A student whose average in calculus is so low that it would be impossible for this student to pass the class even with scoring 100% on all of the remaining graded items decided to come and take the calculus exam today. And to cheat on it.
Stu would have been better off staying home.
I had a student a few years back who had some sob story about needing a make-up exam for physics. I finally relented. I gave the exam to the testing center (where make-ups are taken). They called me up to say that there was a problem.
ReplyDeleteNaturally, I had given the student a different exam than the one the rest of the class had taken two weeks earlier. I'd already passed by the corrected exams for the rest of the class. So, this numbskull goes in to take the test, doesn't recognize any of the problems, so he pulls out the corrected copy of his friend's exam to see if he can match up the problems that he memorized! They caught him. I didn't even have to confront him. He never came back to class.
If he had stayed home, then he wouldn't have cultivated the image of a hardworking (if star-crossed) student that he will need to have when he comes to you the day before the final asking to get 2 1/2 more points of partial credit on the first exam because the TA failed to notice how brilliantly he had handled a minor part of an otherwise staggeringly wrong solution to one of the "big" problems.
ReplyDeleteIt's all about the long-term strategy.
Stu's average is so low that passing is well outside any margin of error. Stu is the first student I've ever had get an earned zero on an exam. Up to this point all of my zeros have either been no-shows or cheaters. Stu earned a zero on one of the earlier exams.
ReplyDeleteAn earned zero? I'm impressed! Are you going to name a special award after Stu?
ReplyDeleteSounds like the one who calculated that a score of 135% on the final exam would result in a C and observed "then I still have a chance!"