Grading woes

[rivkat]

Background: My exam had two questions, one worth 20% and the other 80%. I just gave someone who did quite well on the first question -- in the top 14 of 82 -- the lowest score by far on the second question. From A- to C (and that's generous) in one fell swoop. I feel like a failure. The student in question obviously knew copyright law, but didn't treat the second question as if it raised copyright questions at all. I gave a standard (for law school) issue-spotter exam, and everyone else so far has managed to spot the copyright issue in the exam for this copyright class. The student's obviously smart; where did I go wrong? I just know s/he's going to see me about the grade, and I don't know what to say other than "everyone else noticed this."

Argh!

More book reviews soon, I promise, after I finish the neverending grading.

Comments

No need for you to feel like a failure

[haphazardmethod.livejournal.com]

If everyone else got it, then it wasn't the test. End of story. You could offer to let him/her do an extra-credit project but then you have equity issues (does everyone get to do one?) and the extra work of grading. Good luck.

Not your fault

[evenbiggerdog.livejournal.com]

I realize a certain amount of breast-beating can be de rigeur with teachers, but come on! The student screwed up, not you. He or she will just have to pick up the shattered pieces of his or her life and move on.

Re: Not your fault

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Half of me knows this. The other half wants to be like the good teacher from Groenig's "School Is Hell" who is always having fun and gets to say "You guys are so smart! As for everyone!" The sad thing is, the student could obviously do better than most people in the class if s/he had figured out what to do.

Not to change the subject, but...

[evenbiggerdog.livejournal.com]

... how many people got the thinly-veiled reference to WATCHMEN in your last fic? Your Rohrschach icon reminded me to ask. Tres cool, by the way.

How do you like the suckers?

Re: Not to change the subject, but...

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Only one, my beta reader, ever mentioned it, but I'm willing to snicker secretly about it. Adrian Veidt is a lot like Lex, except I hope Lex might be more self aware. Someday, I'm going to write a story in which Lex owns a cat named Bubastis. I read an interesting interview in which Moore said he felt he failed some because so many more people identified with Rorschach than with Veidt, who'd done the wrong thing for the right reason. I myself identified with Veidt, not surprisingly.

I actually shipped the suckers, along with 20 pounds of books/exams, and I hope they arrive soon so I can share them with Z and colleagues. Z, by the way, made me the icon.

Re: Not to change the subject, but...

[evenbiggerdog.livejournal.com]

Re shipping the suckers -- Which company did you use? I'd think they should be there by now. Unless you went with UPS or... tell me you didn't use the U. S. Snail...?


Re the icons -- definitely cool. Go, Z!


I read comics well into my late 30s but not for some time now. Recently, for no reason I can fathom, I stopped at Borders and took a few graphic novels over to the relaxation section. Found a terrific JLA story (whose title I forget, dammit) about what happened when Batman's secret files found there way into the hands of an unscrupulous individual. Actually it was Ras al-Ghul, who had a plan somewhat similar to Veidt's but knew the League would stop him. So he sent an agent to penetrate the Batcave (wouldn't *that* make a caper movie?) where Bats kept his files on all the other JLA members. These files documented their weaknesses and contained plans on defeating each of them. Just in case, you know...?

Great idea, and it absolutely suits Mr. Paranoia. Lots of ingenious stuff in there, plus really creepy scenes as Batman gathered this information from his unsuspecting teammates. You might like it. Or not, now that I've "spoiled" you.

Re: Not to change the subject, but...

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

I chose UPS ground to save money, but I don't trust the hotel to have actually sent it on time, so I'll call on Monday.

The JLA book sounds *great*. I knew Bats had those secret files, but I hadn't heard about that twist. I'll see if I can find it.

Re: Not to change the subject, but...

[evenbiggerdog.livejournal.com]

Generally speaking, it takes a week for a package to cross the country via UPS Ground. For not much more you could ship UPS Three Day (orange sticker) and it will get there a couple of days quicker. For future reference.

[cbking.livejournal.com]

Where do you teach?

-- Curious recent NYC law school, IP-focused grad

[missu.livejournal.com]

Heh. That's my biggest panic inducing problem with exams in law school. I'm sitting there and wondering, "What am I missing? What am I *missing*?"

Usually a lot. *g*

[ter369.livejournal.com]

I just know s/he's going to see me about the grade, and I don't know what to say other than "everyone else noticed this."

It might be interesting (for you) and useful (for the student) to ask what they were thinking of instead of noticing what other students noticed.

I know nothing about how law is taught or learned. But I dropped out of my PhD program (lit) shortly after my committe chairman told me that if two hundred scholars said X about Bertold Brecht and I wrote a paper on Y, it was up to me to figure out why I was wrong.

I can only assume Einstein didn't listen to anyone who told him something like that. Unless he found that someone else's "wrong" was his new idea.

Theory and interpretation aren't the same as absorbing core information, but maybe your student was off on a tangent - with a new thought - and missed the essential focus in the exam question? Just asking him/her that question might help them in their future courses.

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Well, it's a good point, though in this case it wasn't a new thought -- the student did catch the non-copyright issue that I hoped everybody would get and spent 3000 words on that, whereas most people gave it 250 or so. I feel terrible, but in the end I can't justify a good grade because (1) it's a copyright class and (2) in the real world, problems don't show up with categories; it's a lawyer's job to look at them and say, "Here's the three possible issues and here's what I think."

I was just discussing the issue of new insights v. old methods with my husband. In A Beautiful Mind, Sylvia Nasar emphasizes that John Nash often didn't know squat about the fields in which he tackled big problems, and this may have freed him from preconceptions as well as occasionally leading him down blind alleys/requiring him to reinvent the wheel. I don't doubt that genius can work that way, but, frankly, it's not the way to bet. That's a somewhat different issue from the X/Y interpretations of Brecht -- I understand exactly how awful your chair's statement was, and that's an inane way to think about it. Unfortunately, this wasn't a test of thinking in general; it was a test of knowledge and application of knowledge in a particular field.

If this student is in fact an underappreciated genius, my only consolation is that I've perpetuated the grand tradition of giving poor grades to a mind beyond mine.