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Okay, so I'm both starting college a little late (I'm 24- I went right to work full-time to get health benefits) and I'm also attending an "online" college. (It's accredited, part of the University of Phoenix.)

I just had one of my professors lop off 20 points from an assignment for failing to cite using the APA format properly. He says (in a single sentence fragment, when I asked for assistance in understanding why the citations were wrong) that the problem was that there were no authors included in the citations.

Uhm?! That's because there were no authors LISTED in the referenced sources! I can't include authors that aren't given! So I've asked for assistance in clarifying anonymous author citing (although I'm making the assumption that this guy is just an a**) and it's been 3 days... no response. Professors are supposed to respond within 24 hours.

Has anyone else had experience with a*****e professors/teachers? I have the option to ask for intervention, but I'm wondering if it's really worth it. What do you guys think? File a formal complaint or just bite the bullet?

I lost marks for the same damn thing in my first year of college. I was so mad, and then my prof told me to just write U.K or something. I dunno. I never did, I just used articles that there were authors for, or I would cite the website, just so I didn't get in s**t. So annoying.

The worst with a prof though, came from this stupid b***h, who taught one of my resource classes. She had planned a trip right after a holiday, and I told her that I wouldn't be able to make it back for it, because I was going home, and I lived in a different province. When I got home, I had an email telling that I had BETTER get back there for this trip, because she wasn't going to allow me to make it up, and she would give me a zero if I wasn't there. I didn't go back, because I couldn't, and the funny thing is, the place we were going was on strike that day, so they didn't end up going. haha. She carried her hate for me through my entire college career. Stupid b***h.

Even if it wasn't a huge assignment, it's worth getting the answers because he might have other assignments with the same prof.

I think the big key to this sort of stuff is to get yourself a style guide as soon as possible. For example, I didn't get my MLA handbook until me 3rd year, but it made a world of difference. You can look up what you need to do for just about any situation.

I've had some professors who just mark things really harshly. This year, I wrote five essays. I spent the same amount of time on each, I used pretty much the same number of sources, I am pretty sure that my writing style has remained fairly consistent. I got three As, one A+ and one B-. Now how does that make sense? It's like Harry_Manback. Sometimes, grading is so subjective that the grade you get is reflective more of the professor than it is of your writing ability.

The one truly awful professor I've had was an English prof. In the first class, we were having a discussion about where the English language is going. I said that previously people of different classes and education levels tended to keep to themselves, forming dialects that were very class-specific (comparing the Queen's English with cockney, for example). But now with things like the internet, the different classes are mixing more and the dialects are blending into each other. The professor cuts me off and starts going on about how her "daddy was a butcher and never even went to High School, but just because he didn't get an education doesn't mean he was stupid" and then she starts calling me a "classist." For the rest of the class, she keeps referring to me as the "classist" and how I don't respect anyone who hasn't been to university. She was making such a huge deal of it and wouldn't let me correct her assumptions (she would cut me off and yell at me every time I tried to speak and wouldn't call on me when I raised me hand). I finally started crying and left the classroom and never went back.

I've dealt with a certain math teacher who will be left as anonymous. The woman saw just how much I was struggling with her class... My grades were all slipping thanks to me putting in 120% JUST for her class, and I was pulling overtime just to get some math tutoring for this chick. It wasn't that she was all that hard herself, but she'd take off little points to the side if we miss out on a single step, forget something as trivial as a equal sign, or if we slanted our fractions (Apparently a 81 can drop to a 60 when you slant too many fractions, or when our lines for our graphs are crooked). She then gave our class the choice to also come in and take some extra little quizzes that would help on our test----I did those too. I did everything and then some, but nothing worked. Finally, I came to her and told her what was going on. I told her about my slipping Homicide Inv. class grade, and about how I had to literally get two tutors on account of her. I explained that I was taking her quizzes, and yet nothing worked for me.... and I expected probably too much from this demonic beast. Instead of actually giving me some kind of pat on the back for my effort, she responds, "Well I guess you'll just have to do better the next time around." Class had yet to end for the semester and already she had dug me a grave and prepped my casket.