I had my final in that class yesterday. Instead of writing a Hausarbeit, a 12 page paper, like the rest of the students, I opted for an oral exam. That means that I spoke with the teacher about the work that we had been doing in the class so far this semester.
During the exam the teacher was asking me all sorts of questions about sociology in general and how general sociology themes applied to biographies. I didn't know, I had never had a sociology class before. I was almost in tears at points. I had ideas about how to answer the questions, but I couldn't articulate them in German, and when I was able to articulate my thoughts, they weren't the technical answers the professor was looking for.
After seeing my frusteration, and noticing my lack of general knowledge of sociology, my professor said, "I don't know how you have made it this far in sociology without knowing these things, these are basically sociology principals."
At this comment I whimpered, "But I'm not a sociologist, I'm a chemist. This is the first sociology class that I have ever taken." The professor was astounded at this. Apparently, all of the other students in the class were either in their last semester or second to last semester. No wonder I had found the material so difficult, I needed three years of sociology classes to get to that point.
Upon learning that I was not a sociologist, the professer concluded the oral examination and said that for not having had any other sociology classes, I had done remarkably well. Then she gave me a passing grade.
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