Friday, May 02, 2008

Tales from the Final Exam

  1. Disability Services lost part of one of the finals.

  2. The students were so happy that half the exam was multiple choice. They seem unaware that most of them will probably score lower because of that. (I'll probably end up introducing a conversion from "raw score" to "final score.")

  3. Some students were grumpy that I wouldn't let them take the multiple choice questions with them when they were done.

  4. The TA who can't be trusted to grade word problems (gives too little partial credit) also can not be trusted to grade the definition of the derivative problem (gives too much credit). The students had a bunch of algebra crap that was inspired by the difference quotient that concluded with a magical equals sign leading to the correct value of the derivative.

  5. Students asking for leniency are being a bit too pushy. I can ignore my attendance policy. I can reconsider the value of one outlier grade that happened when you were having a rough time. I can't do much more than that. A rough life doesn't entitle you to an A.

  6. Soon I will leave the TAs to finish up the grading. I'll be off to have my hair professionally turned a different color. I haven't settled on which color yet.