A student forgot to answer an exam question

Question

A student in an undergrad class seems to have forgotten to answer the last few questions on a written essay.

This student has achieved an average of A+ so far (over the term)

The last few questions are not worth much, but is the difference between receiving an A and an A+

This student has also submitted a draft of this essay earlier in the term to get feedback (all students are allowed to do this once).

Should I give 0 because this student did not answer it, or part marks because this student knows how to answer it (as evidenced by the draft) but simply forgot?

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. — StrongBad, Dec 15 '17 at 13:27
What does it mean to have submitted a draft version of an exam question? — Daniel R. Collins, Dec 15 '17 at 14:25
Is casually asking the student a possibility? That should inform your decision - i.e., you'd get closure but from a pure "test" perspective, forgot is the same as doesn't exist. However, if the student did submit but you don't have it, then it's a different problem. But you'd also have to ask the other students who "perhaps forgot" to be fair. — PhD, Dec 15 '17 at 23:29
Well what's the existing practice in your dept when the final version accidentally omits stuff from the draft (or is worse)? How have any previous such cases been handled? Does the draft have any official significance, other than for students to get feedback? — smci, Dec 19 '17 at 01:42
Why not curve it (if at all possible)? If the student in question is the one who would have received an A+, supposedly they'd be leading the class in score. Everyone would benefit from a curve without robbing those students who spent the time on the essay. This breaks down however if you have an equally outstanding student. — Robert Wolfe, Oct 24 '18 at 13:49

score 255 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 12 '17 at 03:14

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You should give zero for the answers in question. You are grading what the student handed in, not what s/he potentially could have handed in. The logistics are just as much part of fulfilling an assignment as the knowledge. It would be unfair to the other students to be more lenient on this particular student than others.

If you wish, you may give the student another chance to answer these questions, but then you should do the same for all students.

(I once failed to notice in an exam that the question sheet was printed front and back, and only answered the questions on the front. I duly accepted my C+, along with the two others who had made the same mistake...)

answered Dec 12 '17 at 03:14

nengel

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If three people made that same mistake, then that sounds like a flaw with the test. There's a reason why tests or professors will sometimes make note of the test being two-sided. Even though it was ultimately your responsibility to check, that doesn't mean that improvements can't be made or that leniency shouldn't be granted. – Pikamander2 Dec 12 '17 at 10:14
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If you "forgot" about the back side of a contract, you're gonna have a really hard time explaining that to a judge when you get sued for a breach of contract. Getting reduced grade is a good way to learn this lesson. – Nelson Dec 12 '17 at 10:27
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Hmm. Just because you suffered through it doesn’t mean others have to. At least the handed-in draft should count for something: there’s really no good argument to discount it, other than senseless adherence to rules (which, for me, is indistinguishable from malice). – Konrad Rudolph Dec 12 '17 at 10:33
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@Nelson That's why in contracts the pages are usually numbered (at least the contracts I had the pleasure of reading). This is a feature which should not be missing on any exam either. – M.Herzkamp Dec 12 '17 at 11:18
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@Nelson Most contracts are initialized on each page and signed on the last page. If someone comes with a contract with a signature on the front page and no signature on the back page I would not be confident that a judge would rule that the provisions on the back side was valid. – Taemyr Dec 12 '17 at 15:24
Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. – aeismail Dec 15 '17 at 19:37
Keep in mind this should be considered a limitation of exams written on paper. If I were to write an electronic exam but didn't automatically warn the student of missed questions, that would be a UX bug in the exam software. The only reason the student should be graded zero is due to there being no easy way to audit whether the student answered every question. – aaaaaa Dec 17 '17 at 19:26
@Taemyr That's the reason why you are required to sign each page sometimes. You also have to sign how many pages are there in, so it is not possible to substitute one page for another. And when I was at school (univercities don't use a lot of long written tests in my area), each time a test was printed on both pages, we were always notified. – R.I.P.30.12.21Baskakov_Dmitriy Dec 18 '17 at 04:20

score 76 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 12 '17 at 04:24

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You have to be uniform in grading. If you are going to make an exception for one student, then you need to make that same exception for every other student in the class who would be affected.

