Greetings class-

 

Wow.  I am speechless after the exam tonight.  I don't know if it was the
Red Sox game last night or Utah drowning in rain, but looking over exams it
seems that there was a lot of disconnect between what I expected from you on
the exam and the answers people provided.

 

I will be the first to say that this is a learning process as much as it is
for me as it is for you.  My goal is that you learn and are competent with
the material.  I stress that I carefully studied the material I covered
before writing the exam and picked out the points that were important.  I
did not intend to be cruel and mean and I feel the test was fair.  I did
want to challenge you to see if you mastered the material, and I wrote
problems from the examples we did in class, from the textbook, and homework
as well.  In the exams I looked at, people did know the right steps to take
to solve a problem, but just didn't carry through with them or got lost in
the middle; that is hopeful, as it is clear you know what to do, but might
not have had the time to think clearly through a problem.  The people that
came to class, came to office hours, asked questions in class, and sought
out help did seem to do better; this was apparent even without grading the
exams.

 

With that said, I understand what it is to be a student and the pressures
you are faced in a test-taking situation.  If I were to grade the exams
right now, I expect the average to be pretty low.  It saddens me because I
know that you tried to put your best foot forward and I tried to teach the
material to the best of my ability.

 

What I have decided is the following.  You will receive the in-class portion
of the exam on Tuesday, graded.  You will have until Thursday October 28 to
resubmit your exam, and have the opportunity to make up 3/4 of the points
you missed by redoing the problems and resubmitting them.  That is if you
missed 20 points on the in-class part, then if you resubmit the problems you
missed with no errors, you will have 15 points added to your score. You will
not be allowed to resubmit the essay portion.  Tuesday we will not cover new
material but rather I will answer questions, however * will not * do
problems from the exam on the board.  You can certainly ask questions about
concepts covered in the exam, but not ask "Can you show me problem 5?"  In
the meantime, it is up to you to think of where your weaknesses are, READ
the book, and EXAMINE homework problems, and come to class prepared and be
ready to ask (and answer) questions.

 

I am committed to having you learn this material: I guarantee you it will
come up in the future outside of class.  If you are considering withdrawing
from the class, please email me first.  You are working hard, and I can
recognize that.

 

Sincerely,

John