My Idiotic QM teacher, pt.2

The BBQ Pit
1

Part 1 can be found here.

So I walk into class today, expecting to have gotten 100% on the test we wrote last week. I knew all the material backwards and forwards.

My Idiotic Teacher doesn’t give us back our tests, he just gives us the percentage mark on a sheet of paper. The only way you can see your test is if you go see him in office hours. About 3/40 students in our class actually bother.

I got a 76%.

I walked up to him and asked him give me my test. He told me to see him in office hours. I insisted he let me see it now (he had dismissed most of the class but was explaining something to 8 who were behind). I said I’d look at it while he was explaining and then see him about it after. He reluctantly agreed.

I found I made a few stupid mistakes. Like I forgot to write a word here or there, or I misunderstood his badly worded question. The test definitely wasn’t measuring how much I knew about the subject, it was measuring if I said what he wanted me to say.

But here’s what I’m really angry about:
He didn’t add up the marks properly. He actually forgot to mark an entire question. I pointed this out to the 8 people still in class when the teacher had left the calss for a moment. They, obviously, decided to ask for their tests, too, while he was talking to me about mine.

Three other people’s tests had the same mistake on them. The question in question (tee hee) counted for 5% of the total mark.

You lazy, dishonest prick! Not only is it totally not conducive to learning that you won’t give us back our tests, but you then have the audacity to mark them wrong?

I know, no one is perfect, but since he isn’t perfect, he should give them back to us so we can check for mistakes! I don’t know how many other people who won’t think to go see him got their tests marked wrong. I don’t even know how many people got their tests marked wrong for the first test!

So fuck you, teacher. And you know what? The second I graduate, I’m gonna be filing an official complaint against you and your imbecilic teaching policies.

You careless excuse for an educator!

2

oh, i HATE teachers who do this. want to borrow a rusty knife for the appropriate occasion?

ohh, i just read your other thread. do you want a jar of napalm to go with that knife?

3

At least it was sort of fair if EVERYONE was screwed over.

Still, I HATE him.

At least any actual graduaing test should be a pleasant surprise.

I have had some bad teaching. Sometimes I’ve understood something less well afterward. Sometimes I’ve explained things to someone who’s teaching me. But my tests have always been fairly fair.

4

Here’s a little lesson you won’t learn in that school of yours. And it’s free. Of course you’ll have to listen to receive it:

Making demands for special treatment and embarassing someone in a public forum makes them not like you. When they don’t like you, they won’t see things your way. When they don’t see things your way, you won’t convince them to do things for you, like change a grade when a question was poorly worded for example.

So your teacher didn’t give you a perfect test and made a mistake grading it. I bet had you approached this whole thing differently you could’ve walked away with a much better score than you did. And a brighter future in future tests in that class as well.

5

Or perhaps this was a clever ruse to make you go to the prof’s office. When I was teaching first-year students, I’d set up conferences once a semester. I was lucky if 2/3 came to the scheduled appointment, even if I told them it was the only way they’d get their papers. Most didn’t care enough to come to my office.

Give your prof credit for trying to make you realize that there’s a reason for office hours. After 2 years at my prior institution, I stopped keeping mine and never got a complaint. Does that say more about my burnout or about my students?

6

Maybe, just maybe, it should have been better if LaurAnge would have talk to her professor privately. But:

If her professor made a grading mistake, it’s fair for the student to ask for a revision and have the note corrected. It is not a demand for special treatment.

She did well in telling the other present students that her exam had grading errors. Then all the students checked their tests, and some found out what they wouldn’t have if she hadn’t tell them.

By the way, I think it is fair that students can ask to have their tests back to see if the teacher grade them correctly(or to know what mistakes not to make for the next time). At least the professor had the tests with him, and could give you your test, Laurange.

7

The tests are available, anyone could see them if they go to the professor’s office, everyone could go to check what answers they missed and whether it was graded correctly. About 37/40 students really can’t be bothered to go out of their way and spend five minutes in the office of a professor who appears to want to discuss the test and your answers rather than have you glance at the grade at the top of page 1 so you know how it will affect your GPA and future career prospects.

Yup–certainly qualifies as a lazy, dishonest prick.

Umm…he will give them back…what could the reason be that he will only give them back during office hours? Perhaps that he can discuss the material on the test in a one-on-one situation?

And yes, clearly he had the audacity to mark them wrong. He obviously made what appears to be a stupid error, you know, like forgetting a word here or there, risking looking foolish and having to sheepishly apologize…uh, for what purpose?

8

Okay, first of all, the talking to him was as private as I could get, there was no public embarassment.

Second of all, there is a very good reason he doesn’t give us back our tests. No, it’s not so he can discuss the test answers (as he doesn’t actually encourage anyone to go see him about the test, he just says it’s an available option). He does it so he can reuse them next semester.

Oh, and Bill? Not only was there no public embarassment, but that was the last class of the semester. As well, there is a retest, so I wasn’t that worried about getting my mark changed.

Also, my teacher doesn’t hate me. He bore me no ill-will at all, and truthfully, I don’t get how you came up with public embarassment.

9

**

So, you went to his office? Or did you do this in the classroom. I’d think the office would be more private, or are you too busy with other “activities” to take the time to go to office hours or make an appointment? After all, if you take the time to write up this bitch, you must be one of the (according to your figures) .075% of students who go to his office, right?

**

It’s called “test security.” Many fraternities, sororities, and athletic departments keep files of old tests and assignments for their members to study. As a Composition professor, I made my students hand in their essay final questions, though they got their essays back–if they came to see me to get them. Whether he reuses the test or not, you have no right to his work if he thinks it might end up in a file cabinet somewhere so that someone can study the tests instead of the material.

10

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by stofsky *
**

No, my asking to see the test was not in his office. It was also not heard by other students. I fail to understand your point. It would have been extremely inconvenient for me to wait around school for an hour and half to see him after class when I had no more classes that day. He understood that. And no, I haven’t gone to see him in his office before as I have only gotten over 90s on my assignments and 100% on he test.

Not here. This isn’t a University, it’s a CEGEP. I have taken about 30 other courses here and he is the only one ever to have not gives us back our tests. He, most likely, reuses them verbatim.

11

I disagree, for a few reasons:

  1. Students ought to be able to use their own tests to study from for final exams. Having the chance to leisurely examine what one did incorrectly on an exam is a good way to prevent the same mistakes later. If a professor permanently keeps the exam, that eliminates one learning tool.
  2. Students also ought to have a chance to leisurely examine the test for grading mistakes by the professor. The pressure inherent in examining the test for grading mistakes under the eye of the professor is unfair.
  3. Not all students find scheduled office hours convenient. Some are unable to attend office hours at all. Forcing students to rearrange their schedule just to look at their test just ensures that a lot of students won’t bother.
  4. Finally, reusing test questions is just stupid. Or maybe lazy. A professor reusing exams is just asking for cheats. If the tests are not being reused, then so what if fraternities get hold of the tests? Many of my professors would post old exams in the lobrary so everyone could see them. Studying old tests is a valid way of determining what the professor deems important and how questions are phrased.