If a "star student" screws up, you can't give her special treatment that you wouldn't extend to a D- student who made the same mistake.

(Personally, I would not give credit unless there was clear evidence something went wrong—for instance, did a page get lost somehow? Instructors are not infallible, and sometimes things can get messy if there are a lot of papers to grade.)

answered Dec 12 '17 at 04:24

aeismail

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But if only one student forgot the last page, is it unfair to the others to let them finish it? – WGroleau Dec 12 '17 at 15:38
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Yes, it is unfair. I didn’t say forget to finish, but if there’s an error on the instructors’ part—did a page get separated?—then an exception is reasonable, since the fault isn’t the student’s. – aeismail Dec 12 '17 at 18:17
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@aeismail: What if the instructor would be willing to do this for a D-student too? Is it still unfair to you? – user541686 Dec 12 '17 at 23:43
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@mehrdad: then what's the point of having a test given at a specific time on a specific day? – NotMe Dec 13 '17 at 01:22
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@Mehrdad: If it's the student's fault, it's unfair unless the instructor actually goes through all the exams, and gives the same opportunity to everyone affected. If it's the instructor's fault, that's a different matter. – aeismail Dec 13 '17 at 01:30

Kvothe · Answer 3 · 2017-12-12T13:30:51.927

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Since most answer seem to have the opposite opinion I think that at least the other side needs to be voiced. The goal of grading is to accurately track how well a student understands and can apply the material taught in class. Written tests and exam papers are just a convenient way to measure this, they are a proxy for it. One answer even suggested that the exam was meant to test the "testing" skill. It is not. It is just an inconvenient side effect that it does. If you are convinced a student understands the material and is able to apply it then you should grade him as such.

As noted there can be downsides to this. There is the issue of perceived unfairness and other students might start to make (false) claims that they too just forgot some question etc.

Furthermore, it is true that there is some real unfairness in the fact that quite likely sometimes you will know the student well enough to know to award him the points and other times you won't. But then again there is something unfair about not awarding him the points when clearly he knew the answer. I think correcting injustice where you see it is more fair than ignoring it just so that you are treating all injustice the same way.

What is also important is that you don't run into trouble for your method of grading. So don't stray to far from acceptable local grading methods. Since cultures differ widely in what is acceptable and isn't acceptable I would also advice ask a colleague at your own university as his answer is more valuable to your specific case than a general stackexchange answer will be.

For the future. If you feel like you can get a more accurate measure of a student in the interactions you have with him throughout the course than from a written form of exam it might be a good idea to explicitly make clear from the beginning that interactions throughout the course make up a small part of the grading (this encourages questions and active participation).

