Is there a clinical diagnosis for depression resulting from grading algebra exams? There should be. Over the course of the last few days I finished grading all of my algebra exams that I gave last week. I have to say that I am utterly disappointed by some of the results. It really has been one of the worst first exams that I have had the opportunity to grade over the course of the last 6 years. I want to take some of the responsibility for their poor performance but there was just a huge lack of basic skill presented in their papers.
I continually harp on the need to interpret your answers back into the context of a real world problem and ask whether or not the answer even makes reasonable sense. I was just speechless when I saw the answers:
….How fast was the car going in the mountainous region? Answer: 533 miles per hour
….How many quarts of paint will it take to paint a room with a perimeter of 70 feet and a height of 6 feet? Answer: 1426 quarts.
Are you kidding me?
October 3rd, 2006 at 2:29 pm
I feel your pain. It’s like judging UIL journalism with a bunch of high school kids who can’t form complete sentences, thoughts or even words in some cases. Kinda frightening.
October 3rd, 2006 at 3:59 pm
I see your problem with the mph problem, but the paint one seems reasonable. Perhaps we are painting over a dark color with a light one…
Blame their high school math teachers. If they’d done their jobs, the students wouldn’t even be in your class.
October 3rd, 2006 at 7:26 pm
Your students are lucky to have a teacher that really wants to help them improve their math literacy. Get mad at them. Beat them up. Someday they should appreciate it.
October 4th, 2006 at 4:15 am
JMO, but algebra should not be offered as a college course, not even at the remedial level. That’s high school stuff. If students haven’t demonstrated basic skill with algebra — heck, with quantitative literacy in general — then they should be barred from admission until they can do so.
Hold high standards, assess accordingly, grade fairly, and then let the students decide what to do next. My philosophy of assessment in any class.
October 4th, 2006 at 8:58 am
I’ll confess that my grading scheme has become more rigid over the years. Early on I was concerned when the average grade was less than 75 so much so that I’d adjust scores by “curving” them. Within the last couple of years I have eliminated this option and implemented some other methods that require them to master the material to obtain any extra points at all. This year, they have the opportunity to produce a test correction notebook for 3 additional points at the end of the semester. Every test must be corrected and submitted in the last couple of weeks of class. That is the extent of my mercy at this point.