Ever wonder what a professor thinks during a final? Here's your chance to find out!! I will be live-blogging the final I will be giving at 10:30 a.m. (Central) right here. Good times all-around!! Other than that, blogging will be light.

Scroll past the pic for updates.

10:45 Just gave out finals. Since I'm heading out of town I decided to go with an all multiple choice exam. I know it's kind of a cop out, but there's just no way I can grade that many tests before my plane takes off. At least it's comprehensive.

10:50 What really surprises me about this class is how many students show up for the final who never--NEVER--come to class. What are they thinking? This is the first time I've taught this particular class. There's no Frat/Soror test bank they can cheat from. I just finished making the exam an hour ago. Sent to the photocopier half an hour ago. No way to cheat.

10:52 15 minutes into the test and one person done already???? Was it that easy??? It was 55 questions long!!!

10:55 Scantron test vs. essay. Multiple choice tests suck to write. Can I hear a shout-out about that y'all?!? Seriously, they suck. For each question you have to come up with four answers, and a good multiple choice exam So the major disadvantage to them is they require a lot of prep time. The advantage is that they take next to no time to grade.

Essays take almost no time to write but FOREVER to grade. The major pitfall in an essay test is that if you're pressed for time you stop actually reading the things and start scanning for key words.

10:58 Screams of exhaltation in the halls. Poked my head out. Not one of my students. Good. The screams seem to be from a student who just aced a final in another class. Why do they feel they need to share their joy with every one on the floor?

11:00 50% of students done now. I sense that I made a huge error in judgement on the difficulty level of this test. Way too easy. It was designed to be a one hour test.

11:02 I hate it when students wear hats on a test day. Way too easy to conceal answers on the inside of the cap's bill.

11:03 Here's a bonus point question for your amusement. This is an actual question. Can you guess the answer?

#54--How much does freedom cost?
a) $1.05
b) $10.95
c) $1,115.95
d) $1,095,05.05

11:05 Another bonus question
#51--Patty and Selma Bouviere worke at what government bureaucracy?
a) the Springfield lottery commission
b) the Springfield DMV
c) the Springfield Motor Speedway
d) the Springfiel Isotopes' front office

11:10 All students done. Are you freaking kidding me?? WAY TOO EASY. Man, I have really misunderestimated the difficulty of the test.

Two general reactions from students.

The Bullshitters. This group moaned when they heard that there would be no essay portion of the test. I usually include one or two essays for all my tests. This group knows how to BS so well that they always do especially well on essays. Their use of the English language is usually spot on and they usually write well. The two strongest reactions came from the two students preparing for law-school. Oddly enough, one of them is a cheerleader. You don't often find a cheerleader heading for law school. The other one is on the debate team. No shock there.

The Slackers. This group let out whoops of elation on hearing the news. The way they figure it, they've got a 1 in 4 chance of guessing the answer right. This includes most of our Criminal Justice majors and the odd person out of the Education department. Are CJ majors this bad at all schools?? The thing is that the CJ profs here seem pretty tough and both have rigorous academic training and publication records. But how come all the dull students seem to congegate toward that major??

Last note. One of my top students asked if it would be alright to not turn in a term paper. The paper alone is worth 20% of the grade. He says he just doesn't care about the grade in the class and he had too much other work to do. Of course I told him it was his grade and I would sleep fine at night with him getting a C. But I must admit that this bothers me some. He's the guy that set the curve--literally. On the one hand I know that other priorities must sometimes come before school, but on the other hand it shows that this class means little to him. That my lectures meant little to him. That I mean little too him.

So, if you ever sluff off doing a paper or taking a test do us all a favor--come up with a lame excuse. Our egos are tied to these things. We do take it personally. Look, no one I know got into this racquet for the money. We do it for a number of reasons, but at some level I think all of us enjoy seeing students learn. If you don't value what we're doing keep it to yourself. It may be less than honest, but at least you'll be making me feel better.

Posted by: Rusty at 07:51 AM | Comments (21) | Add Comment
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