THAT'S a new one...

So my newest colleague comes in with a question.

"What do I do about this" - a student of hers handed back in his (all multiple choice) exam for re-grading, claiming she had mis-graded it.

He had taken the exam in pencil. Interestingly enough, all of the "mis-graded" questions had one answer (the wrong one) erased, and the "right" one written in darker pencil. (And "apparently" all of the questions he got wrong had been misgraded and were really right, and none of the others...)

(An aside: this is why, on multi-choice questions, I ALWAYS circle the right answer if they get the answer wrong.)

Apparently the guy was trying to cheat her, and figured because she was new and was trying to be a "friend" to the students, she'd fall for it. She was pretty disgusted. I told her to tell him she couldn't do a regrade because it was in pencil...and if necessary, to remark casually that it is "possible" that answers could be changed on an exam written in pencil - not to accuse him of it, but to hint that she's on to him.

(I probably should have told her to also notify the chair for back-up in case the guy tries to go over her head...our chair is very good at backing us up on cases like this but I think it helps for her to know).

But, crikey. That takes a pair right there, to change ALL the wrong answers on your test to the right ones and then claim the prof misgraded your test.