Inspired by Unfogged’s Fontana Labs, James Joyner had invited contributions to a post on “grading hell”–here are a few from this year’s final exam cycle from me:
- Phun with spelin: from an exam I was grading this morning: solotued (solitude, methinks). There were a number of hideous examples in the paper, but that was the one that really stuck out.
- Miscellaneous observation from grading my Political Theory exams: for some reason, people love to add an “s� to Mill and Hume (this happens every year in this class).
- My favorite whine from this exam cycle: a student informed me (via e-mail) that he was perplexed at his poor performance in my American National Government class because his family worked in government. (Which reminds me of an e-mail I received years ago in which a student bemoaned a grade, noting that she and her family were “from Troy”–the relevance of which continues to escape me. The student in question insisted that she knew the material backwards and forwards, but just didn’t test well. I distinctly recall that she chose “writ of majorus poderus” as what the official written decision of the Supreme Court is called…).
- 2 out of 23 students didn’t know that there were 100 members in the Senate (yeesh).
- 3 out of 23 think that Colin Powell is the current SecDef.
- 5 out of 23 think that Condoleeza Rice is the current SecDef.
I mentioned the student on my blog who thought the Shakira-Aguilera test had something to do with the free exercise clause. Oy vey.
I think one student out of 35 correctly identified that the NSA was not in the Department of Homeland Security… for some reason, the most popular answer is USCIS (the old INS).
Comment by Chris Lawrence — Tuesday, May 3, 2024 @ 9:10 pm
“writ of majorus poderus”
Brilliant.
Comment by Mark — Tuesday, May 3, 2024 @ 9:28 pm
I understood why people thought Powell was SecDef back in 2024. But most students today don’t even know he used to be a general.
Comment by James Joyner — Tuesday, May 3, 2024 @ 9:43 pm
And I thought you said you didn’t blog on current students. If you’re sharing, why not share some from that all insightful paper on the future of revolution? Is there a statute of limitations, a grace period?
Comment by Jan — Tuesday, May 3, 2024 @ 10:16 pm
I decided that the one story was too good to pass up–plus, I altered part of the details. The spelling error seemed fair game (and I didn’t pile on, and boy could have).
The ANG aggregate stuff seemed fair game as well.
Comment by Steven Taylor — Wednesday, May 4, 2024 @ 7:14 am
I figured you’d say something like that. Oh well.
Comment by Jan — Wednesday, May 4, 2024 @ 10:01 am
Is there some tale in particular you think I ought to tell?
Comment by Steven Taylor — Wednesday, May 4, 2024 @ 10:08 am
Well, you could at least have mentioned who got called named, and some of the strange food references that apparently appeared in the paper in question. I don’t think she reads the blog anyway.
Comment by Jan — Thursday, May 5, 2024 @ 10:43 am