Things that make you go... what the f--k?!
I'm in the middle of grading exams, and as I've chronicled in detail, the Danish exam system is complicated in the extreme. I've given exams in four different formats, plus the typical semester papers that will arrive in a couple more months. The paperwork for these different exams comes in at different times, so keeping it all straight is a bit of a challenge. I've been reviewing my files in anticipation of finishing up this week, and it seems that I'm one exam short. I know the guy took the exam because I had to go to the room where all the students taking written exams were working and check in to make sure he didn't have any questions. But here it is, grading time, and no exam.
Putting on my Junior Detective hat and decoder ring, I called the exam secretary and tracked down what happened. Drum roll please...
He left.
He simply left the exam without finishing. Evidently, you can do that over here. Without failing the exam. You can just try again some other time. Or not. It's up to you. Because we wouldn't want to trouble you by actually holding you responsible for learning anything in the course. There is an option for leaving an exam in the midst of it if you become sick, and there's another option to leave "for other reasons." It invites the question: if you can leave for "other reasons," why have the sick category at all? They should just have it say, "I left the exam because I f-ing felt like it." Or, "I left the exam because I blew off class for eight weeks and I didn't expect that the questions would be related to anything I didn't already know."
Now I ask you, any of you who have spent any time in the US higher education system at all, what do you think the response would be if you up and left an American exam "for other reasons"? I can tell you how I would respond as a professor. With applause, because it would cut down my grading work. It's so easy to fill in the Scantron bubble for an "F" grade.
And if you left for medical reasons, I would expect to see blood gushing from your forehead.
Putting on my Junior Detective hat and decoder ring, I called the exam secretary and tracked down what happened. Drum roll please...
He left.
He simply left the exam without finishing. Evidently, you can do that over here. Without failing the exam. You can just try again some other time. Or not. It's up to you. Because we wouldn't want to trouble you by actually holding you responsible for learning anything in the course. There is an option for leaving an exam in the midst of it if you become sick, and there's another option to leave "for other reasons." It invites the question: if you can leave for "other reasons," why have the sick category at all? They should just have it say, "I left the exam because I f-ing felt like it." Or, "I left the exam because I blew off class for eight weeks and I didn't expect that the questions would be related to anything I didn't already know."
Now I ask you, any of you who have spent any time in the US higher education system at all, what do you think the response would be if you up and left an American exam "for other reasons"? I can tell you how I would respond as a professor. With applause, because it would cut down my grading work. It's so easy to fill in the Scantron bubble for an "F" grade.
And if you left for medical reasons, I would expect to see blood gushing from your forehead.
posted by L&D at
2:14 AM
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