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Aug. 24th, 2004 10:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
onefixedstarI'm marking the deferred exam of one poor student who apparently misread the question. On the one hand, I feel sorry for her, because I've been there...once...and I know how frustrating that is. On the other hand, she did a pretty lousy job of answering the part she did read correctly, so that tempers my sympathy quite a bit. Either way, she fails the question.
When I first starated marking, I perceived it through the lens of my own undergraduate experience. When I was an undergrad, any mark less than an A on anything (except for first year calculus tests) was a source of serious disappointment to me. (On calculus tests, I was ecstatic about a B-. I was even more ecstatic when I got a B+ in the course, a feat that required either a 90% on an exam where I don't think I answered 90% of the questions, or some serious mark boosting for the class.) As a result, I often felt horribly guilty about giving anyone a mark below an 80, unless they really, unclearly, undeniably deserved it. As in, their answer, assuming there was one, bore no resemblance to the material covered in class, and only a passing resemblance to the English language. It took a while for me to realize that for many students, a B or C is a perfectly respectable mark. The past three years has mostly cured me of this attitude, because I've seen the stuff that some students will try to pass in. Now, while I still feel slightly sorry for the students who write apologetic comments rather than answers on their exams, I feel no guilt in handing out low marks. They're almost always well-earned.
When I first starated marking, I perceived it through the lens of my own undergraduate experience. When I was an undergrad, any mark less than an A on anything (except for first year calculus tests) was a source of serious disappointment to me. (On calculus tests, I was ecstatic about a B-. I was even more ecstatic when I got a B+ in the course, a feat that required either a 90% on an exam where I don't think I answered 90% of the questions, or some serious mark boosting for the class.) As a result, I often felt horribly guilty about giving anyone a mark below an 80, unless they really, unclearly, undeniably deserved it. As in, their answer, assuming there was one, bore no resemblance to the material covered in class, and only a passing resemblance to the English language. It took a while for me to realize that for many students, a B or C is a perfectly respectable mark. The past three years has mostly cured me of this attitude, because I've seen the stuff that some students will try to pass in. Now, while I still feel slightly sorry for the students who write apologetic comments rather than answers on their exams, I feel no guilt in handing out low marks. They're almost always well-earned.
