Re: Your Thoughts

[John W. Kulig]

Payem
    I agree with Harry Avis that students - most of the time - do about the same on late exams. But I still hate them and have always worried about the comparability of the original and the make up. Lately I have adopted the "drop the lowest" exam score, in lieu of make ups. To make it work, though, you have to hammer home the point that it does not matter _why_ they missed. There is no difference between a "valid" excuse and an "invalid" excuse. The precious few rare cases of missing 2 exams can be handled on an individual basis (if someone is missing that many classes they should be counseled to take a semester off). Some students might complain that if they have a "valid" reason to miss an exam, they are being penalized vis-a-vis the other students because their lowest score is a zero and the other students get to drop a non-zero grade, but here we are splitting hairs. I like the "drop the lowest score" policy from the standpoint of fair grading guidlines, because you are applying one rule equally to all students. Whether they miss one because of sports, theatre, illness, or whatever, they all have one opportunity to "write off" one exam. Since I have a comprehensive final, I tell them the studying they did for the exam they miss will pay off at semesters' end. Having to play "King Solomon" and pass judgments on excuses is (to me) an aversive activity and frought with pitfalls.
John K

Payam Heidary wrote:

Dear Colleagues,

I wanted to get some of your ideas and opinions on
taking student excuses from their face value. In other
words how do most of you handle situations where
students are absent on the day of exams and when
assignments are due. Do you require some sort of
documentation such as a doctor's visit letter from the
student before allowing the student to make-up an exam
or for not penalizing later work or assignments. How
do you handle cases like this? Do you just take the
student's word or story about the emergency that came
up for them as being valid or do you require them to
provide you documentation of the emergency as to why
they could not attend class on the day of the exam or
assignment due date. Your feedback is appreciated on
this matter.
 

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John W. Kulig                        [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Department of Psychology             http://oz.plymouth.edu/~kulig
Plymouth State College               tel: (603) 535-2468
Plymouth NH USA 03264                fax: (603) 535-2412
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"What a man often sees he does not wonder at, although he knows
not why it happens; if something occurs which he has not seen before,
he thinks it is a marvel" - Cicero.