edited Dec 12 '17 at 13:30

answered Dec 12 '17 at 13:18

Kvothe

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The question specifically mentions an essay. In an essay you should not only be judged on what you know, but on how well you can present that knowledge. – pipe Dec 12 '17 at 13:40
@pipe. Fair point. Given the phrasing of the question (i.e. Clear set of questions with apparently a clear answer that the OP knew the student would be able to produce), I made the (perhaps erroneous) assumption that it was an essay assignment that was quite close to an exam with an emphasis on answering the questions correctly. However, I think my point still holds if you take into account that part of the points were for presenting that knowledge. You should still award the part of the points that are for giving the correct answer. – Kvothe Dec 12 '17 at 13:51
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Indeed you might still deduct some point for not presenting these answers eloquently (since there was no presentation at all). – Kvothe Dec 12 '17 at 13:51
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Exams are for presenting knowledge in the appropriate format. One student showing they know something in an exam setting is very different than showing it in an uncontrolled setting. Exams test your ability to apply knowledge under specific constraints; one of which is generally time. It's not just about proving that you've applied the knowledge before. The controlled setting is important. Some people get really stressed during exams. It's not fair to them to give other people points because they can demonstrate knowledge outside of exam format. That's not what is being tested. – JMac Dec 12 '17 at 19:26
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Regardless of what you think is right, the current system in the UK and the US means you must stick to the system of marking you set out beforehand, because otherwise someone will complain (yes, even if that means injustice all round, rather than correcting it for only some). – Jessica B Dec 12 '17 at 21:28
Taking your reasoning a little further, why not eschew the exam completely and just estimate what you think each student should be capable of anyway? But the problem may be that the candidate actually ran out of time, so needs to pace himself better. A lesson to be learned, if that's the case. – Tim Dec 14 '17 at 13:05
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@Tim. If the issue was running out of time you are correct, but the OP's post does not at all suggest this. Why do the testing at all? Because besides the downsides and my slight criticism it is often the best way to get an honest estimate of someone's capabilities. But when it isn't a professor should feel free (not necessarily obligated) to correct his or her estimates by other means (but then he/she might need to be able to justify this decision to administration/some form of oversight). It seems you are taking my reasoning "further" in a direction it was never even headed. – Kvothe Dec 14 '17 at 16:50
@Tim. Note for instance the IF: "If you feel like you can get a more accurate measure of a student in the interactions you have with him throughout the course than from a written form of exam (..)" Personally, I say this is quite rare. But then a professor who takes enough time to realize without the issue being raised by the student that the student knows more than he had the chance to show, might be just the professor to whom this applies. – Kvothe Dec 14 '17 at 16:53
I passionately share your opinion. The other opinions focusing on procedure instead of the subject matter remind me of some judges in the U.S. who -- in the face of exonerating evidence -- rather uphold a final conviction (and execute a person) than deal actual justice if all legal means have been exhausted, for example because an incompetent lawyer screwed up. But the law system is a procedure, a means, to determine justice, and tests are procedures to determine a student's skill level. Obvious evidence should always supersede a procedural failure. – Peter - Reinstate Monica Dec 14 '17 at 21:30
Each form of exam has up- and downsides; if this form of exam is inappropriate to the actual goal, teachers made a mistake; oral exams exist for this, and have tons of other problems. If teachers did not explain clearly how exams were graded, teachers made a mistake. But if the OP is a TA, this question does not suggest teachers made those mistakes—only that they didn’t explain the rationale of the marking scheme to the OP. Which probably is teachers’ fault. – Blaisorblade Dec 15 '17 at 00:27
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The thing is, if we award points based on "the teacher knows the student knew the answer", why have tests in the first place? Just have teachers give evaluations of what they think the student knows. Twofold answer: First, teachers aren't mind-readers; tests are a way for the teacher to figure out what a student knows. But we could still say that this is the general case, and in specific cases where the teacher DOES know what the student knows (like here, supposedly, thanks to the draft essay) it is OK to use that. Which gets to the second point: teacher bias. (...) – Oosaka Dec 15 '17 at 12:19
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(...) There are a million ways a teacher can favor students they find congenial over those they don't, and human nature makes the impulse to do so inevitable, if only subconsciously. And "subconsciously" is more than enough to have real effects. One way to reduce this is external fairness-imposing rules. Even with such rules (such as ostensibly fair testing practices) it's very easy for a teacher to show favoritism if they're so inclined; without them it all goes out the window. "I'll give points to this student I wouldn't otherwise because I know they know" has huge potential for bias. – Oosaka Dec 15 '17 at 12:30
@MilesRout Dunno what you mean by "genial". I said "congenial", i.e. students the teacher likes for whatever reason. You might mean "smart", or "nice" (what 'genial' means in English), but either way this isn't about bias in favour of smart/nice students vs students good at taking exams, it's bias in favour of students good at sucking up to the teacher vs students good at taking exams. With the added wrinkle that humans like people who are like them in many ways, so this is a bias against smart and nice students who are socially awkward or from a different background than the teachers. – Oosaka Dec 18 '17 at 11:37
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@MilesRout Note that it's easier for a smart student to get better at test-taking than to change their personality. Let alone their accent, skin color, childhood social background and other less-acceptable factors that still can affect, subconsciously or even consciously, what a teacher thinks of a student. Biasing the system towards being good at test-taking IS a problem, but replacing it with teacher intuition isn't the solution. And honestly, we aren't talking about the most advanced, byzantine test-taking skills here. "Answering the question" is fairly basic. – Oosaka Dec 18 '17 at 12:00
It feels worth mentioning that if a student doesn't complete some questions then that would leave them more time on the questions they did answer which is another point of unfairness. So not only are they potentially getting credit for the question they didn't answer but also they are likely getting more credit for those they did answer and thus had more time for. This wouldn't add up to much if they missed one of ten questions but if you miss half the questions then you'll be spending twice as much time on the other questions as other students. – Chris Dec 18 '17 at 14:53

