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[senay]

Hello, Forumites.

My spring break is almost over, and I've managed to avoid grading until now.  I'm hunkered down in a coffee shop with my laptop, purple pen, and tunes.  And many, many papers.

Who else is grading?  How deep is your pain?

Senay

[onion]

I'm grading.  I have the biggest stack of essays and exams.  But today is the first day of Spring Break, so I guess my pain isn't that deep...except I do want to go play, NOT grade!

[galactic_hedgehog]

I have some lab tests to grade, plus some tests to write.  Spring break has not, alas, started here.

[orangejuls]

I'm in the same boat as you...break almost over, and 2 stacks to go. And they're BAD (see my post below under most entertaining exams).  I've so far "awarded" a 5/70, a 13/70 and a 14/70 (these were my favorites).  Most in the high D low C range.

How deep is YOUR pain?

[senay]

In the interest of efficiency, I am not responding to every gem, such as this one:  "The father has a more direct impact in the child's life by better preparing the child for the world and what the child will face in it."

I have one set of papers to which I must simply assign a final grade, and one set that needs complete comments for their revisions.

And then I must prepare for Monday's classes.

My pain is also compounded by a headache.  I have no Advil with me.  :(

Onion, good for you for beginning to grade on the first day of break.  Had I done that, I'd be nearly finished.

[grasshopper]

I got the pain deep down in my bones.

[erictho]

I've finished my stack o' quizzes and am trying to work up the courage to tackle the rest of the stack of papers, and I'm getting tests from 2 classes in on Monday, and my Spring Break is long since over, and it's cold and its been snowing all morning, and I'm feeling sorry for myself. I don't want to grade.

[keineidee]

I've been putting them off for two weeks(!) and now today is all nice and sunny and warm and our spring break just started. I want to finish tonight so it isn't hanging over me, but I might just have to play outside a bit this afternoon...

[thenewyorker]

I almost looking forward to grading one set of exams and another set of papers. It keeps me from starting the conference paper that has me paralyzed with writer's block.
Although I was sadly happy to watch Make Me a Supermodel instead of doing either.

[t_r_b]

I've got short writing assignments for one class (got through over half last night, but 50+ yet to go) plus a stack of take-home essays for my other class, plus an exam to write for the former class for next week. For next weekend (and Spring break), I'll have ~120 exams plus rough drafts of the final research paper for the latter class. So yeah, pain.

Things got off to a bad start last night. I'm moving through the stack alphabetically (they're submitted online, so they're pre-sorted for me), and the percentage scores through "Black" went like this: 67, 58, 67, 67, 75, 50, 67. And I'm pretty sure I was grading pretty generously at that point, out of fear that the class average would be a D. Fortunately, things improved markedly as I made it through the rest of the alphabet. Letters G through K were actually pretty good. Over 50% have at least a B. That said, the mean remains under 80%, and that's not even counting the zeroes for the students who didn't hand it in.

As an aside, I have to say that I love the number-crunching features of my course management software. Checking out the statistical breakdown of my students' scores turns out to be infinitely more interesting than grading their work.

[senay]

I'm a third of the way through the first set of papers, so I'm going to take a walk.  I'll be back.  (and yes, I mean to sound like the Terminator.  I must be a grading Terminator.)

[ls410]

I'm grading the first exam in my 100 level intro to the discipline class (also a gen ed requirement).  Since the 2nd day of class we've talked about a core concept and I've said outright many times they would be required to define this on the exam.  I'm saddened by how many blew this question (what should have been an easy 5 points). 

[frogfactory]

I'm grading the first exam in my 100 level intro to the discipline class (also a gen ed requirement).  Since the 2nd day of class we've talked about a core concept and I've said outright many times they would be required to define this on the exam.  I'm saddened by how many blew this question (what should have been an easy 5 points).

ls410:  Are you me, by any chance?

[t_r_b]

Things got off to a bad start last night. I'm moving through the stack alphabetically (they're submitted online, so they're pre-sorted for me), and the percentage scores through "Black" went like this: 67, 58, 67, 67, 75, 50, 67. And I'm pretty sure I was grading pretty generously at that point, out of fear that the class average would be a D. Fortunately, things improved markedly as I made it through the rest of the alphabet. Letters G through K were actually pretty good. Over 50% have at least a B. That said, the mean remains under 80%, and that's not even counting the zeroes for the students who didn't hand it in.

As an aside, I have to say that I love the number-crunching features of my course management software. Checking out the statistical breakdown of my students' scores turns out to be infinitely more interesting than grading their work.

I've now made it through P. The Ms were pretty bad, but otherwise they are adequate, not good. I am grading pretty generously here because it was clearly a tough assignment, but even so the average is still hovering at 79%.

On another note, grading (or, to be more precise, avoidance of grading) is a wonderful way to ensure that disagreeable tasks get done. So far today, I've done laundry and talked to not one but two parents. At this rate, I may even clean the kitchen or crunch some tax numbers.

[grasshopper]

Yup. Still sick of marking.