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I hate grading exams; let me count the ways.
1. It's a perfectionist's nightmare: is this worth 3 points or 4? 3-1/2?
2. I spend more time on the problems students get wrong (because I give partial credit, I have to figure out what they're doing wrong). So I start to feel bad about how little they seem to understand. I should have emphasized this in class, I didn't spend enough time on that, etc.
3. Since I've written the test, I worry about the adequacy of it: was it too easy, was it too hard? Was it fair?
4. I also worry whether I am playing favorites while grading; am I giving certain people the benefit of the doubt on this problem because they've done so poorly on other parts of the exam, and I hate to fail people and I want my students to be happy with me? If so, aren't I cheapening the final grade, unleashing people onto the world who supposedly know physics but really don't have a clue?
Lots of yummy self-doubt and conflicting desires. It's not only hard to start grading, it hurts to keep grading; I am constantly looking for reasons to run away. Coming up on a problem which a lot of students got wrong is always a popular trigger for me to start watching TV, or get a snack, or just lie on the bed and smother my face in the pillows. argh.
Anyway, I just finished grading Exam #2. Three more to go in the next two weeks. Huzzah. I am so tempted to make them as easy as possible; it's so much easier to grade exams when people get everything right. :) But no, I should be a good teacher. Well, maybe I'll make them a little easier.
Now, onto the homework grading. :P
1. It's a perfectionist's nightmare: is this worth 3 points or 4? 3-1/2?
2. I spend more time on the problems students get wrong (because I give partial credit, I have to figure out what they're doing wrong). So I start to feel bad about how little they seem to understand. I should have emphasized this in class, I didn't spend enough time on that, etc.
3. Since I've written the test, I worry about the adequacy of it: was it too easy, was it too hard? Was it fair?
4. I also worry whether I am playing favorites while grading; am I giving certain people the benefit of the doubt on this problem because they've done so poorly on other parts of the exam, and I hate to fail people and I want my students to be happy with me? If so, aren't I cheapening the final grade, unleashing people onto the world who supposedly know physics but really don't have a clue?
Lots of yummy self-doubt and conflicting desires. It's not only hard to start grading, it hurts to keep grading; I am constantly looking for reasons to run away. Coming up on a problem which a lot of students got wrong is always a popular trigger for me to start watching TV, or get a snack, or just lie on the bed and smother my face in the pillows. argh.
Anyway, I just finished grading Exam #2. Three more to go in the next two weeks. Huzzah. I am so tempted to make them as easy as possible; it's so much easier to grade exams when people get everything right. :) But no, I should be a good teacher. Well, maybe I'll make them a little easier.
Now, onto the homework grading. :P
