Would you give away a semester's worth of notes???

[CiCigirl]

hi everybody! looking for some opinions...

i'm taking a psych class this semester as a pre-req to nursing school. i'm also taking micro. well, one of the girls in my micro class asked me if--when the semester is over--she could have my notes from my psych class.

we're not by any means close. i just met her about (maybe) a month ago. we've studied together a couple of times but we're not great friends who hang out together or anything.

has anybody ever asked you to do this--give them your whole semester's worth of notes once your class is over???

when she first asked me i said, "sure". i figured, "what the h$ll do i care? i can't stand psych and i'll be glad when it's done."

but now i don't know. i'm starting to feel like i might be putting myself in a position of being used. already this person has asked me three times to see my micro class notes so she can write stuff down that she missed b/c she was late or whatever.

and at first i didn't mind, but then i started thinking--hey, get your own notes, or at least ask somebody else once in a while. she has a few friends in class, why always ask me???

am i overreacting and just being stingy:devil: in rethinking giving her my whole semester's worth of psych notes or is her request just over the line?????

sorry it's a bit long, guess i just needed to vent...:trout:

would you give this person your notes? :innerconf

[roxxy3773, RN, APRN]

Good points Akspudus. I agree, there is a big difference between the student making an honest effort and those who are parasites, and it is usually pretty easy to figure out where they fall.

I am surprised when I hear about students not willing to help other students and justifying it because they might lose their seat if they help them or a way to reduce the competition... it is just crazy to me (this has nothing to do with this topic by the way). I find helping another student reinforces the info for me and I know it better, so it is a win/win situation. Don't get me wrong though, I am not comparing the competitive student unwilling to help others out with this topic, I just want to make that clear...completely different scenerio!! :)

[akspudus]

Yes, very true a different scenario...and I apologize for getting off topic...the soap box is all too tempting sometimes.

I like your point about the win/win situation of helping somebody out...and reinforcing the information for yourself. I have found that to be more than quite true....plus I also see it that we are all in the same boat. Working towards a goal.

Anyhow...I feel myself trying to get on the soap box...and I'll defer that to someone else...lol.

To answer the original question...I would probably have given away copies of the notes. I find it quite hard to say no sometimes.

akspudus

[roxxy3773, RN, APRN]

akspudus-just so you know, i wasn't directing that comment that this has nothing to do with the topic because you brought a different scenerio up...I just wanted to make sure all the other posters that do not agree with sharing notes understood that I wasn't comparing them to what we were talking about...sorry if I made you think I was pointing out you were getting off topic...not my intention at all!! I was trying hard to make sure I didn't offend anyone, I wasn't trying to remind you were off topic! :)

[justme1972]

My post isn't referring to notes, but just people that just refuse to do work.

We have a group project for Psychology that we are working on, and it's on the stages of dying...and we have been e-mailing each other regarding it.

When I sent an initial email asking everyone what stage they wanted, I was met with, "What page are the stages of dying?"

I wrote, "You have the same textbook, with the same index, as we do."

I mean, call me a b***h, but come on!

[chris_at_lucas_RN, RN]

I started a webpage and put all my nursing notes on it for any classmate who wanted them, last time I went to school. The benefit for me was in retyping the notes. I learned the material a lot better, so sharing was most certainly not a problem and I made a lot of friends, too. They just thought I was the most generous person they knew.

Eventually, a couple of other girls gave me their notes and I typed them into the website, so I had a lot of good material and passed with flying colors.

Oh, and I got a couple of really neat thank-you cards and stuff at graduation. It was really touching that some girls credited those notes with helping them pass (though you know all the notes in the world aren't going to help if you don't study).

I had a laptop and took very good notes in school. For some reason (age difference? intense competition? who knows), I never got close to my classmates, although I did try. They didn't mind asking for notes, and I always gave them, and then I created a yahoo group and posted the notes there. Everybody became members, and most everybody did well.

Thanks were thin and rare, but I wasn't doing it for that anyway.

Toward the end of second semester, competition became more intense, the director's personality disorder (nasty suspicious PDO, my term but shared by many) pervaded the instructors and well into the student body. A group of classmates formed their own yahoo group, downloaded all the notes off the group I had started and I wasn't one of the select to get into the group. Shortly I transferred away--that experience was much more wholesome psychologically and socially, and I've had no regrets.

It could be said that no good deed goes unpunished. I think it puts us in good stead, generally, if we continue to do good deeds, however.

On the other hand, you are not obligated to let someone use you. If you have mixed feelings, and you must or you would not have posted this issue, my suggestion would be to nicely decline the request. You worked hard on your notes, they are your "work product" and therefore your private stuff.

You might exchange phone numbers with her so that when she takes the class she could call you if she had a question. My bet is that won't happen. People with that much chutzpah usually are pretty superficial.

Good post, nice thread. Thanks (I feel better now! )