score 20 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 12 '17 at 05:12

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To start with, giving them partial credit for a blank question would be unfair to all other students. Additionally, test-taking or essay-writing are also skills to be gained during education, not only knowledge. Would you give partial credit to a student who runs out of time in an exam, or tell them that "next time, you should bring a watch and keep some control of the time, and think you you spend the time in the exam"? Reading carefully the questions and making sure everything is answered is part of the assignment itself, like in real life they will have to learn all their customer's needs and meet all of them, whatever it is they work on. Finally, this is an undergrad, and the discussion is between an A and an A+. Like, what are the stakes? If this was a matter of "this student will be invited to leave the program if not for this partial credit" or "fired from their job", you may want to be lenient and take their whole performance into consideration and not a single essay, or if it was a matter of health issues and they had written it while being sick, but, really, what is the life impact of an A instead of an A+ in an undergraduate program? Seriously. The impact on this student's life is minimal and you are risking being accused of having favorites (which is not necessarily true) and of unfair grading policies (which would be true, or at least the grading policy would be different for one student compared to others).

answered Dec 12 '17 at 05:12

Anna SdTC

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"To start with, giving them partial credit for a blank question would be unfair to all other students." How? – Acccumulation Dec 12 '17 at 16:07
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Because any other student with a blank question or a blank exam would not get any point for it. All students need to be graded under the same rubric. – Anna SdTC Dec 12 '17 at 17:53
"Because any other student with a blank question or a blank exam would not get any point for it. " I see little basis for that supposition. – Acccumulation Dec 12 '17 at 18:18
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Well, the OP is talking about giving credit to one student who left part of an essay blank, not about giving credit to the whole class for parts of the essay that each person left blank. If there was any hint that the OP would apply the same policy to all the class, it would be fair. Grading a single student under a different rubric is definitely not. – Anna SdTC Dec 12 '17 at 18:46
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I don't see any reason to suspect that other students in the same situation would be treated differently. – Acccumulation Dec 12 '17 at 19:01
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@Acccumulation Then you should reread the question. They explicitly ask "Should I give 0 because this student did not answer it, or part marks because this student knows how to answer it (as evidenced by the draft) but simply forgot?" They are clearly leaning towards giving points due to the draft, and they are clearly talking about a specific student. – JMac Dec 12 '17 at 19:22
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@JMac "Then you should reread the question." Just because someone reaches different conclusions doesn't mean they lack in reading comprehension. "They are clearly leaning towards giving points due to the draft" That does nothing to contradict my position. "they are clearly talking about a specific student." There is a specific student who is in this situation, but no indication that a different student in the same situation would be treated differently. – Acccumulation Dec 12 '17 at 19:52

score 14 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 12 '17 at 10:52

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Give the student partial credit for these questions based on the draft. This ensures the assessment is based on the student's knowledge, rather than the mechanical aspect of copying information from the draft to the exam paper. The "penalty" is that they may lose points if their draft answer is of lower quality, as they won't have had a chance to incorporate any of the feedback and revise it.

For fairness, do the same for any other students who have omitted questions on the exam but answered them in their drafts.

answered Dec 12 '17 at 10:52

Alex

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I don't see the question stating there were any drafts. We would never have had enough time to first write a draft and then copy it in an exam. – skymningen Dec 12 '17 at 11:04
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@skymningen Yes, there was a draft. This student has also submitted a draft of this essay earlier in the term – Nobody Dec 12 '17 at 11:08
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If the exam was timed, that means they get an unfair advantage, because students who did answer the last questions had less time to spend on the earlier questions.
If the student had forgotten to hand in some coursework that wasn't done with a time limit, then allowing earlier drafts that were handed in to count would be reasonable, but work that wasn't done under exam conditions shouldn't count towards an exam mark.
– armb Dec 12 '17 at 11:56

score 11 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 12 '17 at 06:27

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You need to stick to the marking scheme.

