I’d have to sleep with headphones on. My computer’s sound driver is…wiggy…as is the rest of the computer…sometimes the speakers turn on for a few seconds and play music really loudly, but more often than not they’re just totally busted. I plan on replacing it someday.
But that would come very much in handy when I do replace it. Alarm clocks bite the dust way too easily. I’ll keep it in mind for the future
“In the coming week”?! Dude, it may already be too late. You need to check out his office door for his hours, email him a grovel, and tell him that you’ll stop by his office during his next office hours to apologize in person. The longer you let this slide by, the more time the professor will have to get irritated at your slackness, the more time he’ll have to decide that you don’t give a shit about the class or about your education.
Daniel
My reaction exactly.
If you leave it more than a day before trying to fix this, the professor will—quite reasonably—assume that you’re the sort of person who thinks he can just blow off a mid-term and do it at his convenience. If the professor wasn’t around when you went to see him, you should have left a message in his department mailbox and/or written him an email explaining the situation.
Professors are, for the most part, human beings. They realize that shit like this happens, and will often do what they can to be accommodating. What they don’t like, however, is students who fail to meet the requirements and then blithely act as if it’s no big deal.
Yup. The big secret is that most teachers look like hardasses on their syllabi, but are pretty willing to work with you when you come in with a sob story. Get in contact with him AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. The more you are genuinely upset and distressed, and show this through your actions, the more likely you will be to get a break. Email him. Phone him if there’s a number on the syllabus. Leave a note at his office if need be.
Bummer about missing your test, but I’m confused by the “flaky” alarm clock and their supposed fragility. I’m still using the same alarm clock I had in high school. My mom still has one that’s pre-led; it’s probably older than I am. It’s pretty strange for an electronic device to only sort-of work. Is there a short in it? It’s generally an all or nothing deal.
And, for the price, go to a thrift store and pick up an old clock radio. It’ll probably cost you a dollar.
From the syllabus:
Is a midterm considered to be a quiz?
Go throw yourself on the mercy of the instructor.
Arrg. No office hours are listed on the syllabus…I’ll have to pick those up from my school’s office. I’ve sent him an email in the past, and he didn’t even bother responding to it, so I’m thinking I’d be easiest dismissed that way.
I called his phone and left a message. Something along the lines of:
Yeah, I know it wasn’t very good. I was expecting a live person, and phones have a tendency of turning me into an inarticulate jabbering monkey. Live visit during office hours it is
That’s better than nothing.
The syllabus said something about “documentation” for missing an exam. Type up a formal-looking document, saying something along the lines of “I have examined JoeSki and found him to be a well-meaning dumbass” or something like that, and make-up a flowery doctor’s name for the bottom. Put it in an envelope and take it with you to your meeting with the prof. After you have accepted all responsibility for your sin, if he lets you take a make-up, say “I guess I won’t need this documentation then.” He’ll ask to see it. It will crack him up, and you will come off as a decent fellow who just screwed up instead of a slacker who expects the world to revolve around him.
I speak from experience. Every time a student approaches me with a sob story, I bust their balls and send them away. The ones who admit to making a mistake and take their punishment stoically get a ton of slack cut for them.
Hey, my alarm clock screwed me over today too. My sympathies. Perhaps they want to be rid of their human oppressors and are now staging a bloody revolt.
I dunno, seems to me that you’re lucky to have three tests. Most of my classes have been 30% midterm, 70% final. That’s it. Miss them without a medical note or a damn good reason, well, sucks to be you.
Yeah, it sucks that you slept through it, but maybe you’ll learn to set up backup alarms for important wake-ups in the future. Crank the volume on the alarm clock to max. Set a cell phone or watch to ring an alarm. Have a friend from class call you in the morning. And… maybe… study for the exam a little earlier so you’re not up till sunrise the night before the exam?
I hope you manage to get some leniency out of the prof - most of them are reasonable enough, as long as you’re showing that you’re making an effort. Good luck.
Well, I’m not sure what the deal is. Most of the time it goes off when I set the time, but every now and then it simply doesn’t…and that’s pretty much the problem in the nutshell. I mean, to my knowledge I’m not prone to doing things in my sleep. My family has never caught me sleep walking or anything. Even when I do hit the off button and slap myself on the fore head later I have some recollection of my stupidity.
Anyways, I just got a suprising email from my professor.
…
I have missed two classes. I know as a fact I was absent two times in this class, and nothing more. What the fuck is going on here? Somehow this situation went from bad to disgraceful and terrifying in one day. I can’t even describe what I’m feeling right now. How the hell am I supposed to prove I was there? Just…what…the fuck. Gah! You bet your ass I’m discussing the matter with the admin.
Do you have dated notes? Friends in the class who can vouch for you?
Neither. I have kept the majority of the handouts I’ve recieved…those should be able to show I’ve been available on at least one of the days he says I was absent. I should find out what days I’m being accused of missing now.
You may be in trouble. Some professors are hard asses, but do try to find that documentation and be as apologetic as possible. Even if the professor’s a jerk who gets off on seeing people grovel, if you need this class, then grovelling’s what you’ll have to do.
May I make a suggestion? Do you have a friend who’s reliable and an early riser? If you do, you might want to ask him or her to give you a wake up call for important things like this. I am an early riser, and I have given friends wake up calls when they’ve needed it. Even if you do buy another alarm clock, I’d still recommend that as a back up for this professor’s remaining exams and make sure you tell him that while you’re grovelling.
Hang it, I can’t see time stamps in preview. How long has it been since you missed the midterm and how many days after it did you e-mail the prof? Did you talk to anyone in his department about his office hours? If so, can they vouch for when you did so, especially if it was shortly after the exam? Do explain you made an honest attempt to try to reach him, but you weren’t sure how to go about it.
Good luck,
CJ
OK, now that I’ve seen the time stamps, less than 36 hours has elapsed?! Did you get a previous message saying that you were withdrawn from the class? If not, when does the professor say he sent it, and have you attended class since then? If you have, you should be able to make a case that you didn’t know you were withdrawn. As for the professor not being able to reach you by phone, do you have an answering machine at home and was it working? Remember, I went to college back in the dark ages and even when I had an apartment, we didn’t have an answering machine. Ask him when he tried to call you and what number or numbers he called. He might actually have a wrong number and not know it.
Again, good luck,
CJ
That withdrawal notice might be your saving grace. I’m sure an I or W looks better than an F. You might want to think about accepting the withdraw.
Adam
If I were your professor, I’d let you take a make-up test just on the basis of this line.
Best of luck, man. Sounds like you’re going to need it.
FWIW, my general opinion of most Little Debbie snack cakes is that they taste as though they had been crapped out of a unicorn under a butterscotch waterfall.
And the Star Crunch Cakes look like it. (Do they still make these?)