dude

my students totally got hosed.

i feel really bad for them. i graded 4 out of the 8 problems on their midterms last week, grading fairly generously. then the prof graded the other 4. on 12-13 point problems, if the students at least started with the correct partial derivatives or something even if they totally screwed up later, i give partial credit. the prof gave flat out 0s straight down the page to a lot of people.

i mean, i was ticked while i was grading that 6/8 problems were straight out of the homework... problems that we did in class on the board together, etc., and they still screwed them up even with a formula sheet... how hard is it to say "ok, i know the right formula, now i just plug numbers into it?". apparently, very, which makes me sad. of the other two problems, one was straight out of the lecture before the exam, which is fair... and the other was a trick that i thought was unfair... but there should have been a lot more people that got close to 7/8 of the points possible instead of a handful and a lot of grades in the 30s, 40s, and 50s (out of 100). i'm gonna make these kids cry tomorrow....

doht.

seriously... i try to make class as engaging and discussion oriented as possible. they ask me questions and i think they're getting excited and understanding. other than problem 5, i thought it was a reasonable exam, but many of them totally screwed it up anyhow. i dunno... am i entertaining but a failure at getting information across in a clear and meaningful manner? or is the prof just that much more rough than i am?

i don't know, but i'm totally dreading my job tomorrow morning.

yuck.