I am NOT your mommy!

[Primer]

I am a college math instructor. This was finals week. I had two (2!) people call me crying about how they missed taking the final because they "forgot" when it was.

The fist day syllabus has it spelled out explicitly as to when and where the final exam will take place. I also pass out a day-to-day schedule with that information, and for the last two weeks I have been writing it up on the board every day.

One student had the audacity to argue with me that he was positive I wrote something different, and he has not been to class since the first week in November. How the h*ll can he be so sure what was or was not written on the board? And if he is so d*mn sure, why did he not just attend class, if he was there anyway? Everybody else managed to make it to the final exam just fine.

I also had a first in 20 years--one student came in, and after 15 minutes turned in his test...absolutely blank except for his name. Any bets that I hear from him soon, begging for a C in the course?

I need to calm down a bit before I go grade the exams...

<Primer wanders off looking for the Bacardi 151... >

[Hobbs]

I am a college math instructor. This was finals week. I had two (2!) people call me crying about how they missed taking the final because they "forgot" when it was.

The fist day syllabus has it spelled out explicitly as to when and where the final exam will take place. I also pass out a day-to-day schedule with that information, and for the last two weeks I have been writing it up on the board every day.

One student had the audacity to argue with methat he was positive I wrote something different, and he has not been to class since the first week in November. How the h*ll can he be so sure what was or was not written on the board? And if he is so d*mn sure, why did he not just attend class, if he was there anyway? Everybody else managed to make it to the final exam just fine.

I also had a first in 20 years--one student came in, and after 15 minutes turned in his test...absolutely blank except for his name. Any bets that I hear from him soon, begging for a C in the course?

I need to calm down a bit before I go grade the exams...

<Primer wanders off looking for the Bacardi 151... >

wow, only 15 mins? i knew i wouldn't do well on my math exam and still toughed it out...i think i at least got a C.

grr, why'd i find a math prof here after my exam T.T

[Auto]

I went to a pretty good high school and a top-notch college. Neither tolerated a student arguing he forgot when the exam was scheduled. (It was published at the start of the term, with only the location to be determined.) Yeah, the instructor could choose to be nice but the deans would have laughed him out of their offices had he lodged an official complaint.

So in what kind of school are you teaching? They're not getting any sympathy from deans, are they?

[PepperElf]

hmmm and if any of the other students are like those two... you might want to keep the bottle handy WHILE grading the tests too

[Primer]

Auto, I don't want to get too specific, but it's an academic college. If the deans did decide to sympathize, and pull rank, I believe I'd have to go find another job.

PepperElf, it wasn't all that many years ago that I did! Alas, alcohol does not mix well with my prescription meds.

[chainedbarista]

primer, just more examples of the mentality, 'i'm not responsible for my own behavior/stupidity/lack of attention span' kicking in.

sad that it spills over into academics, where something approaching sense and intelligence (as well as a dash of maturity) are supposed to rule.

*wakes from dream* oh dammit, reality interrupts again.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I'd piss myself laughing if the kid who turned in the blank paper misspelled his name.

[aurelemsrealm]

I could imagine your pain. This fall is my first semester back to school as a full-time student in a couple of years. I just finished the last of my finals yesterday. So far, my grades look very promising, so I think I'll be pleased when all of the results are posted.

Earlier in the semester, I witnessed an argument between another student and my accounting instructor over a test. Portions of our accounting course materials require a website called Wiley Plus, where we work through practice sets. So, portions of our tests generally include a Wiley Plus practice set that we can work on outside of class. Apparently, this student failed to complete the Wiley Plus portion of the test by the due date. So, he raised a fit about failing the test because he wanted the instructor to extend the due date for him, but she wouldn't because it would be unfair to all other students.

The only reason I'm aware of this argument is that I happened to be there when it erupted. I was there waiting to talk to the instructor about a technical problem I was having with some other Wiley Plus homework. So, I overheard the whole argument, and it was not pretty. Even with the office door closed, I could hear it. I felt bad for the instructor after this student left. She was visibly shaken by the argument to the point that she kept feeling it necessary to apologize to me for not being completely focused on the problem I had.

[TheSnakeLady]

I TA for an online course, and I have had no less than three students email me about "forgetting" or "misremembering" when the last exam was. None of them had any trouble figuring out when to take the other exams. And the dates were posted aeons ago, meaning the student could've easily looked them up online if they'd bothered to log into the online class software. Not only did they "forget" the final, they also forgot the date of the makeup test AND the backup makeup essay exam.

Can't say they didn't have plenty of opportunity to deal with it...

[Record Store Tough Guy]

Did anyone else hear Dr Girlfriend reading the subject line?

[Kheldarson]

I'd piss myself laughing if the kid who turned in the blank paper misspelled his name.

I had something similar happen in a high school class I was taking. German I. Senior jock had just gotten a vocab test back. The only thing he had right was the date. I don't know how he missed his name.

[Thuringwethyl]

I've actually done that once. The second semester of organic chemistry I somehow got it into my head that my final was the block after its actual time. I'll never forget the feeling of horror I experienced when I met my friend walking out as I was coming in.

Friend: "So, how'd you do?"
Me: "Oh, I'm not sure. We'll see pretty soon, though!"
Friend: "Um, what do you mean?"
Me: "We'll see when we take the exam."
Friend: "We just took it."
Me: "No, it starts in 15 minutes."
Friend: "No, it ends in 15 minutes."
Me:
Friend:

My friend, saint that she is, dragged my hyperventilating self to the professor. He was really, really nice and let me take the exam in the last section he had that week. It probably helped that I showed up to every lecture, sat in the front, visited his office hours, and showed up during the latter part of the exam.

[Buglady]

I've handed in an exam nearly blank before. I was having a major anxiety attack and I just couldn't continue. But that was my own issue. Luckily I almost always have term marks such that I can still pass the course even if I completely blow the final - most of my courses have had finals worth 30-40% and I usually do really well on term papers.

This year I've had to ask for extensions on my two biggest papers, because of a family emergency that took me out of class for two weeks and stressed me right the hell out, but I contacted the instructors right away when I knew I was going to have a problem managing the workload and my stress. So I cried in several offices, but everyone was really nice about it.

I am writing the scheduled finals this week and I'm having the regulation "omigod I forgot the exam was today! I haven't studied! Or gone to class all term! Or... put on any pants...? OK, whew, it's a dream" thing pretty well every night.

[smileyeagle1021]

I've handed in an exam nearly blank before.

so glad I'm not the only one... I was really sick on the day of the midterm but decided to attempt the test anyway... after the 3rd question I very calmly walked up to the front of the class, turned in the test, walked to the trash can, vomited, and passed out...

The professor did let me make up that one

Other than that though I have NEVER missed a test... and very rarely missed class... and you know what happens when you do that *gasp* you actually will do well in the class when it comes time to get your grades.

[Chromatix]

I have the gift of being completely calm about exams. I don't even revise - much - and I still do well.

But I have, once or twice, missed an exam by simply not waking up in time. Fortunately, on both occasions that I can remember, I was isolated from the people that *had* taken it, and was allowed to take it at a later time on the same day.

It does, of course, help to be known as the kind of student who doesn't need to cheat to get a good grade.