That said, if many missed the last question or it was poorly answered by most then you may consider completely removing that question - this means that all students are still graded on the same basis.

You cannot arbitrarily change the scheme for one student only.

answered Dec 12 '17 at 06:27

Solar Mike

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Removing a question is still unfair on those who spent their time on it, and scored higher than others. Any moderation of the marks must preserve the order according to the marks on the exam they sat. – Jessica B Dec 12 '17 at 06:46
@JessicaB It is possible to give the full points for that question to all candidates which preserves the order.... And is fair to all... – Solar Mike Dec 12 '17 at 07:09
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@SolarMike that doesn't preserve the order at all, somebody who didn't answer it gains far more additional marks than those who did. It's just as unfair on those who spent time producing a good answer for that question as giving everybody zero marks for it. – Chris H Dec 12 '17 at 07:29
@ChrisH are you now moving towards exams are not a fair method of assessment ? What would you suggest? – Solar Mike Dec 12 '17 at 07:38
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@SolarMike What? No. Jessica said that giving everybody zero on a particular question would be unfair to those students who did well on that question and would change the ordering of students. Your response was to suggest giving everybody full marks for that question instead, and suggest that this would preserve the order of marks. I'm saying that Jessica's point is equally valid in either case. If everybody gets the same marks for that question it makes no difference whether that is zero, full marks, or anywhere in between. – Chris H Dec 12 '17 at 07:48
The emphasis on fairness in many answers presumes that the exam is a competition. Shouldn’t it rather be a way of evaluating each student’s grasp of the subject? Sounds like the competition for rep in SE. – WGroleau Dec 12 '17 at 15:43
Maybe they should consider offering a make-up opportunity for all the students then, unless they want the grade to include ability to notice everything on a test, and being able to do a lot of things within short time periods. – Dronz Dec 12 '17 at 18:08
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If fairness is not the point, why do all students have to complete the same exam in the same amount of time with the same limitations on outside resources? Why are disadvantaged students provided with additional aid in completing exams? @WGroleau – Nij Dec 13 '17 at 04:31
@Nij: for your first, because not giving the same conditions would make it an inaccurate assessment. For the second, in USA, because the law says everyone must have the same opportunity to do something, even if they aren’t capable. In other words, the law says fairness IS the point—“judging” is evil. Oh, wait, isn’t a grade “judging”? – WGroleau Dec 14 '17 at 15:33
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Your sarcasm aside, the law makes clear that judging is fine - it is a problem only when the judgement is based on irrelevant factors instead of those the assessment should. – Nij Dec 14 '17 at 20:38

score 4 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 13 '17 at 02:05

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It's context dependent. You should abide by whatever grading policy you have in place. In the future, you can have grading be minimum guarantees. So the student will receive a grade no lower than the numerical score, but the teacher reserves the right to move the grade up by a third of a letter if his/her professional judgement warrants such.

If he/she is a star student, you can explain to him/her that you would be happy to write a letter of recommendation for him/her in the future. That will be worth far more than A vs. A+ over the long run.

answered Dec 13 '17 at 02:05

codebeginner

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I think this may be the best way to handle this particular situation. Fudging the exam score for one particular student is patently unfair to the rest of the class, for reasons stated in other answers. But there are times when a professor can justify giving a higher grade than what a spreadsheet might say to give (such marked improvement over the course of the semester; or one solitary bad score that mars an otherwise exemplary performance). This should be done prudently and sparingly, of course, but there are legitimate reasons for the occasional exception. – J.R. Dec 14 '17 at 20:59
It's likely the grading scheme does not address every possible eventuality, e.g. what if an accidental water stain covers some of the text of the answer - and also - what if someone flipped two pages by mistake. – einpoklum Dec 15 '17 at 14:36

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Dec 12 '17 at 21:32

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Here's a pragmatic answer: you should give 0 because otherwise students (this student or others) might get the idea that they can get extra marks this way, and either attempt to do so or else complain at the idea of others doing so.

answered Dec 12 '17 at 21:32

Jessica B

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score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Dec 13 '17 at 16:14

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To be fair to all other students, you should grade whatever the student handed in. If the student forgot to answer the last few questions, then marks should not be awarded for these particular questions.

answered Dec 13 '17 at 16:14

user2347540

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score 2 · Answer 10 · answered Dec 15 '17 at 09:18

From a 20 year old student point of view

In Italy, where I live, each question on an test weights around 10 points. If a student forgets to answer a question they usually can ask for a retry in an oral test (or sometimes written).

