Questions? Concerns? Can't hear me in the back? Don't wait until the end of term evaluations to tell me. I know I've been a bit low energy recently--this darn gastroenteritis. Ooh, that reminds me: it's time for my annual flu shot again. Are you going to get one? I don't know about you, friend, but I don't want to be laid up in bed during finals.
Why aren't you studying?
Midterm was alittle too long and there was more questions on the lecture notes than I was expecting. Thought the exam was going to be largley text book based.
Here are my thoughts on the first midterm:
Overall the test seemed a bit lengthy, but I thought we had enough time to finish it. Some of the questions/answers got a bit wordy and I wasn't even sure what it was asking by the end of the question. A few questions seemed like you could have interpreted them in two different ways, so it seemed as though two answers could have been possible. There were many more questions on little facts from the lecture notes than I had anticipated. When you were going through the lecture notes, I took the information more as interesting examples or facts instead of testable material.
On a side note, there were definitely a lot of questions that I thought were fair and tested our knowledge. For the next tests I would like to see more questions that test what we know instead/science facts instead of how to interpret the question and figure out what it is asking.
Why do we have to hand in paper copies of labs? We must print them out and then there's the big crowd trying to pick them up when they're marked. Online would be a lot easier. ^_^
I also found the midterm a little in wordy, with respect to understanding what the question was asking. All the questions were fair however and I understand the use of application questions. What I wasn't expecting was the use of the examples given in class to be tested on.. However, if you did know the example concepts then the answers should have been easier to get.
Perhaps the reason it seemed as if many of the MT questions were taken from the notes is that the notes strongly overlapped with the textbook. And he DID say that regions of overlap were likely to be fairly important for the midterm. I thought the distribution of questions were fair.
I find your TA's marking to be fair especially as she always makes corrections. It would be unreasonable to expect 3/3 for every mark, as it seemed like someone was suggesting. That being said, if you're not satisfied with her marking, I feel like it's your responsibility to make sure that we're being marked fairly every time, even if that means going through the labs every week. I'm happy with your compensatory solution, but I would like to receive the mark that you, as the course lecturer, believe I should have in the first place.
@Anonymouses: Thanks for your feedback.
I have the advantage of being able to look at historical averages on the labs. If anything, they should be going up year over year as I refine the questions and improve the marking guide. If they go down, although it may be due to a class with lesser ability, it could also be due to stricter marking.
Ultimately, you will end up with the mark I believe you should have. I think that mucking about with the lab marks a littler will actually help me to achieve that.