I'm a literature major, and I really hate the fact that there is such a thing as participation marks. It involves having to ask questions and answer questions, which also leads to a lot of handraising. Anyway, it was the first time that I actually raised up my hand a gazillion times, and I feel bad now because pople might think I'm annoying. How do you feel about participation marks, handraising, and handraisers?

xD I hate participation. ToT;; I ususally don't participate. But I do listen. :) It's lame though because it's like, I'd like to say something but it's hard to because I don't always say the right things or say the things on my mind. I just say things that I think are right but isn't really what I'm thinking about/should be right.

And as for handraisers, I don't mind them. :) They're definitely better than the ones who blurt out answers. xD Like I want to answer something and I'm on the verge of raising my hand but somebody already answers it by blurting out the answer. Greeaatt...

i hate it too.. i mean sometimes i'll naturally ask questions or make points... but being under the stress that it counts for points makes me second guess myself and such. i mean its not really a big issue.. but i dont think we should be graded on participation. it should be our choice whether or not to attend class, speak up, ask questions etc.

i hate participating as well
but sometimes i just naturally push myself to be the first to raise my hand
when everyone in the class is just shifting their eyes at eachother =___=

but whatever
makes me more memorable

i volunteered to be the first MC for my speech class next week..U_U lol
i don't mind reading aloud though! ITS SO FUN!!

I've always despised this system. It's so mean to force students to participate. If we have something to say, we will voluntarily raise our hands =_=

i hate it too! especially when the teacher makes you say ur name before asking or answering a question

I don't mind speaking, answering, and telling stories. I don't crave attention or anything either. I just like talking.

Participation in my English class doesn't work off a system (it's mostly just attendance).
Doesn't much matter to me, anyways... I probably talk as much as the teacher does.
To be honest, sometimes it makes me feel bad that nobody (with the exclusion of maybe two other people) has any observations or questions to contribute so I just shut my trap for a while.
But I can't hold it in for long cause I always have something to say. ;p
One thing I will not do, however, is answer the obvious questions or discuss the obvious themes. (I'm just all stuck-up like that, I guess)

Three cheers for sounding conceited!

HAHAHAH! yeaaa me2! i hate the akwards silence after you say your name while every1 is looking at you then you, then your prof. finally gives you the nod to say your answer lol

i always sit in the front so when nobody answers the prof. eyes always ends up on me .-.
thats the dreaded signal that YOU praticipate lol

haha... i'm shy in a large class, but in a small class, i like to dominate it.. kidding.

i give my fair share..... but large classes with smart student intimidate me.

haha ppl will think ur a keener.
i hate participation marks too. i'm a passive learner in class. which doesn't mean i'm not paying attention..ok well most of the time i'm not..i like it when teachers ask questions but don't apply pressure to students to answer em.it just gets u thinking.i think it really depends on what class..if its an business class.then yes u should have participation.but if its history or eng.then no!! u should be able to just listen to the lecture and absorb it.
dumb system..grrrr

Ah yes evil participation points.
Last class I had it was a CS203 class... After midterm, we got a report on our grades and the teacher told me I had a C... but if I participated more I might get into the B- range!

Nevertheless I didn't... but managed to revive my grade with the other projects and stuff.

I like it when people ask questions. Usually it makes the teacher explain things again and they always do better the second time around. Course it helps that I wrote the notes already so I could just listen and add more to it.

I'm a college freshman and I haven't ha dany classes where they require you to raise your hand for aprticipation cred, but I remember when I took Spanish in HS, it was reallly bad becuase I was really shy AND sucked in Spanish, and pretty much, may participation grade was a D

i hate that! esp in those small writing classes where participation is mandatory! i don't like answering questions and i hate the attention from it.

i've never enjoyed rasing my hand but o_o in some of my clases now its like 20% of my grade =_=
20% for frekaign participation so i'm kidna forced into it

uhhmmm...how can you NOT like participation points?
they are the easiest thing to get in the class, and they show the teacher that you understand what's going on.

think about it. if you were teaching someone something, and they just sat there like turds on a log, how would you know if they got it or not?

and you don't have to raise your had a billion times to get participation points.
participation is about showing up to class, taking notes, and asking questions or making comments when you have them.

raising your hand to say "i agree" or "i liked the book" isn't going to get you anything.

dang...just participate in class...it's not that hard...

I wrote something that was really long-- and I realized it was a big, gigantic rant about why participation marks are stupid.
It was too long. #$(*$)@(*$)(
And I know that no one likes to read a long post (because I cringed as I saw the length).
Anyways, participation marks can die in my opinion.