This test allows the student to get at least a few of the points they would normally get for a forgotten question (normally up to 5 points). But it also allows the teacher to ask extra questions about the same subject as the original forgotten question.

Asking extra or harder questions (together with the penalty in not giving all point he would normally get) in this case is usually done to prevent a student to cheat using this mechanism by making sure he can't just look at the test and leave the questions he doesn't know the answer to blank, then study those questions and get the full points later.

Seeing you said that the student has indeed shown that he knows the answer to the question you might be able to give him a few points using this method in a fair way, without giving him a huge advantage over other students

score 1 · Answer 11 · edited Jun 10 '20 at 14:12

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Another option is:

You can exclude that part of the exam from the entire course grade.

For example, if the exam was 30% of the course grade, and he forgot 50% of the exam, then you can remove that 15% of the course grade and just scale the rest accordingly.

Ultimately this is a subjective question and there are multiple answers that would be valid, but as long as you would be willing to do this for any student who seemed to make this genuine mistake regardless of his/her grade in the course, I think this option would also make sense: after all, you could easily make the argument that you're trying to gauge their understanding of the course material, not their ability to make logistical errors.

Furthermore, don't forget you still have the discretion to award an A+ for the course if you still think the student had A+-quality work throughout the semester. You don't need to change the exam grade for that.

Lastly, note that I assuming this is about higher education. If you're talking about high school or earlier, I would be more lenient, treating them more like kids than adults for these mistakes.

edited Jun 10 '20 at 14:12

Community

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answered Dec 12 '17 at 23:47

user541686

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The statement that a grade can be awarded simply because the course organiser wants to, is false in many universities. Second, disincluding an entire assessment is unfair to all students and does nothing better than ignoring just the missed question, or is just plain not possible, if the institution policies (or the laws governing them) do not allow it. -1 for local statements made as if they're universal, with no evidence that they're true for the asker. – Nij Dec 13 '17 at 04:27
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@Nij: Do you have a single counterexample you can share or are you just downvoting due to a hypotheticals? In every college I'm aware of, including but not limited to my own, instructors were well within their rights to award whatever grades they felt reflected student performance, irrespective of their grades on intermediate assignments. Would love to hear your counterexamples. – user541686 Dec 13 '17 at 04:45
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You give zero evidence except "this is how it works in all the ones I know". Then you complain that the criticism states the same thing. Either it's good enough or it isn't. Give the evidence to support your positive claim first. – Nij Dec 15 '17 at 04:42

score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Dec 13 '17 at 08:54

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Grade it as it is turned in - if questions are not answered they are incorrect, if they are answered wrong they are incorrect. This guarantees a couple of things -

1: Most Importantly Fairness : your own bias for a particular student who "knows the answers" gets in the way.

2: Like giving a bonus to an employee who 'knows how to sell' but did not sell ie meet the quota. Life lesson achievers receive, do'ers receive. They will always put forth whatever effort they need to succeed.

You are not being mean, hateful or otherwise regardless of the empathy you might feel for this student.

I think that it might be another thing if that student had two of their family members killed or die the day or two before the exam .. but that is what I would call a human thing - you can understand with good reason the student would be under duress. In that case I might be compassionate - but I would make a note to self that is my rule for any and all students..

answered Dec 13 '17 at 08:54

Ken

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As for that part about bias, that's exactly why I ask all my students to write their name on the cover sheet of the exam, and on the cover sheet ONLY. This lets me grade the all exams without knowing whose test is being graded, thereby eliminating that bias. – J.R. Dec 14 '17 at 20:48
@J.R. and that is good as long as you don't recognize handwriting - my memory can sometimes be a bit photographic .. but you are correct in grading as you do - to know ourselves (or say also our human nature) is a good part of how to understand fairness to others. – Ken Dec 15 '17 at 10:14
It’s not foolproof, that’s for sure. There are almost inevitably a few students with very distinctive handwriting (be it excessively neat, or atrociously small and hard-to-read), or that one student with the bold blue gel pen. But the majority of the class is still being graded in near anonymity. – J.R. Dec 15 '17 at 11:07

score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Dec 15 '17 at 01:55

You might have the option to give an incomplete for the class, since, to your judgement, it was an incomplete assignment.

