Pop Quizzes in Lost Angeles

Teaching the Kids to Listen Well

By Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.

Here’s a funny story:

A student asked to make up a quiz he missed due to his absence . He said he lost his keys. I referred him to the syllabus, which says no matter what the reason for the absence , quizzes aren’t makeupable. If Kobe misses a game for whatever reason , he doesn’t get any stats for the games he didn’t participate in at the scheduled time. They don’t do makeup pop-layups for Kobe. Anyway, he asks for me to make a special exception for him (no one ever had idea before—to be treated special!—Novel concept).

Anyway, I said, ok, I tell you what, you come into office hours , and I’ll even tell you in advance what the quiz question is, even though no one else got that advantage. I want to be fair and all.

He nodded his head eagerly in agreement that this was a fair arrangement. Ok, I whispered the quiz topic: it’s the policy on makeup quizzes in my syllabus. Know it verbatim, and come in to write the quiz. So he comes into office hours and he nails that quiz question verbatim. “No make-up quizzes…” He turns it over to me, I look it over, and say, according to you yourself , I shouldn’t grade this.

Awkward silence.

Then he smiles.

I smile.

He starts laughing.

He’s all, “What???” laughing. Why’d you call me into office hours?

I said, well, you wouldn’t listen to me, I thought maybe I’d have better luck if you listened to you.

My next story will be about a student who grades his own exam in front of me, ignoring all the wrong answers, and then writes his own letter of recommendation in lieu of one from me. He didn’t get in.

from Facebook, March 20, 2013 at 5:16 pm

Copyright 2013 Lucas J. Mather
All Rights Reserved