I don't have the answers!

[AdminAssistant]

I work for a department in the College of Business. I am not a business student. The closest I come is a theatre management class. I was specifically hired BECAUSE I'm not a business student.

One of our professors had to go out of town for some conference or something. I had to proctor his test today. No big deal, hand out the tests, play on the computer, wait for everyone to get done, go home. Yay.

Student #1 comes up to ask me a question, he doesn't know one of the terms on the test (he's an international student - a lot of the business students are from overseas, no biggie). I explain what it means, life moves on.

Student #2, who reeks of EW-ness and perfume comes up. She asks me about a short answer question. Points to two terms I have never seen or heard of in my life. I say, "Sorry, I'm not a business student. I don't know anything about this." She makes the cat-butt face, stands there for a second, I stare back, she goes back to her desk in a huff.

Later on, she finishes the test, practically throws it on the pile with this weird bitchy look on her face. WTF, man? I can't magically pull answers or explanations out of my butt...and it IS a test, you're not supposed to get help anyway.

[bigjimaz]

I feel for you. When I went to school, a test was supposed to show what you know and you weren't allowed to ask questions while taking the test. We weren't allowed to use a hand-held calculator in class either, mostly because they hadn't been invented yet.

[Tee]

Asking what a term meant? Wasn't that the point of the test?

[platypus]

Funny .. just gave a quiz in class today and had no less then six students come up to me with questions that, if I had answered, would have basically done the work for them. Of course I got the cat butt face and complaints that the questions is the problem. Oh how I would love to tell some of my students to drop out and come back when they're ready, if at all. Or maybe its because critical thought is a dead language ... but that's a whole different can of worms

[Slow-Jo]

that really rubs me the wrong way when people do that. they have some weird notion that the world must GIVE them answers.

[mattm04]

I have asked a Prof. for clarification on what a question wants me to do if I am not sure. I have never had a problem with this but i have see students ask the Prof to basically do the question for them.

[AdminAssistant]

I have asked a Prof. for clarification on what a question wants me to do if I am not sure. I have never had a problem with this but i have see students ask the Prof to basically do the question for them.

I think that's more along the lines of what she was trying to do, but I didn't know. Not even a hint of a clue.

[DonTheGeek]

that really rubs me the wrong way when people do that. they have some weird notion that the world must GIVE them answers.

I had something like that happen to me the first time I was teaching at a local Uni. A friend asked me to proctor his class since he was going to be out of town and since I would be teaching the next class in the sequence it would be a good way to meet my students. I'm not quite sure what the catbut face looks like but I'm pretty sure I was given it by two young ladies that thought I should give them the answers. They had quite a few things to say about what a horrible TA I was, yeah I forgot to mention that I would be their professor the next term.

Let's just say the first day of class was quite interesting when they walked in and saw my name on the board and their prof.

[Eric the Grey]

Student #2, who reeks of EW-ness and perfume comes up. She asks me about a short answer question. Points to two terms I have never seen or heard of in my life. I say, "Sorry, I'm not a business student. I don't know anything about this." She makes the cat-butt face, stands there for a second, I stare back, she goes back to her desk in a huff.

Later on, she finishes the test, practically throws it on the pile with this weird bitchy look on her face. WTF, man? I can't magically pull answers or explanations out of my butt...and it IS a test, you're not supposed to get help anyway.

I would have, very nicely, offered to include a note with her test indicating that she didn't understand the question, and what she asked. "Perhaps he'll take that into consideration when he grades the test..."

Yes, I can be a real a** when I want to.


Eric the Grey

[Geek King]

I'm not quite sure what the catbut face looks like...

Here's an instructional smiley:

:*

I'm sure GK can provide an appropriate cat pic for further edification.

[Emrld]

My favorite is when students would say . . .(oh wait background . . .my Mom taught 7th grad Math at the school I attended/ while I attended) . . . "Your Mom failed Me!!!"
Yes, students would yell at me. They would try and pick fights with me. All because my Mom was a teacher at the school and they felt she failed them.
My reply became . . ."Please show me the object she pointed at you while forcing you to write wrong answers down. You can't can you? She didn't tell you what to write . . she only informed you, you were WRONG. Sucks to be you . . .try studying or tutoring next time."

[draftermatt]

I once asked a teacher for a hint on a take home test question...

He did it for me. Didn't even realize he was doing it till it was done. So I was told I had better explain why he did what he did (on the question) well. I did, got an A...

Which is why I loved Calculus & my teacher.

[digilight]

I once asked a teacher for a hint on a take home test question...

He did it for me. Didn't even realize he was doing it till it was done. So I was told I had better explain why he did what he did (on the question) well. I did, got an A...

Which is why I loved Calculus & my teacher.

The only way to prove that you know something is to explain how you got the answer. I do this with my son, he's in Kindergarten and gets a weekly homework packet. If I'm helping him with it, I make him tell me why he picked the answer he did. Things like patterns, shapes, normal Kindergarten stuff.