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Into the sunny life of every college student a little rain must fall, and sometimes that rain comes in the form of a difficult or unhelpful professor. While most of your professors know their subject and are reasonably good at teaching it, every now and then you may come across someone who is just a little too full of himself, or perhaps new to teaching and still a little wet behind the ears, or someone who should have retired years ago. Dealing with unhelpful professors is never easy, since you as a student are in a delicate and vulnerable position where Dr. Unhelpful is in charge of assigning your grade at the end of the term. However, with a little tact and diplomacy, you can make it through the term with your grade point average intact.

Here then, for the inexperienced student, is a field guide to the more common difficult professorial types and how to deal with them:

THE ANGRY RANTER
It's the first day of Introduction to Psychology class, and already your professor is storming about his model of amnesia and memory that the psychological research world refuses to embrace despite the paper that he published five years ago. Oh, dear, you've got an Angry Ranter on your hands. Be prepared to hear everything about Dr. Ranters's model, why it's the best model, and why all the other models are wrong - all term long. Subspecies: the Opinionated Pundit, who loves to drag her political views into class, and the Chronically Underpublished, a species occasionally found in Literature and Art departments.

The hazards: The most hazardous part of having an Angry Ranter for a professor is the one-sided view of issues that he will present. There are also hazards to your grade if you disagree with his views in class or on a paper. The Angry Ranter may spend more time ranting than teaching, which is not what you paid tuition for.

How to cope: If this class is an elective, you may choose to simply ride the term out. If so, you need only to be careful to listen to Dr. Ranters's ideas and give the correct viewpoints (his) on the exams. However, if this class is in your major and you want a more balanced view of the issues, talk to other professors in the department, particularly the department chair (unless that's Dr. Ranter himself). Find out what their views on the issues are. Bringing up opposing views during class may be more hazardous than you care to face, but talking with other professors in the department will make them aware that Dr. Ranter is venting in class and that students

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