And so it was that grad school was too easy for me. Although everyone else except for about 2 or 3 other students seemed to find it very hard and stressful. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Oh, the only time I was glad they lowered the bar for me was when the one time there was a non-alphabetic writing system involved. My brain struggles with visuals like writing systems and fonts. I was given a pass on the Sanskrit exam with a note that said, if I read between the lines, that the pass was only because they knew I was never going to look at Sanskrit again and so they were not unleashing an incompetent scholar onto the world of research. They were effectively allowing me to climb onto a chair and step through the one hoop I couldn't jump through in order to complete the requirements. Mind you, I had told the head of the program that if I couldn't pass Sanskrit, I was going to drop out of the program and switch to Classics, and I don't think they wanted to lose their top student, so there was that...