next »

[eternal_adjunct]

I'm taking a(nother) break from some final exams for my on-line class.  These exams are taken at testing centers (mostly nearby, but it isn't uncommon to get tests from far away places).  Some of the centers are free, some require students to shell out as much as $30 to take their tests.  Private proctors (screened according to a list of criteria, institutional testing service, etc) might even be more.  The exams are mailed or even UPSed to me, sometimes by next-day air (although I wasn't home for one of those, and by the time I got it, they could have just stuck the thing in the regular mail).  So sending them to me costs money.

With that in mind, I'm looking at an exam for a student (the 3rd in this batch) who is mathematically ineligible for anything other than an F.  That's right, she (along with two of her classmates) did not do more than 40 percent of the requirements for the course (two of them never even tried to contact me about this).  Yet they took as many as three perfectly good hours out of their lives, plus maybe even spent some money, and used some other resources, to write an exam for a class they can't possibly pass?

What's up with that?

I know that denial is more than a river in Egypt, but seriously, what could they have been thinking here?

And I wonder how many of them are going to contact me after they get their F's with questions about those F's?!

So I'm wondering, then, how often you all get people showing up to exams for no apparent reason - and how often they complain afterwards?  If it's a face to face situation, do you tell them upfront that there is no point in their sitting down to the exam?

And why don't they just drop the class before hand?!

[avaya]

I would not tell them, "Don't bother taking the test."  That would come back to haunt you ("But I failed b/c I didn't take the final, b/c the professor said I shouldn't!").

I think some these students don't read the syllabus and don't have any clue that they can't pass.  Others know it's mostly hopeless but think that perhaps their show of good faith (taking the final) will lead you to take sympathy on them and give them a higher grade than they earned.

Sorry to hear this online course has been such a nightmare to teach!

[larryc]

Strange to say, but failing students often do not realize they are failing. The same denial/laziness/lack of critical skills that makes them poor students keep them from realizing what is happening to their grade.

[walker]

"Strange to say, but failing students often do not realize they are failing. The same denial/laziness/lack of critical skills that makes them poor students keep them from realizing what is happening to their grade."

Good point. Many, though not all, failing students are deadbeats who never come to class, except on the day of an exam. That means that they often never show up to reclaim the test on the day they are returned to class, or on any other day, and I have to hold on to it for months afterward (unless I flag them down on the day of the final to give them their midterm).

[mtnlover]

I think sometimes they believe there may be some huge curve or a D given just for the effort.  Others really want to fail out.  Others just don't care.  I have also had students with high A averages skip finals as well.

[figee]

And some just don't care.  As a colleague said to me, they'll do everything except the final (or nothing but the final) but don't mind because they're going to become the next Heath Ledger or Paris Hilton.  Sigh.

[dr_beat]

Some take the final to have justification when someone (a parent who paid for the class) asks about failing the class, again.  At least this way they can say "I went to class and did stuff, I even took the final!" (read: I went to class the whole time)

I second the point by dlevine about a huge curve ("can't you give me extra-credit for taking the final?" - I've gotten that one before).  The point from larryc is good too seeing as some really don't know about their failing grade - I once got the excuse, "I know I didn't do the report worth 20% but didn't know I failed (well, when the other 80% of your grade is made up of F's).

[eternal_adjunct]

Thanks for the interesting posts so far. 

I think I still feel like, with traditional undergrads, I can understand these peculiar thought patterns.  But these are grown people who work in the "real world," and either pay for the class themselves or get reimbursed (well, not for F's).  So even though I've had more than enough experience with these people doing these strange sorts of things, I still think to myself "but you're a grown person - older than me - what's the matter with you?!"  Something to get over, no doubt.

What's particularly funny about this class is that several people who are getting F's, or similar grades for folks who didn't show up for anything but never dropped, is I told several of them that dropping would probably be the best thing for their transcripts.  Their response almost inevitably was "Oh no, I can't do that, I won't get a refund!"  Maybe they think that if they paid for the class and failed, they can take it again for free?  I guess that will be another surprise for them next term!

Oh, and I love the thinking about the curve!  A curve that big would send the Enterprise back in time! 

Well, break time is over.  Now it's back to the latest cheater...

[americanist]

They may worry that if they haven't shown up for the whole class (including all exams), they won't get reimbursed.

(I used to have to certify that students were passing in order for them to get mid-semester reimbursements, though.)

[untenured]

I agree with dlevine13.  Students likely take the final in these cases because there are instructors out there will give a "D" just for showing up.  For some reason, "F"'s are just not in their vocabulary.  Maybe these teachers just want to avoid disputes, but there are more out there than you think.

Viewed from this lens, the student's behavior appears more rational.  If the student does not take the exam, the chances of getting a sympathy "D" are zero.  If the student just spend a few hours writing gobbledygook, the chance is greater than zero and maybe significant of actually passing the class.  That sounds like a good risk-return for the student.  If I were in that situation (hope I never am!), I'd do the same.

Untenured