Me: Of course!
Colleague: But why?
Me: Well, very often, students will change their answers on exams and then claim I made a mistake in grading.
Colleague: (shocked, almost defensive) I have NEVER had a student try that on me!
***
So, dare I try to analyze this person's response? It would seem that the view is good from where they work, or that they are in some denial about the way things roll.
Or perhaps they are trying to tell me that, while it's a noble cause, my class would be perceived as having "alot of problems" if I were to catch cheaters. What he failed to realize though was that the amount of grade-grubbing and cheating has deminished drastically since I implimented my strategy.
On the first day of class, when I go through the syllabus with hem, I read the part about how I photocopy their marked exams. I then explain the purpose of this. The intent is to prevent people from changing their answers on their tests and then submitting a grade appeal.
When the exam rolls around, I photocopy them after they have been graded. If the handwriting seems to be a bit lite, then I adjust the photocopier appropriately.
On the day that the exams are passed back, they get the photocopy and I keep the original. I kid you not. I can count the number of people who will drop, just by looking at their faces.
This has put a stop to the attempts to challenge their test scores.
 |
| Late Thirsty! |
So, my question...
Q: What do you do to stop students from changing answers on exams and then submitting them for regrading?
A: "That doesn't happen to me" won't cut it.
I do the same thing as you - I scan in the exams before I pass them back. Except I don't always tell my students that I do this.
ReplyDeleteOne of my colleagues suggested I do this after she caught a student changing his answers after the Scantrons were handed back. The student was trying to get two extra points but he ended up with a letter of confession in his permanent file and no chance of ever getting into his chosen program.
Maybe that makes me cynical but the students I deal with are so competitive they will try anything to get ahead of each other.
I'm sorry ... people are still giving exams on paper?
ReplyDeleteYeah, yeah, I know ... electronically delivered exams practically beg for unfettered cheating.
But, I have been doing this for several years now and the distribution of scores has essentially stayed the same.
There probably are a couple who get an extra point here or there -- just like they do on paper exams. But it is inconceivable that the proportion of students getting Cs, Ds, and Fs has remained virtually unchanged in a vast conspiracy to cover for the cheaters.
So, I get log-ins, time stamps, IP addresses, and uneditable access after the close of the exams.
My exams contain essay questions, and are graded not only on content, but on the students' ability to make a coherent argument. That's not the sort of thing you can really fix with an eraser once you've had the exam returned.
ReplyDeleteI too have essay questions but I also don't allow the students to take their marked exams home with them. Instead, they can come to my office to look at their exams. I think in my eight years of teaching, I've had about five students take me up on this offer. Most only care about the grade, not where they could have improved. The few who do come to see where they did well and where they did poorly are most welcome. I appreciate their interest.
ReplyDelete@ Compound Calico
ReplyDeleteThere is now.
have not had anyone try. I mark their exams in red and circle the correct answer on their multiple choice and mark up the rest with red ink so it'd be kind of difficult to change anything..
ReplyDeleteThe photocopying is a waste of paper. If possible, try Nancy's suggestion about scanning them into a digital file; you can just print the appropriate page(s) when the student makes an appointment for the grade change and save a few trees.
ReplyDeleteAware & Scared: Not everyone teaches in a computer lab or online, wants to deal with the mess that is a take-home exam (e.g. plagiarism and cheating), or have to wonder if the student enrolled in the course is the one who actually took the exam on the computer.
@ Myth
ReplyDeleteGood idea. Our photocopiers have an "email" function.
However, I like to hand them the photocopy, as it serves as a "show of force" that cuts down lots of flakery.
I thought about photocopying but never get around to it. Since I kill a red marker every term or so, MA&M's solution probably applies to me too.
ReplyDeleteEMH, you already solved the problem by telling them that you photocopy exams. You don't actually need to follow through on it to make your point. After the first exam, announce to the class that you caught somebody, who will remain nameless, cheating. Warn them not to do it again.
Calico, it's good to have somebody around who appreciates tradition. You're never "late" to be thirsty. Just ask the bartender.
ZOMG CALICO I DEFY YOUR RULES.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't watch it, I'll start posting Thirsties 8 times a week, and six of them on Friday.
Ben--
ReplyDelete"After the first exam, announce to the class that you caught somebody, who will remain nameless, cheating. Warn them not to do it again."
Sheer genius.
Thank you.
This is not my debate. It was all decided before me. But I don't get what the "late" means.