This is a generous approach.

Then the student can complete the exam, or a replacement exam, and potentially receive their A+. You could let the student know that they wouldn't receive less than an A in either case.

score 1 · Answer 14 · answered Dec 17 '17 at 11:12

Well, if you were a high school teacher, I'd say to consider the student's work as a whole when marking their work, using the work that they'd submitted over the course of the term, including their drafts.

However, university is generally supposed to be more rigorous than high school, right? So, I probably wouldn't consider the draft when marking the paper unless my department had a policy dictating otherwise.

If you're a relatively new member of your faculty, I'd say to ask one of the more experienced members of your faculty about what your department's policies on this sort of thing are.

score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Dec 15 '17 at 13:22

For now, you're stuck with the grading policy. If it's black and white, stick to it. This is a learning opportunity for the student.

It's also a learning opportunity for you.

When I was in college, all important exams clearly stated the amount of pages the exam had and the amount of questions it contained. FIRST order of business was checking those numbers when you started the exam.

We all learned something very important there: make sure you know what needs to be done. Were your questions numbered? Was there a front sheet telling your students the amount of pages and questions? If not, consider adding those in the future to avoid exactly this problem.

score -1 · Answer 16 · answered Dec 12 '17 at 16:47

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This situation points to an anomaly in the examination based evaluation system: "You are what you are at the time of examination!" But this can be eased out as follows. If the system permits, one more examination (another written essay in this case) can be conducted to take best of two performances. But even that is not anomaly-free. A student who gets a higher grade with the first exam may lose out on a relative grading scale if others perform relatively better in the second. When the second examination is not announced a priori, it can be a cause of concern for such a student. So the best of two can then be applied on grades and not on marks. With the first exam, if a student gets a B, and considering the second one a 'C', then the final grade is B, and so on.

answered Dec 12 '17 at 16:47

dry leaf

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So you suggest to suddenly announce a second examination? How would that be fair to the students who cannot plan accordingly? Also, it might be that the exam in question already comes with a reiteration or is the reiteration itself – at least it would at most be a subtle change to the question. Having two exams may slightly alleviate the situation for the student but it doesn’t fix it. – Wrzlprmft Dec 12 '17 at 17:07
As mentioned in the solution, best of two needs to be applied on grades, not on marks. – dry leaf Dec 12 '17 at 17:57
Personally I believe marks should always be adjusted (or, consideration should be given to doing so) before combining different scores, to avoid results being skewed by different difficulties of different parts of the assessment. – Jessica B Dec 12 '17 at 21:34
Surely the simplest approach, if you want to go this way, is to just do best of two on the draft and the final essay? If the draft is better, assign a grade to the draft and that's the final grade. Unless I'm misunderstanding the situation, I'm honestly unsure what purpose an "exam" that contains a pre-written essay serves anyway or why it is a useful activity to have students come in and transfer an essay they've already written to an exam paper. – Zach Lipton Dec 12 '17 at 21:51
best of two needs to be applied on grades, not on marks – and that would solve the problem how? – Wrzlprmft Dec 12 '17 at 23:14
@Wrzlprmft, I am aware of your concern about "planning". But that is something that the instructor can evaluate in the instructor's context. There are several dependencies. – dry leaf Dec 13 '17 at 12:21

score -1 · Answer 17 · answered Dec 12 '17 at 17:48

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I believe the second is more fair: part marks because this student knows how to answer it (as evidenced by the draft) but simply forgot? Because the essence is that he shows he has the knowledge. Let's say another student did manage to answer but his answer was poor enough comparing to the first who didn't. What's the point of the exams? To demonstrate that you learnt the lessons & can 'teach' it to others.

