Test week

I'm giving midterms all week. I have Sunday/Tuesday and Monday/Wednesday classes. I gave all my classes the choice of taking the midterm on either day they wanted but they had to pick in advance. I told them that if they changed the day after last Wednesday there would be a penalty of 10%.

Now I'm getting a flood of e-mails from student who were supposed to take the test over the past two days and didn't.

I expect the complaining to intensify next week when they get their tests back.

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Also, I don't think I'll ever get used to the level of cheating. I warned a student today... saw him do it again and I ripped the test away from him. I go from zero to 100 in anger in less than a second. "Get out of this room now!" I yelled. He started saying something and I stopped him.

In other departments it is the culture to give the student a zero. In my department it is common to grade what has been completed and give a zero on what you know they have cheated on. Since it was near the end of the test he had almost everything done.

As expected he waited in the hallway until everyone left and came in to plead his case. He was trying to explain somehow that he hadn't really cheated. I interrupted him by saying he'd get credit for the test. He continued justifying his actions. I stopped him again, "I said you are getting credit for the test. You are not being penalized. Why are you still talking?"

Direct quote:

"Because my heart is saddened that you are angry with me. My heart is heavy."

Oh, how many times have I heard about a heavy, sad heart. Some days I long for teaching in the US where my students don't really care what I think about them and the feeling is mutual. I am certain 98% of Americans students would not have a heavy, sorrowful heart if I caught them cheating but still gave them full credit.

They'd be saying, "Suuuckerrrr!"