Thoughts from a professor that are going to make me look like a grumpy old man.

[cab67]

Man? yes. Grumpy? at the moment, sure. Old? I'm still a few years away from 60, so that's a matter of opinion.

Just a few thoughts from a college professor to students and, just as importantly, their parents, that have arisen since the final exam for my course this morning.

Want to take the exam at on a day or at a time other than scheduled? Maybe. But if you're told "no," there's usually a very good reason for that.

Here are some things we can accommodate: illness (with a medical note; this includes psychiatric/mental as well as physical problems); family emergencies (funerals or sudden very severe medical incidents or accidents); court date or jury duty; family event planned long in advance (e.g. wedding), provided we're notified well before the exam; job interview; conflicting institution-related event (e.g. related to sports, ROTC, or a required field trip for another class); computer problems (if the exam is online); work schedule conflict (though if it happens frequently, it might be good to take a different class or get a different job).

Here are some things we either can't or won't: oversleeping; routine as opposed to milestone family event (e.g. I'll accommodate you for your grandmother's 100th birthday party, but not your cousin's 8th); missed a bunch of class, but haven't made an effort to speak to me or borrow someone's notes until minutes before or some time after the exam; not feeling ready and wanting extra time; travel preference (e.g. wanting to take a test early because it's scheduled late in finals week or right before Thanksgiving/Spring break and you want to get out of town).

Bottom line - we accommodate need, not convenience.

I'm generally very forgiving on many things. I'm actually going to work with a student who missed this morning's final because he overslept; the exam was scheduled for 7:30, and this student was pretty diligent throughout the semester. Some of my colleagues wouldn't.

A former partner had to announce to her Friday 4:30 PM class session that they were having a quiz each week, that they could only make it up in an emergency situation, and that "but mom and/or dad already bought the plane ticket" would not qualify as an emergency for missing the quiz on the Friday before Thanksgiving break, which lasts all of the following week.

---

I get a lot of rescheduling requests. I'm forced to reject many of them. I don't like being a jerk, but I have my reasons:

1. As a matter of fact, yes - it's an imposition.

At my institution, students may be allowed extra time on exams, and possibly a private distraction-free room, if they qualify through the student disability services office. Whether I think all of these students actually need these accommodations or not, many really do, and I'm happy to help. But in recent years, 5 percent or more of my students will have some sort of accommodation, and because our budget is in the toilet, it usually falls on instructors to schedule the separate times and spaces. And this is a serious burden if you're teaching a big lecture class; my fall large-enrollment class caps at 200, so I'm responsible for scheduling separate exam times for about ten students. Doesn't sound like much, but that means aligning the class and work schedules for each student with mine, which doesn't have a whole lot of wiggle-room. I'll only ask one of my teaching assistants to do this if there's no other option; my TA's have enough to do as it is.

Bear in mind, 200 is a big class, but there are classes far larger than that on my campus. But we manage.

Then, we have acceptable excuses. A loved one has died, or is dying. You have a fever. You're experiencing a major depressive episode. You're a bridesmaid or groomsman in a wedding. It's your brother's bar mitzvah, or it's your niece's baptism. Your prick of a boss changed your work schedule and won't budge.

We understand that life happens. It's happened to us. So we're generous to those who have real needs. As long as you can document anything that came up short-notice or let me know long enough in advance if it's already scheduled, I'll work with you.

But if your family wants to go skiing and the tickets are a lot cheaper if you leave before the exam, you're out of luck, at least if I'm the professor. The answer is the same if you have another exam later the same day or feel distracted because of an argument you had with someone. My hair always goes a shade grayer once I've finished the spaghetti scheduling involved with the accommodations for an exam, and that's for the legitimate ones.

(A note to parents - it's a very, very good idea to ask your kid when his or her exams are early in a term. This way, exam schedules can be kept in mind when events are being scheduled. It annoys me when a student tells me that a big milestone party has been scheduled at the last minute and it conflicts with an exam.)

2. Taking an exam at a different time increases the chances that the exam will be misplaced before the score is entered. I say this not only from my own direct experience, but from the experiences of several colleagues.

We're human. We work hard to prevent mistakes, and they're fortunately rare, but they do happen. There are circumstances that make mistakes more likely. With exams, not taking it with everyone else is one such circumstance. And making tests electronic or on-line doesn't necessarily help.

(A note to both students and parents, and I've said this before on DU: keep everything handed back to you. It's your receipt. I once had a student contact me after the final exam to complain about her grade. She thought she was getting a B, but ended up with a C. I looked over her grades, and explained that, sure enough, one midterm and her final were in the 80's, but her other midterm was a 28. That's what killed her grade. "But I didn't get a 28," she replied, "I got an 82!" She showed me her exam, and sure enough, she was right. The shit-for-brains who entered the exam scores - almost certainly me - managed to type the numbers in backwards. It was easily corrected, especially because I was able to see the actual midterm in question.)

