Should teachers grade this way?

[Never]

Today I got back the Philosophy quiz the class took on Wednesday. There was one question, multiple choice, and I picked the wrong answer. I got a B-. 100% incorrect = 80% grade.

I know why the teacher did this. This is an Intro. To Philosophy class full of freshmen that don’t do the homework, don’t participate during class, and act as though they really don’t care. It’s often the case that Adam, Chris, and I are the only ones talking and showing interest during class. She knows that grades are supposed to reflect my understanding of different arguments and my ability to critically analyze these arguments. She knows that I do understand and that I can analyze them. So, should I have gotten a B- on my quiz?

 

[CoolidgEffect]

Today I got back the Philosophy quiz the class took on Wednesday. There was one question, multiple choice, and I picked the wrong answer. I got a B-. 100% incorrect = 80% grade.

I know why the teacher did this. This is an Intro. To Philosophy class full of freshmen that don’t do the homework, don’t participate during class, and act as though they really don’t care. It’s often the case that Adam, Chris, and I are the only ones talking and showing interest during class. She knows that grades are supposed to reflect my understanding of different arguments and my ability to critically analyze these arguments. She knows that I do understand and that I can analyze them. So, should I have gotten a B- on my quiz?

I'm confused by this, but then I always thought those philosophy exams were urban/college myths. Like:

Q: Describe the Chair.

A: What chair.

Grade: A

 

[brokenbrainwave]

is it not up to the instructor to grade as he or she see's fit? accept the grade with gratitude, she may understand you have a grasp of the subject matter and simply made the wrong choice.

 

[peachykeen]

Possibly. I wouldn't hazard second guessing the situation just from the info you've given here tho. Why not tell her you're curious and ask her what her criteria was?

 

[CoolidgEffect]

Possibly. I wouldn't hazard second guessing the situation just from the info you've given here tho. Why not tell her you're curious and ask her what her criteria was?

Great suggestion. That's what office hours are for. Save her <your prof> from playing computer games for an hour.

 

[Parklife]

well, that's an odd one... heck, i think it's odd to have a one question quiz that isn't an essay of some sort..

a one question multiple choice quiz seems rather odd...

then again, depending on the question, your wrong answer may suggest some of the work that went in to determining it..

I mean.. if there were 4 possible answers.. one is truely correct, but the remaining three each so signs of some level of understanding of the argument.. (sort of like getting some credit for a math problem in which you show your work but transcribed some number wrong) So that if A is the correct answer you get 100%, if you answered B you got 80, c you got 60 and so on...

Sure, you could have guessed and gotten a higher grade with no understanding but it is an intro class...


Park~

So, what was the question??

 

[Never]

CoolidgEffect:
“I'm confused by this, but then I always thought those philosophy exams were urban/college myths. Like:

Q: Describe the Chair.

A: What chair?

Grade: A”

I’ve noticed that professors do whatever they want when it comes to making quizzes. I’ve also noticed that the best professors hate to give grades.

Brokenbrainwave:
“is it not up to the instructor to grade as he or she see's fit? accept the grade with gratitude, she may understand you have a grasp of the subject matter and simply made the wrong choice.”

Technically, yes. The school allows and encourages just that. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t question the validity of each method. It’s possible that there’s another student in the class with my grasp of the subject matter who also just picked the wrong one but who isn’t as vocal. What if they got a D and I got a B, is that right?

Peachykeen:
“Possibly. I wouldn't hazard second guessing the situation just from the info you've given here tho. Why not tell her you're curious and ask her what her criteria was?”

That’s what I was thinking of doing, however, I don’t want to seem ungrateful.

 

[sunstruck]

If there's only one question, and a list of possible answers AND it's a philosophy class, there's a catch.

Is it possible all or most of the answers were somewhat right and you were graded based on choosing one that came closer to the truth than the others?

 

[brokenbrainwave]

yes in the context you posed to my point, it would be right. If they have not demonstrated that they do have a grasp, how is the teacher not to know they did not take a simple lucky guess?

 

[lavender]

 

[CoolidgEffect]

That’s what I was thinking of doing, however, I don’t want to seem ungrateful. [/B]

Showing an interest will not be seen as being ingrateful.

 

[Parklife]

I think the only philosophy class i ever had that had quizzes was my intro class... the others just had papers which the professor's graded or didn't grade and at the end of the semester they just gave us grades based on what they understood our grasp of the topic to be...

well, that's not totally true, we did have quizzes in logic...

Park~

And they all enjoyed having students come to their office hours...

 

[peachykeen]

You can ask her without coming off whiny. Just say something like "I'm not complaining about my grade or asking you to change it, I was just wondering why you gave me a reasonably high grade on a test in which I answered incorrectly."

