Hi folks: I have a situation that I've never come across before and wanted to get your perspective. I just finished teaching a large (120+ students) non-majors Abnormal Psychology class this semester. Because it was a large lecture class, the major assignments in the class were five multiple-choice exams, each worth 100 points, plus a few scattered quizzes. Because the class is so large and I don't have a teaching assistant, I held an optional meeting after each exam for any student who wanted to review their exam and discuss items they got wrong. During the review of exam 3, one of my students asked what he should do if the scantron marked a correct answer as incorrect. I told him to circle the item and bring it to me at the end of the meeting. When we were done, the student showed me the scantron. He had circled 7 items that he claimed the scantron had incorrectly graded. He said that he had at first filled in the incorrect answer, but when he realized his mistake he erased it and filled in the correct answer. He said that he must not have erased very well so the scantron read the incorrect answer. The student earned a 52/100 on this exam. If I were to give him credit for these 7 items, then his grade would be raised to a 66/100. This also would raise his final course grade from a D to a C. His grades on the other four exams in the class were 34, 62, 78, and 80. I told the student that I would think about the situation and get back to him. He asked me during the next class if I had made a decision. I told him to schedule a meeting with me outside of class and I would talk with him about it. I reminded him several times to do this in the following weeks, but he never contacted me to schedule the appointment until yesterday, the day after classes ended. I have never come across a situation in which a scantron machine made so many mistakes on one exam. In looking at his answer sheet, he had erased his answers very well, so well in fact that I have no clue how the scantron machine could have read them. If the student had scheduled an appointment with me, I had planned to explain my dilemma and give him an opportunity to come clean, if he had indeed cheated. If he told me that he hadn't cheated, then I was going to give him a chance to answer those 7 questions again when he took Exam 5 during the last day of class: same content but different response options. Of course, now classes are over and all the exams have been taken. Not sure how to proceed at this point. On one hand, I could take his word and give him credit for those 7 items, but if he had cheated I don't want to reinforce that behavior (not to mention his lack of follow-through on all of this) with a higher final course grade. I meet with this student later today. Any suggestions would be much appreciated! Rod [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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