Grading

So after the first completed round of grading, the results are rather mixed. That may be a good sign because it means a better spread distribution from the midterm grades. But there are some unusual quirks. My Wednesday night class had a fairly predictable outcome. Heavy on the B range, and no failures with the exception of one student but that's a different case.

However, my Tuesday/Thursday class was ... "unusual." The exceptional students did rather well, but some faltered on their performance and even went as low as receiving a C+ on the exam. Then there are students who had a C/C+ going into the exam, and received a B+/A- for their final. The section was top heavy in the A/B range with a 3 or 4 failures. Also, the Tuesday/Thursday section had their exams the day after my Wednesday night class sooooooo ... I can reasonably assume these positions: 1) some students talked and exchanged notes, and thus, performed well, 2) some students for whatever reason had their priorities elsewhere and thus, did poorly, or 3) I really did make my exam too difficult(?). Now, the latter point was an attempt to distinguish the "A" students from everyone else, so I did throw some curve balls. I don't deny that strategy may have influenced the outcomes. But, as intended, the "A" students did pick it up so in essence I did my job. As for the rest, there was a general decline in performance accordingly. I can't say I'm totally shocked and surprised at these results, but it is a rather interesting comparison with my Wednesday night section.

I still have one, perhaps 2, more rounds for reviewing my initial results and finalizing it for submission. It's all on the essay portion of the exam and the hard part is grading the average responses -- the ones who tried, got some good ideas, but for whatever reason, is just okay. The easy ones are the really intelligent, and the really horrendous -- and there were quite a few that I thought came from beyond left field. Anyways, I need to get this done and out of the way so that I can get back to my research and meet my deadlines.