 

[Never]

Sunstruck:
“If there's only one question, and a list of possible answers AND it's a philosophy class, there's a catch.”

lol
Yes, I’d think that as well, yet none of the quizzes given so far have had ‘catches’.
My problem was that I thought that the teleological argument was the cosmological argument so I gave the answer that fit Pascal’s Wager instead of the ‘Anything so complex in its design must have a designer.’

 

[sunstruck]

My problem was that I thought that the teleological argument was the cosmological argument so I gave the answer that fit Pascal’s Wager instead of the ‘Anything so complex in its design must have a designer.’

I bet I was the only one turned on by that sentence.

 

[Never]

lavender:
"Never,

I know this professor. A multiple choice question quiz is completely against everything I've known her to ever do. I think she was using it as a scare tactic, of sorts. I doubt she will include the grades in her final analysis of the class."

Well, every quiz she's given so far has been multiple choice. Ahhh.. I know this professor as well and she doesn't seem to be the type to indulge in scare tactics. Are you certain we're thinking of the same person?

 

[Never]

You have a point brokenbrainwave, such a student has not given the effort to show that they’re knowledgeable and I can ask a teacher to be all knowing.

Peachykeen and CoolidgEffect, I think you two have the right idea. My teacher’s office hours aren’t until next Monday so before class I’ll just stop by and ask her.

 

[Parklife]

I bet I was the only one turned on by that sentence.

I would have been if only she'd gotten the question right...

 

[Sandia]

Sounds like she's off her meds. You should go to a different school. I heard the University of Texas at Austin is pretty good.

 

[Sandia]

Here's the link to admissions:

http://www.utexas.edu/student/admissions/

 

[Sandia]

You'll want to live in West Campus. There's a lot of good coffee shops around there, and it's an easy walk to school. Stay away from the frat houses at night, though.

 

[MunchinMark]

Re: Re: Should teachers grade this way?

I'm confused by this, but then I always thought those philosophy exams were urban/college myths. Like:

Q: Describe the Chair.

A: What chair.

Grade: A

The father of one of my friends in high school claimed he was at Oxford when the famous philosophy exam went as follows.

Q. Is this a question?

A. If this is an answer.


More seriously lately A-level markers appear to have been downgrading marks in response to criticisms that the exams were too easy. This has left about 10000 students without a place at university that they would have had if the exam boards cared less about politics.

 

[Unclebill]

Originally posted by Never
Today I got back the Philosophy quiz the class took on Wednesday. There was one question, multiple choice, and I picked the wrong answer. I got a B-. 100% incorrect = 80% grade. . .

This is a standard albeit it an arbitrary one. The problem is, arbitrary standards have no discernible meaning or value.

If a grade is supposed to represent some quantitative or qualitative assessment of student knowledge or performance, of what relevant worth is a grade based on an arbitrary standard?

Thus, how can a teacher provide anything of use to others regarding a student's performance using such a standard?

When I was in school, letter grades were assigned on a numeric grade on the 0-100 scale. It was broken down as follows:
A : 95 - 100
B : 85 - <95
C : 75 - <85
D : 65 - <75
E : <65

When I was in the Navy, both as a student and an instructor/instructional supervisor, we also had objective standards. It was basically a pass/fail system also based on the 0-100 numeric scale. 0-62.5 was failure. Above 62.5 was a Pass with remedial assigned for any grade below 75.

Both systems provided a realistic assessment of the students' grasp of the material in large measure.

The grading system you address does not, thus why do it? It seems to me a waste of time and effort since it conveys no objective assessment of anything.

 

[Guest]

Today I got back the Philosophy quiz the class took on Wednesday. There was one question, multiple choice, and I picked the wrong answer. I got a B-. 100% incorrect = 80% grade.

I know why the teacher did this. This is an Intro. To Philosophy class . . . So, should I have gotten a B- on my quiz?

What portion of your final grade is placed on this particular test? I would imagine it couldn't carry as much weight as the mid-term, final, or paper.

Maybe she is attempting to see what portion of the class understands the material up until now, or perhaps this is merely a diagnostic tool to help her focus the next few weeks of study (or maybe she's using it to weed out the idiots!)

It certainly isn't a fair assessment of your committment to the class - hopefully it won't be held against you.

 

[Ice Princess]

Find out what difference that quiz makes to your final semester grade before you overreact. Professors give little pop quizzes like that for all kinds of reasons, and sometimes they don't even count those scores against your final grade.

When only two or three people are talking and no one else even comes to class prepared, quizzes like that sometimes shake things up.