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Dec 14, 2019
12:07:32pm
Traveshamockery All-American
Maybe an Unpopular Opinion: Religion courses at BYU shouldn't be difficult.
My stepdaughter is taking a final exam today for her Intro to Book of Mormon course at BYU. She was a 4.0 student all through high school. She said the course has been one of her hardest classes, there is a lot of homework and tests and she is extremely stressed about the final exam. She said it has over 100 written questions and will likely take a couple of hours.

She is a freshman and this is her first religion course. Due to its rigor, it's unfortunately kind of soured her on religion courses at BYU. It's too bad because some of my favorite courses while at BYU were my religion courses. I don't remember any of them being extremely difficult nor do I remember being excessively stressed out about them. They were enjoyable, I learned a lot, and they strengthened my testimony. Contrast that to her experience where she was stressed in class because she was viciously taking notes and would study for hours for the other tests. I told her that most teachers at BYU don't craft their courses to be this difficult but I was at BYU 15 years ago and maybe they've changed. Anyone know if this is true?

I'm a professor and, in my opinion (maybe unpopular), religion courses at BYU shouldn't be extremely difficult and I think it detracts from the purpose of religion courses. I can completely see if you are Religious Studies major and your courses are tough, but an intro to Book of Mormon shouldn't be your hardest course in a semester. I think they should be more like the Institute courses.

I'm sure some of here feel differently and I know this isn't a novel gripe. But I will tell you, I teach human development and family science courses (not at BYU), and I intentionally make them about average in difficulty. My courses are by no means an "easy A" but most of my students get B+ to A. There are timed, open-book quizzes to make sure they are doing their reading but my assignments are experiential and reflective. My final exam is a reflective written paper where students write about their favorite topics and how the course has been helpful for them personally. Because of this, in their final exams they often say that this course has been one of their favorite courses and they have learned and retained more in this course than any of their other courses. In fact, former students will sometimes see me in halls or out in public and tell me, even 3-4 years after taking the course, that they still think of my course and concepts they learned.

Anyway, if you are religion professor at BYU, I'd love to hear a solid rationale on why your courses have to be so difficult. I'm open to another viewpoint.
This message has been modified
Originally posted on Dec 14, 2019 at 12:07:32pm
Message modified by Traveshamockery on Dec 14, 2019 at 12:08:30pm
Message modified by Traveshamockery on Dec 14, 2019 at 12:09:57pm
Message modified by Traveshamockery on Dec 14, 2019 at 12:28:50pm
Message modified by Traveshamockery on Dec 14, 2019 at 12:29:48pm
Traveshamockery
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NowayJ
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Traveshamockery
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