As I write this, I’m sitting in a class room for a final exam. The teacher previously said she might be late and, well, she wasn’t kidding. 50 minutes and counting. For a final exam. So, at what point do people think we would be justified in leaving?
As a side note, not planning on leaving until pretty close to the end of the exam period. I just need something to do as I wait for my teacher…
Have you ever counted how many ceiling tiles are in that room? I’d like to know.
I would be pretty pissed if I were you. We get 2 hours for finals and the times are set months in advance. Unless there was an emergency, your prof should be there or arranged your TA or another professor to proctor. I’d like the extra time to cram but I usually just like to get exams over with, so all the waiting would mess me up.
excellent idea!
117 ceiling tiles. and 12 lights.
ETA: As for being mad, nah, I don’t care. We leave when times up, so no problem for me. Unless she grades as if we had the entire time, then yeah, I won’t be happy.
Oh, and 1:10 late.
She arrives! Hour and a half late. Sigh.
Any explanation? I think you deserve one. Did any students leave?
[QUOTE=Aserrann]
excellent idea!
117 ceiling tiles. and 12 lights.
QUOTE]
I’ve got a ratio of 84 to 9 myself. Glad she finally arrived–you’ve definitely shown lots of patience.
Did anyone leave before she got there? An hour and a half late is inexcuseable, even if you were given notice she would be late.
What sort of penalty would you have been looking at if you were that late to your final?
so a ration 9.75:1 for me, 9.33:1 for you. Interesting. I wonder if thats common or random…
As for the teacher, she was waiting for a bus to pick up her kid. We basically got given free 'A’s on the test, and actually were given free 'A’s on our final project.
And no, no one left. We were enjoying a rousing game of Hangman.
Oh, and we had a “Price is Right” style “When Will the Teacher Arrive?”, and I won. Too bad no money on it…
How many people were in your class? Sounds like a small one.
Well, i’m sure most people aren’t complaining about the result, but the fact is that this teacher was really irresponsible.
First of all, at most schools the exam timetables are set weeks, or even months in advance. Students are expected to know the schedules, and to arrange to be there on time. When i was TAing a course a couple of years ago, we had a few students ask to take exams early because they wanted to book flights home or something similar during the exam period, and we told them “no.” The exam period is part of the school year, and they shouldn’t be arranging their vacations to coincide with the exams. And the same principle should apply to professors. She knew ages ago when your exam would be, and should have made damn sure that she was there on time. The fact that she apparently knew, even before the exam, that she might be late is unacceptable.
Also, while it might be nice for everyone to get an A, the fact is that this screws over the people who actually would have received an A if they had taken the test. Like it or not, grades are not just about absolutes, they are about comparison. And if everyone gets handed a free A because the teacher was lazy or disorganized, then it’s impossible to separate the excellent students from the mediocre ones.
In principle, i’m not obsessed with the concept of grading. Ideally, we would all learn as well as we could, and get what we wanted out of the classes we take. But, like it or not, post-secondary education in modern society isn’t just about disinterested scholarship; it’s about students obtaining credentials that will determine much of the course of their future lives, things like getting into grad school, employment, etc. Grade inflation makes differentiating between excellent and average students hard enough already, and your teacher did you all a disservice by simply handing out A’s to make up for her failure.
So how many students are receiving fraudulent grades, and in what class, at which institution, today?
You guys aren’t at fault, but the fact is, all your lovely A’s are worthless. Will any of you have the self-respect to complain?
Whoa, your Majesty, who pissed in your Cheerios this morning!? Professor shows up 90 minutes late for a final (that obviously wasn’t all that important in the first place, as evidenced by (1) professor’s lateness and (2) students’ lack of concern) and decides to end Spring Semester by handing out A’s. It’s one class, the kiddos probably worked damn hard all semester and the prof may have been just looking for an excuse to reward them. Take a chill pill!
I actually would have much rather done the presentation. I stayed up late last night finishing it (which isn’t a great comment on my own work ethic, but thats beside the point…) and i’d rather a deserved ‘B’ than the ‘A’…
As for the “should have gotten a TA to proctor”… she apparently tried, and couldn’t. She didn’t say why she couldn’t though, so I dunno.
Size of class: maybe 15 people?
Where are you going to school?!
She blows off her students’ final presentation to wait for a bus? That’s a serious lack of respect for her students and her profession.
Can anyone say “tenure?”
I go to school at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, MA.
As backwards as this may sound, yeah, my teacher had attendance problems all semester. Although a large part of that was early on when she broke her arm, so I can’t really blame her for that.
This last time though? Yeah. I am a bit annoyed. And I have her again next fall too. Meh… oh well, I’ll live.
I had a professor who was regularly tardy to class, but she was never more than ten minutes late for any reason whatsoever. I can’t imagine anyone thinking it’s okay to have their students waiting an hour and a half for them (that’s 75% of the exam time, yes?) so that they may commence with their exam.
Maybe I (or my university) is weird, but we usually have a proctor for an exam–another professor, who supervises and monitors bathroom breaks and passing out sheets and all that–and the professor shows up to answer questions and make any corrections.
Was there no proctor or was this a final test? confused
We had this a few years ago when I was in college, too. We waited in the class for about an hour and the teacher never showed up. We left as a group and left a note on the chalkboard.
You should let the Department Head or the Dean know about all of this…