ReplyDeleteBig Thirsty derived from the "Big Thursday Question."
Early is before Thursday. Friday is, well, Friday. Weekend, Summer. I get that.
What's the "late" mean?
PS: There was a "Twin Thirsty" at one point, 2 related questions at one time.
PPS: And I have to say I defer to Cal; he's the one here with the real RYS cred.
RYS...the site that died, right?
ReplyDeleteWhen will its cred expire?
@Myth
ReplyDeleteThis page doesn't exist without RYS. So the cred's got life left. You're not one of those people who didn't get published enough are you?
There were a few of them around at the start of CM and they all faded pretty quickly.
The U. from where I just graduated never allows students to take exams home. We could review them in front of the Profs, and those Profs that temporarily gave them back to the class, especially the multiple choice exams, had red markings all over so it would be impossible to change. Actually, I always wondered why they never let us take them back permanently, but I guess now I know. It never occurred to me that some students would play those kinds of games. Wow.
ReplyDeleteI never get grade appeals; honestly can't remember the last time someone seriously tried (I got some grousing from grad students last semester, but a little reiteration of the standards and the errors in their work put a stop to that). Even on the multiple-choice tests I did this last term, nobody tried that. Some of my colleagues insist that tests be done in pen, which would prevent a lot of that, though I realize that probably doesn't work for the scantron stuff. At least the scantrons are efficient little things, copy-wise. Not much to study from, though.
ReplyDeleteI just go over the quiz, keeping the Scantrons to myself. They can come look at their Scantron, but it stays in my hot little hands. The rest is papers, which they can't really change.
ReplyDelete@ CM
ReplyDelete"Late" means I meant to do it on Thursday but had too much rum in my Trattatino.
Kinda like when our snowflakes turn in their work late.
EMH - no one has ever tried that with me. I would not say it if it were not true. However:
ReplyDeleteFinal exams, by university regulations, are not handed back to the students; they're kept somewhere centrally by the registrar and if the student wants a look a photocopy is made for them.
Multiple choice I do on scantron, and the students don't get the scantron back; I keep it in my office and they can come and look if they want.
Essay questions can't be faked later.
Short-answer questions I circle every wrong answer and often write the correct one in on top. If it's left blank I cross out the whole line. Efforts to change it later will leave eraser traces precisely where I'll look for them.
So I suppose I don't have to worry about it.
Changing answers is a little hard on typed essays. Taking a pen to the F or B- at the end and claiming "see, you gave me a B+!" is a little easier.
ReplyDeleteSo, we use really weird-ass colors of ink in our grading quills. Sammy Snowflake is quite welcome to try to copy the odd shading properties of Noodler's Cayenne or the unique ultramarine of Visconti Blue with their usual ballpoint pens. Not gonna happen.
Sometimes we even use stub or flex pens to frustrate them even more.
What?! Your colleague caught you copying a student's exam? That's cheating!
ReplyDeleteI lurve the photocopy trick...which over the years gave way to the scanning trick.
ReplyDeleteI've almost drowned in my own sense of smug a couple times when the students said their crap was marked wrong, and I need to look at it and correct my EGREGIOUS mistakes. Oh, they're all indignant, pointing out that my error that could have cost them a letter grade in the course. Oh yes, they are ever on guard against proffie incompetence. It's hard not to grin when I tell them no need to hand it over, I have a copy here already that we can discuss. How you like me now, mafuggah!!!
@ Cranky,
ReplyDeleteI know the feeling! Heh, heh...
I know a lot of people who came to College Misery because CM was getting buzz on facebook.
ReplyDeleteNot all readers/contributors here came from RYS.
Calico is pushing it.
@ Calico,
ReplyDeleteAdvice from a drunk uncle is not something I take seriously.
A kid down the hall from me in the dorm got caught changing his answers on a weekly chemistry quiz exactly this way. He'd gone to his professor several times complaining that his test was mis-marked. The prof got suspicious, photocopied the next test, and when the student brought in his altered test, well, that was tha, and he got an "F" in the course.
ReplyDeleteThis happened in 1965. Students today aren't a whole lot different than they were back in the so-called good ole days.
I let my students look at their exams in class, go over answers with them, but the exams are MINE to keep, not theirs. They are free to stop by the office and talk to me about them, use them to study, etc., but I learned after my first year of teaching that letting students keep exams is a dubious proposition at best.
ReplyDelete