midterm blues
So many of you probably remember the stress of mid-terms when you were undergraduates. Well, let me tell you that it is much worse for your professors. I just finished grading my exams and the average grade was considerably lower than I had expected. That sort of thing causes the same cruddy feeling that earning an unexpected low grade on an exam did when I was a student even though it was my students performing poorly instead of me.
On top of it all, I saw students whom I had never seen in my office the day before the exam hoping for some help. If there is anyone out there reading this who is still in college, PLEASE set aside the week BEFORE any major exam to see your professor for help. It will earn their respect more than you can imagine. So many leave things until the last minute (I did too when I was in their place) and then no longer have the time required to do well in all of their classes.
I had so many students in my office that I had to resort to preparing lectures and the exam itself at night when they couldn't get into the building. We had an evening study session, I posted all of my lectures online as well as two sample exams.
But in spite of all of that, not a single student earned an "A" on the exam. I had to listen to all sorts of sob stories about why they were stressed or too busy or had conflicts with another class (despite having exam dates and times written out on their syllabus) and so the midterm was expected to be moved to accommodate them. I now have students who shoot daggers at me every time they see me. I had to send out low grade notices for nearly half of my students in spite of all of this (C- or lower).
ARRRRRGGGHH!
5 comments:
you sound like a professor who cares, unlike most of the ones i had. i can't believe that you posted sample exams and they STILL did poorly; these kids are slacking. you held a review session well past 7 pm the evening before the exam; that's well beyond your duty. you should in no way feel bad about their grades.
having said all that, when no one does well in an exam, might there be some errors in the problems? it's worth considering.
I thought of that and checked to see if there were particular questions that caused problems. There weren't. Each question was answered correctly by multiple students. I do think they were caught off guard by the difficulty of the exam and just didn't prepare sufficiently.
Thanks for the thought though!
Hi Erin, It sounds as if you went out of your way to help your students understand what would be expected.
What would the grades look like if you graded on the curve?
Linda asked about you last night. She, too, went to Stitches West. She said to be sure and tell you to come visit on a Monday so you could come to class.
I enjoy lurking around your blog.
Thanks Martha! Good to hear from you!
I've now checked with probably every member of my department that I know well enough to even wish a good morning about this and most folks have said that the average is a little low but that it is well within the normal range. So I'm relaxing about it now.
To my students' credit, they have been in my office ever since I told them that their grades were lower than I would like to see. Not a single one has given me grief about my teaching, but has only asked what they can do to improve their grades. I do really appreciate that attitude. Of course it means that it is now 8pm and I still haven't finished my lecture for 9am tomorrow and I stood a friend up for lunch to help one student, but I do appreciate their attitude.
I have taught at schools where the students don't even think about their grades other than to blame their professors. I'm not so nice then I must admit. :)
but EACH has...
Can you tell I still have too much work to do tonight?
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