Life with a Calculus Exam

Today was the last "regular" exam in calculus. Two more lectures and the final remain.

1. Stu emailed me at 7:45am saying that a flat tire would keep him from taking the exam at 11:15 this morning. This is the fourth exam that Stu has contacted me about missing due to some lame excuse. Not all in one semester, as Stu never made up one of the exams last semester and is repeating the course. My succinct reply: "I suggest you call a taxi."


2. Another student missed the exam because of a court date. I'm expecting paperwork to back this up. I do wonder if court just surprises people in the "Oh my goodness! I have court tomorrow! I had no idea until now!" kind of way or if Stu had known about court and just didn't mention it until the last minute.


3. My students don't know how to use their calculators. They had to find the cube root of a number that is not a perfect cube. Mass chaos.