---

Most professors and instructors whine about these things around final exam time. I'm no different, I suppose. But if my looking like a digital curmudgeon inspires someone to think twice about asking for an accommodation for the sake of convenience, maybe I don't mind.

[MLAA]

1. Good Luck this exam season!

[Comfortably_Numb]

2. I'm the same age and just submitted final grades. You nailed it.

Before covid I used to tell my students in my classes to make sure their grandparents were super careful on exam day because so many of them tended to die on exam days. Post covid, I’ve dropped it because it seems over the top now.

[cab67]

5. When asked for advice...

...I tell prospective college students to take as many courses as possible from younger instructors.

The older we get, the more jaded we become by students taking advantage of our basic sense of decency.

[Comfortably_Numb]

6. What???? My 30 years in the classroom might have jaded me? Lol!!! We still haven't "heard it all"

yet though. These youngsters are sure creative. I agree with your assessment about the younger instructors, but by the same token I cannot believe how much different I am as a Professor with my experience. I have always considered myself “pro-student” but this new breed stretches the limits. We just finished evaluating 157 applications for a tenure track teaching spot and I see such a difference, primarily in the level of confidence. The students are definitely different these days, that’s for sure. So poorly prepared when it comes to content.

[cab67]

13. Have you seen the difference in the "COVID generation?"

This was something we tried to prepare ourselves for this past spring and summer - the likelihood that first-year students fresh out of high school wouldn't be as prepared as their predecessors. They'd mostly have spent their entire senior years online, where teaching is less effective (and no one can convince me otherwise, having taught both ways now) and rules weren't as stringent.

I teach a seminar for first-year honors students. This year's group was just as intelligent, enthusiastic, and hard-working as any I've ever had the privilege of teaching. But my large-enrollment class? Way too many seemed incapable of following the most basic of instructions. Attendance for my lectures (which were live and not recorded) was modest. My teaching assistants - two of whom had TA'd the course previously - reported an overall lack of interaction between students and an almost complete absence of questions when something didn't make sense.

I don't entirely blame the students. The transition from college to high school is always a shock to the system, but when students have grown accustomed to a system so different from regular classroom instruction and firm schedules as they'd normally have encountered, they're running smack into a brick wall.

I mentioned elsewhere that I had a sharp increase in the number of students with severe mental or emotional problems last fall. The number went down a little bit this time around, but not by much. It was still elevated.

The sooner things can get back to normal, the better.

And yes, I think if Dante were to write Inferno today, part of the Fourth Circle (the greedy) would be reserved for those who refuse to wear masks and get vaccinated. We could have had a more normal semester this time around.

[fishwax]

10. I find I'm trending in the opposite direction

I may or may not be jaded, I don't know, but I'm definitely more lenient than I was in my more strident youth. Covid plays into it--I've been more lenient this semester than ever before, because I just came to recognize, as the Thanksgiving break approached and then that horrible onslaught between break and finals that freshmen (and several of my classes are freshmen classes) are never prepared for that first year, that the kids are not alright and frankly neither am I

[SWBTATTReg]

3. Nice write up. Thanks for sharing. NT

[snowybirdie]

4. Thank you for what you do!

Hubby was a professor. Most rewarding and frustrating thing he ever did.

[panader0]

8. I'd say you are very accommodating.

Way long time ago, when I was in school, you missed the test and you were screwed.
No computers back then.

[old as dirt]

9. Tis the season...

Is it that time of year, again? Being retired these days, I don't keep track, any more.

Courtesy if the Wayback Machine, here's an essay from 2010.


The five stages of grading

https://web.archive.org/web/20101019052844/http://notthatkindofdoctor.com/2010/10/the-five-stages-of-grading/

[cab67]

14. Way too much truth in that.

I made it through bargaining by buying a case of Shiner Bock - the best thing to come out of the Lone Star State since Molly Ivins - and won't drink any until it's all done.

I'm somewhere between depression and acceptance right now.

(I went to grad school in Austin. My entire dissertation was fueled by Shiner Bock.)

[old as dirt]

15. My wife's ancestors used to distill and sell...

...a (very strong) form of auguaardiente for just such occaisions, called "chancuco".

won't drink any until it's all done.

Of course, it was considered illegal, but then, most of her ancestors and in fact her entire culture and society (El Palenque del Castigo) were considered illegal by the colonial authorities for centuries.

Today, chancuco is only brewed for cultural demonstrations, as in the latter half of this video about Las Cantaoras del Patia, a musical group made up of professoras in Patia.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

11. "Convenience" looks a lot different during a pandemic.

[cab67]

12. Actually, it really doesn't.

That's the reason my final exam was online. As were all of my lectures.

There was a sharp increase in the number of students missing assignments and such because of mental issues last year. Between the pandemic, the election, and what could have been perceived as the end of modern civilization as we know it, we expected this. We accounted for it just as we always have. Yes, it was an extra burden - but I was far more than willing to bear it.