EDIT: oh btw, i'm in highschool. O_O; anyways, does COLLEGE/UNIVERSITY classes expect you to raise your hand & such? I'm scared now ._.

it depends on your teacher and the size of the class
if its a small class the teacher expects you to listen and participate in questions s/he asks

if its a class of like 150+students...i don't think the teacher really cares...but theres always the token smarties...that love to shout out loud crap related to the stuff the teacher says...

None of my teachers really expect hand-raising . V_V Now I wish they do because these are harder classes, LOL. The one thing I hate about ^ is that even if you raise your hand in bigger classes to answer, the "smart" guys always blurt it out so you look stupid.

well its not all participation is usually for us participation is going over our hmk answers infront of class and the teacher gives you this really =_= look the whole time

of course that may just be my experience

mmm...
i had this one class my last year of uni that i needed to take to graduate.
it was an intro-physics class or something like that. and i totally suck at math...and i think there were participation points.

for all of the other ppl, the class was "omfg soOooO easy", but it was really hard for me, and i was really not trying to ask or answer questions in class.. (unless i was totally sure of the answer).

but, i often talked to the teacher after class about my questions.

even if you don't raise your hand and stuff in class, i think talking with the teacher after class about something you didn't understand or sending them an email to ask about something you didn't understand shows participation.

i think most...if not all of my classes had a participation thing.
and one or two of those classes had HUGE lectures, so what we had to do was write our names on a paper everyday before class.

even for the physics class there were sometimes when i got stuff and tried to answer a question then.

if the teacher doesn't think that participation is important, then they shouldn't ask the students to do it. it sounds like your teacher doesn't really care about participation anything...

uhm he does thats why he tells us to . in fact i know most of my classes requires it and i do it but for him he just intimidatees people alot overall.

his teaching style is just differnt from everyone elsef

I have a hard time gathering my thoughts and getting them out in words. I'm not good in participating at all. Sometimes I want to say something but I'm just afraid. I only participate if it's not an opinion I have to give. If the question their asking is a factual answer I have no problem raising my hand for that. I do have opinions, I just don't want to voice them. Some people enjoy arguing or making fools of others. I don't like that feeling of being look down at or feeling stupid. I think I need to change from that mindset though...

Yeah!!!!!! i hated participation since i was in kindergarten. I got the question wrong in first grade and my teacher gave me this sh*tty look at me, and i never raised my hand ever again! I hate it when i get it wrong when i raise my hand, but the teacher really scarred me from raising my hand. And what does participation have to do with anything right? as long as we know the material!!!!

I don't usually participate in class but when I have to, then I will. :x We're supposed to comment on our classmates' stories for our creative writing class, and I'm a grammar freak so I tend to say a lot about the writer's language. T_T I think one of my classmates got mad because I said a lot about her work. :x

I hate participating in class. :x (I listen, though...sometimes. Haha)

hmm i'm a lit major too but we do not have participation marks...

maybe limit yourself to raising your hand only when you have something profound to say...because then you're getting your points and youre impressing your peers/teachers, instead of annoying them.
i do really hate people who excessively raise their hand..we didn't come to class to hear YOU, but we did come to share ideas

it's gay for classes that most people don't give a sh** about

Especially with literature it's good to get different perspectives on articles; not everyone will agree or have the same thought about a certain passage or theme. So it's nice in that sense.

However, in sciences it's kind of eh . You can be either right or completely wrong. Being the latter can be embarrassing.

ahhh.. i guess its something that all humanities majors have to suffer through.. we dont have participation marks but the TA's and professors know you more and thus, free sucking up points! for us hahaha.. i dont think it makes you conceited, i think it makes you brave enough to answer the question, knowing your answer is right ^^ brave and confident, not conceited. aha

that's exactly my problem. I have no problem with participating, I just don't want to sound like a blubbering idiot.

In one of my discussion classes, your grade is almost entirely based on your participation. Usually I don't like to participate in class, but my TA is really easygoing and friendly, and all the students are pretty cool. During the first week of class, I had to force myself to participate, but as the semester progressed, I found it was easier to contribute to discussions without feeling forced. I think having the right TA and students can make it easier for class participation.

At times, participation points are ok, but sometimes its annoying~ T_T Coz, I'm the type of student that listens well and just asks if something is unclear or controversial.

I've had this on some of my subjects this semester and I was totally forced to talk. @_@ Especially in my literature class! The professor calls everyone in the class and you cannot literally go out unless you said something~