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Have you ever had a class where you struggled through the entire semester? As the weeks go by you may have even felt as if you were sinking deeper because of the lack of response you'd gotten from your professor. Earlier in the semester you'd casually approached your instructor with some concerns but you were brushed off; leaving you feeling as if you were nothing but a fly and your instructor, the swatter.

If this has ever happened to you, don't despair, you aren't alone, it's probably happened to most of us at one time or another. The key is knowing how to effectively deal with this problem and find workable solutions in how to solve it.

What do you do when you have an unhelpful professor? Having a professor who isn't willing to help you can be very frustrating. This is especially true if you have made attempts to deal with your situation.

The first thing you should do is to try one more sincere attempt to talk to them. Often conflict can be resolved by directly speaking with your professor one on one. If this doesn't work, try and make another opportunity to approach your professor; they may have initially misunderstood you and didn't realize you needed additional help or didn't completely understand your concern. Or if they did realize it and chose not to assist, bring this issue up to and explain your feelings regarding your struggles.

Talking is usually the best course of action to resolve a situation, but you may have to take additional steps in order to find a solution to your problem. If it's an academic issue, you might want to check with your college's student support center and look for tutoring services; many colleges offer this service free of charge. Contacting student support services can help you bridge those issues relating to academic subject matter if your professor isn't teaching the material in a way you grasp the concepts.

If the issue is related to material not being covered or is regarding other academic problems and talking to your instructor doesn't bring you resolution, you may want to put a call in to speak with the head of the department. Colleges are structured by academic departments and each one is headed (usually) by a senior faculty member. It's a good idea to talk with the chairperson and see if they can adequately address your concerns.

Unfortunately once in a while you may come across a brick wall, especially if your professor is a respected faculty member with a lot of seniority. At my former job at a college there was one faculty

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