When False Facts Are Factually False

As I walked into the pharmacy school building on the first day of classes, I was keenly aware that the next four years would be difficult. I knew that it would test every ounce of mental and emotional fortitude that I housed in my geeky little body. In the end, I would be challenged to grow beyond myself into something, hopefully, resembling a health care professional.
Heading to the first day of pharmacy school, I knew that the next four years would be difficult.

What I did not expect was for this road to be made so astonishingly difficult, almost in a sadistic manner.

You see, no one had informed us that professors routinely trick students in lectures and/or exams. That they'll present something as fact, but carefully phrase it in a way that means it is actually false.

Kind of like using a triple-negative to explain something.

When you use said fact and are told you are incorrect, they reply back that we must be acutely aware of how and what it is they say. Phrasing this way is to help develop a higher sense of thinking on our part.

Now how in the hell is that supposed to work? I busted my ass for six years only to be forced to endure another four years of deceptive learning? Leading up to a recent exam, our professor routinely exclaimed that we were over-analyzing material and that, "it will be incredibly straightforward, not requiring overly analytical techniques."

I'll let you guess what the exam was truly like.

And I don't get it. How are we supposed to adequately learn for patients if some of the professors derive some sort of sick pleasure from tricking us? Granted not all of the material is presented in this manner, but enough of it is to make you wonder how we can be taught in such an environment.

Now maybe I feel this way because I am an ardent believer in equality or maybe because I'm still young and relatively un-jaded about the world

Or maybe it's just because it's a steaming pile of bullshit.

I think I like that explanation better.