I gave an exam the other day.
On my review sheet, and in class, I harped on: "You need to know how to do these particular sets of calculations." Less than 10% of the class got them. This is despite working through them in class, my posting examples on the class website, and my having 10 hours of office hours a week where I sit in my office, more or less with my thumb up my butt, waiting for people to come in and get help.
I also told them, "Understand how this particular model works and be able to list the possible outcomes."
And on that question, about half the people just barfed up unrelated stuff, I guess in the hopes that they thought I wouldn't read carefully and would just check it off?
What frustrates me is that these are smart people. They're seniors. They should know better. I don't know if it's that they all have been admitted to med school or something and figure tanking grades now won't matter. Or what.
But I'm pissed off at them for being so lazy, when I went to extra trouble to make a detailed review sheet and to TELL them to know certain things for the exam.
I refuse to put up with any sadfaces or whining when I hand these exams back. They knew what was supposed to be on the exam. Either they didn't study, or they studied, didn't understand, and couldn't be arsed to come and ask me.
The job market really sucks right now, it will probably suck for a good long time. Not knowing your stuff is not going to help you get a job in your field.
Thursday, November 08, 2012
Seriously, guys, wtf?
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I'm curious as to whether there was any correlation between attendance and scores. But in any event 10% success is disturbing. Also, I see detailed review sheets at all levels of school now, and I just don't know if it's actually helping anyone learn anything--or even pass a test, for that matter. But good for you that you don't take the BS attempts for correct answers.
For the sake of educators at higher levels, I'm trying to get my middle-school students into the habit of coming to me and communicating with me. Preferably earlier than the morning of class. (And even then they know it's too late to ask, "Uh, did we have any homework?" They had an entire week to figure it out on their own.)
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