Don't care (bonus story at the end)

[manybellsdown]

The "Not Attempted" is there to prevent people thinking that they have lost an answers sheet. If the student hasn't completed the answer, we still have to collect their sheet, but it prevents the issue of "OMG! WHERES IS HIS QUESTION 18? DID WE LOSE IT?"

Heh, I did that once with a paper. Supposed to be 5-7 pages or something like that. I didn't finish it. So I took the 3 pages I had, and stapled some blank papers to them. Then I tore the blanks off leaving corners stuck in the staple.

In my ever-so-clever freshman collegiate mind, I thought the grader would think my paper had torn and they'd lost the last half. Of course it didn't work. Overworked TA that was grading probably didn't even notice the tears.

[Geek King]

If the homework only counts for 1/5 of the grade and you can get essentially 10% (and only lose 10%) for just turning in a blank sheet of paper, why would you even bother doing it?

Practicing the subject so you have a good grasp on it as you go along.

Yes, I'm "that guy" that did all the homework and extra credit assignments, even the ones not graded. It also meant I didn't have to cram very hard for the finals, too!

[Merriweather]

I finished Sixth Form in 2005...unless they've changed everything since, I don't think we get a big certificate for just Year 12. GCSEs, AS and A2 are (were?) per subject only, and we need a certain amount of them to get into Sixth Form (GCSE) or University (A-levels).

Many of my friends, some including Masters postgrads, worked out their equivalent GPA for their big exams above, and most came out with a score that would have seen a complete fail. Jokes about education quality aside...it just goes to show the incongruity between these two education systems at least!!

Ah, the differences in the UK & US educational systems, know them well (but not as well as my daughter). Or at least, the systems as they were in the 90's.

My daughter did thru 7th grade in the US, then I remarried, and new hubby was posted to Wales. She went to school locally there, for 4 years which included her GCSE's and the first year of A levels (local headmaster was wonderful helping us work things out - teens from the base were usually shipped off to an American boarding school in London rather than go locally). Then we moved to England, and she decided rather than continue with her A levels, she'd go to the American school on base so she'd have a US diploma when going back to the states (and having never gone to an American high school, she did want to see what it was like, with prom and so forth).

Major differences - school uniforms, in her opinion - she hated them when we moved to the UK, got used to them, then missed them when she went to the US school - I recall her moaning "now I have to wake up enough in the morning to think about what to wear" Biggest difference academically going from US to UK was getting used to writing a LOT more (luckily, she was good at it). US schools use much more multiple choice, true/false, and short answers on exams. In the US, several pages of writing are almost always done as reports, not expected to be turned out during an exam, not at high school level anyway. I'm not sure she'd have done well in the UK schools if she hadn't been quite bright and good with words anyway.
Going back from UK to US (well, base) school was easy academically. Her GCSE & A Level classes gave her more than enough credits in number to graduate, and gave her enough subjects to cover all but two required classes - US History & US Government, of course. Her biggest adjustment was going back to being treated more as a child (UK teens in school are treated much more adult than US teens). After 4 years in a UK school, she was NOT your typical American teen, and that actually got her into trouble (or did, until they got used to her). American teachers are not used to having any comment to a student met with a constant "Yes, Sir" or "Yes, Miss", it took her a while to convince them it was respect, not sarcasm. She had a few other incidences, too - at her first exam - the teacher wrote a few questions on the board and told them to answer them, and she raised her hand and asked how many pages he wanted on each - after UK schools, she was serious, it was a valid question, but in US schools, an "essay" questions is usually answered in paragraphs, not pages. He almost kicked her out of class for being a smart a**.

She definitely had a "different than the norm" learning experience in her teens, loads of differences, not to mention the language differences - if you think American & British English have a lot of differences to learn, try throwing in Welsh bits & pieces, as well as teenage slang Her teen years were definitely an experience

[Kristev]

But she sounds like she was deeply enriched for at least part of it.