answered Dec 12 '17 at 17:48

user84396

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Exams prove that you can apply the knowledge in a controlled setting. By doing a draft at home, you haven't really proven anything about your ability to function on an exam. It's not fair to give points to the person who left an exam empty while another person wrote in a poor quality answer due to the stress of the setting. In that case, they should have left it blank too and relied on the draft. That's not fair to everyone actually writing during the exam. – JMac Dec 12 '17 at 19:29
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Also, this student used their time to improve their marks on other parts of the paper. Giving them marks for prior work is basically giving them a lot of extra time that others didn't get. – Jessica B Dec 12 '17 at 21:30
@JMac: I teach people "Calculus" or "Programming in C", not "calculus under pressure" or "programming within 3 hours only". Like other answers have suggested, the settings of an exam should not be considered more than an unfortunate artifice. – einpoklum Dec 15 '17 at 14:41
Incomplete answer. Please elaborate. – Joshua Dec 16 '17 at 02:35
@einpoklum It's only fair that if everyone else is marked based on the "unfortunate" process; everyone should be. It's not exactly fair to grade 99% of your students for "Programming with 3 hours only" then grade on something else for one student. – JMac Dec 18 '17 at 13:44
@JMac: If two people have about the same command of calculus, but one performs worse under pressure, I don't see how it's fair for one of them to end up with a much lower grade than the other. The fact that special-casing a single student is (usually) unfair does not mean that any choice of uniform grading scheme is fair. – einpoklum Dec 18 '17 at 13:52
@einpoklum For starters, some people may have to work under pressure. If the person designing the course doesn't care about testing under uncontrolled conditions, then the grading scheme can reflect that. Generally, this is not how students are graded (as was the case here). If the standard grading scheme involves controlled testing, all grades should reflect that, regardless of what is demonstrated in uncontrolled assignments. – JMac Dec 18 '17 at 14:54
@JMac: People may or may not need to work under pressure later in life, but that's not what I want to grade my students on. And, again, non-uniformity is just one potential source of unfairness. – einpoklum Dec 18 '17 at 21:03
@einpoklum That's fine, no one is telling you how to grade students. If your marking scheme already includes an exam though; it's absolutely not fair to base one students marks on the exam based off something external. It's great if you want your students to demonstrate knowledge other ways; but you should be trying to minimize unfairness whenever possible. If you don't think exams are fair in general; the only fair alternative is to not use them. It's not fair to operate under the system "Give the students the exam; but if you feel they know it, ignore the exam content". – JMac Dec 18 '17 at 21:20

score -1 · Answer 18 · answered Dec 15 '17 at 18:30

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In real life, say the student becomes a secret agent, and they "forgot" to defuse the bomb before it detonated, killing 20,000 civilians. Do you just let them off because their previous job performance was decent enough? No.

"But that's unfair!" you may say. No, it's not. What would be unfair would be giving this student marks for doing nothing: unfair to the other students who did in fact have the wherewithall to turn up to an examination then answer the questions you asked.

Backing out of the fantasy for a moment, consider some practical issues with your specific situation. Perhaps the student ran out of time (for which you don't give free marks, do you?) or perhaps, when preparing a draft essay for you out of examination conditions, they'd cheated.

If this student complains, tell them they are not in kindergarten any more, and they should pay more attention to what they are doing. It is a valuable life lesson.

answered Dec 15 '17 at 18:30

Lightness Races in Orbit

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This is exactly what they call "False Analogy". I mean, secret agent?? seriously? LOL – polfosol Dec 16 '17 at 11:16
@polfosol: The situation is the same if you make the answer boring and have it talk about a devop or a bank teller instead. No matter what you do in life, you don't get points for "forgetting" to do your job, so why should you be rewarded in an exam? – Lightness Races in Orbit Dec 17 '17 at 14:48
@polfosol: You're free to write your own more boring answer though :) – Lightness Races in Orbit Dec 17 '17 at 14:50
@polfosol: Plus I dare say the OP didn't specify that the exam wasn't an exam on being a secret agent – Lightness Races in Orbit Dec 17 '17 at 14:50
Although my point still stands, but your last comment definitely deserves a +1 ;) – polfosol Dec 17 '17 at 16:46

A student forgot to answer an exam question

18 Answers18

You can exclude that part of the exam from the entire course grade.

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