Carol & Doug rightly took me to task for implying that there never reasons for 
missing a deadline. Mea maxima culpa. I didn't quite mean that!  Some things 
are obviously beyond the best planning. I was thinking of the more mundane 
sorts of excuses of the kind that, when students give them, have you muttering 
under your breath. Frankly, I always build in a fudge factor when setting 
deadlines. If I expect the exams top be graded in 3 days, I'll tell the class 
to expect them in 4. When I give multiple choice exams, I usually have them 
graded the same day, often within a few hours but I tell the students that it 
will be at least 24 hours. If nothing else, it stops the students from 
harassing me. In the past, I wanted to impress the students and would tell them 
I'd have their exams graded within an hour or two. But I found they'd start 
hanging around my office after 30 minutes with "did you grade mine yet?"  And, 
of course, there are life's more traumatic events that will sideline the best 
plans for weeks. 
Ed
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D.
Dept. of Psychology, West Chester University of Pennsylvania
Office: Peoples Building Room 44
Office Phone: 610-436-3151; Home phone: 610-363-1939
Office Hours: Mondays noon-2 & 3-4 p.m.; Tuesdays & Thursdays 8-9:15 & 12:30-2 
p.m.
Home Page: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/epollak/home.htm 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, bluegrass fiddler and 
herpetoculturist......  in approximate order of importance.  

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