[cinema guy]

I walked out of a General Relativity mathematics exam at university after 35 minutes. I had done all I could do. By the third year the maths had gotten hard.

[Merriweather]

But she sounds like she was deeply enriched for at least part of it.

Oh yes, even though she now is determined her daughter won't move around so much like she did, she still says she wouldn't have traded the experience for anything. And she still has school friends she keeps in touch with across the pond.

[AccountingDrone]

Oh yes, even though she now is determined her daughter won't move around so much like she did, she still says she wouldn't have traded the experience for anything. And she still has school friends she keeps in touch with across the pond.

I hope she considers taking her daughter overseas at least a couple times on vacation to expose her to some great experiences.

[we are actually doing 1 week in a different country every year for a while as a break from 'working' vacations, like reroofing the house or rebuilding the hearth in the livingroom]

[wolfie]

I had a "break the curve" incident with one class in University. On both midterms (each worth 10% of the total mark), I (stupidly) missed one of the questions completely (not goofed up - didn't see it, so of course I didn't even attempt to answer it). When the final results were posted, I had 74 out of a total of 75 (each "unit", roughly equivalent to a lecture hour per week for a full year, contributed 25 to the total possible for the course - this one was 3 hours per week for one semester, or 1 1/2 units).

Mathematically, this was impossible (given my known results on the midterms) unless I got 110% on the final. My guess is that the instructor scaled the results as far as he could without giving me a perfect mark - and still around 1/3 of the class failed.

[Blue Ginger]

I was one of the sleepers in exams.

I slept through most of my 3-hour Religion and Society (RAS) exam. I was awake for the 15 minute reading time, did the exam in 45 minutes, fall asleep, then woke up with 35 minutes to go. No one was allowed to leave in the last 30 minutes. You just had to have one of the supervisors collect your papers before you could leave.

I hated that subject. My high school required 3 Units of religion or they wouldn't allow you to graduate VCE. (1 Unit = 1 semester) I figured if I had to do the subject, it could at least count toward my final mark. I slept through most of the classes too.

VCE (Victorian Certificate of Education) is meant to be over two years but my school was part of a program to start a few subjects in Year 10. If I didn't have to do RAS, I could have gotten away with only 4 subjects in my final year, as I had completed one subject in Year 11.

[TawnyMyst]

I didn't just break the curve in my math classes in college, I obliterated it to the point my teacher wouldn't use my marks to calculate it. I had 115% first semester, 110% second, and 120% last. I don't think she used bonus assignments afterwards for her next classes after a certain grade point.

[Iseeyouthere]

Update:

I've just finished looking after the exams. I also had two long days of looking after year 10s doing their exams. It was hot on that day... well, I can't tell whats hot... I was still wearing a jacket at it must of been 30+ degrees in that hall..

Anyway, I couldn't help but look at some of the answers the year 10s wrote.
I was disgusted.
A number of them diden't write a thing. They sat there for 4 hours (two 2 hour exams per day) and did nothhing.

Some wrote digusting comments, like for example:
Question: What should the Australian government do?
Their answer: Stop babysitting the aboriginals.

Why? Why do you even bother coming if you don't even make an attempt at an answer? Lazy and pathetic. Even having a go is better than not doing it because you can't be bothered/don't know.
I weep for the younger generations.

[AccountingDrone]

"The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for
authority, they show disrespect to their elders.... They no longer
rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents,
chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their
legs, and are tyrants over their teachers."

Or this one?

"The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have
no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all
restraint. They talk as if they alone knew everything and what passes
for wisdom with us is foolishness with them. As for girls, they are
forward, immodest and unwomanly in speech, behaviour and dress."

Socrates, attributed by Plato.

*sigh* plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

[BeenThereDoneThat]

*sigh* plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

Off topic, but I am proud of myself because I remember enough of my high school French to know what that quote means.

[Kristev]

I think I know the meaning, too. Sad, but true.

[AccountingDrone]

It is a bit nicer than 'same shit, different day'