My Favorite Student Questions

8 December 2008 at 11:50 am Peter G. Klein 19 comments

| Peter Klein |

Everybody loves the classics. This one, which I received today, is one of my favorites:

I can’t be in class tomorrow. Will I miss anything important?

What are your favorites? (If you’re not an educational professional, you can still play by listing favorite questions received from colleagues, subordinates, etc.)

Entry filed under: - Klein -, Ephemera.

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19 Comments Add your own

1. Brian Pitt | 8 December 2008 at 12:38 pm

(I am just a (social) statistics instructor, btw.) I was not in class last week. Did I miss anything important?
2. awhogan | 8 December 2008 at 12:47 pm

“i’m not going to be able to make it to class today. please let me know everything that i will miss today.”

This was, sadly, received on a test day.

Additionally I’d like to point out the massive collection of e-mails that are written like #@$^ing text messages. No punctuation, salutation, or signature. I’m adding a clause to my syllabus next semester informing students of my new policy of deleting all such e-mails.
3. Michael F. Martin | 8 December 2008 at 2:52 pm

I got that one when I was a teaching assistant. I think I blubbered back something like, “Well I think it’s important. But I hope you don’t attend if you don’t think so.”
4. REW | 8 December 2008 at 3:21 pm

Received an hour after the final exam for my principles of economics course three years ago:

(1) I was studying this morning in the Union and had a seizure which kept me from getting to the exam on time. So I thought I’d write and ask when I could take a make-up exam?

(2) My son __________ missed your final exam at 8:30 this morning because I forgot to call him to wake him up at 7:00 AM. Would you please let him know when he can schedule a makeup exam?

(3) Dear professor,
I woke up in Chicago this morning and remembered that we have a final exam. I have some business to take care of then I can get back to campus tomorrow or Wednesday. When should we have the conflict exam?

Our university has established the course grade of ABS — absent without excuse from the final exam — which turns into an F without the successful and swift intervention by the dean of the student’s college of enrollment. A perfect answer to these three inquiries.
5. Peter Gordon | 8 December 2008 at 3:52 pm

This is not a question, but it is part of too many office hours discussions. “I REALLY NEED a good grade in this class.” And good grade usually means an “A”. After many years of this, I am still shocked. It will take a few more years before I graduate to bemused.
6. bobvis | 8 December 2008 at 4:15 pm

“What kind of questions are going to be on the exam?”

This question tends to really bug me because it casts the focus entirely on the way I measure performance instead of all the wonderful content I’ve been delivering over the semester. Why should the way the questions are asked matter?
7. Michael F. Martin | 8 December 2008 at 5:23 pm

Here’s another great exchange overheard by me:

Student (who had a bad habit of using lecture time to ask questions about homework): “How many problems will be on the exam?”

Professor: “Oh… I think you’re going to have a few problems…”
8. Mark | 8 December 2008 at 9:55 pm

Cut and pasted from the email I received this semester.

“but I have more of a problem with the Problem Set 2…… It has me for a 20 percent out of ten, and I don’t think that should be right, because even if I did miss a couple, I put about 4 hours into that set and feel I should have at least got an 80% at worst for the attempt like you had mentioned in the first class, especially with the class average being a 7.5. Sorry to bother you about all this now, I’m sure your busy, I just want to get my grade right to try and maintain an A after the exam today.”

I responded that by his logic ___________ University’s football team should be ranked #4 for trying so hard even though they were 0-5 at the time.
9. Scott | 9 December 2008 at 2:01 am

so many examples come to mind…
When I started teaching I tended to use my first name, resisting the hierarchy and social distance of “Professor G___” (esp. at age 29!). But after several years of uncomfortably informal emails (“hey prof!”), I am now “Professor G___” to all undergrads.

Also, I finally developed a reply to students who complained when I took off up to 2 letter grades for atrocious spelling/grammar on formal papers (in my social science class):
student: “But this isn’t an English class!”
me: “True, but it is conducted in English.”

Disclaimer: for every jaw-droppingly presumptuous student, I find there is another (perhaps less memorable) ultra-conscientious one who, in an anonymous class of 150, will discreetly notify me a week in advance if they expect to miss class (having already made arrangements to get a classmate’s notes), and others who work very hard and would never dare beg for a grade.
10. Neel | 9 December 2008 at 8:09 am

It’s not a student question but rather one I asked to a student a few years back when I was a teaching assistant in Monetary Economics for Law students. As such, I made them pass their oral exam in June.

One of the students turned up, a blonde with a plunging neckline, with makeup on herself… She chose one of the subjects in the basket, “Rational Expectations”, and went to a desk to prepare her presentation while I was listening and asking questions to another student.

After a few minutes, I invited her to my desk. She came and said that it was bad luck as she had skipped just the section on “Rational Expectations” while revising for the exam. So, I asked her questions about every other aspect of the course, and, unfortunately, she knew nothing.

After 15 minutes, I told her: “Look, visibly, you do not know anything about monetary economics. Now, I’m kind enough and will leave the choice to you: either I give you a zero grade or we have a date.”

Within the split of a second, she replied: “I prefer a date.”

“OK,” I told her, “my rational expectations are that we’ll meet again for the make up exam session in September.”

She never turned up in September…
11. Mark | 9 December 2008 at 9:16 am

Under the subject line, “HELP ME PLEASE”

“can you please tell me my final grade i am very worried i did bad in your class. i studied really hard for your class and just had trouble in it. my parents are going to kill me if i did bad and i really have to pass your class. so can you please help me in this situation. i am so sorry to ask of you, but i did try really hard in your class and if i dont pass my parents will not let me wrestle. i really like economics and it interests me so much and thats why i am taking the class and majoring in it. so please help me if you can and next time or in macro i will try so much harder and even more then i tried now
i honestly am not telling you this to just pass i am telling you this casue i care about my education and i am just having trouble in the class and its my major and i have to do good and i wont stop in this major till i pass with a good grade and really would appreciate if oyu could help me and pass me.”

As I always tell students who implore using the “I tried really hard and put so much effort into this class,” if that’s the metric then we shouldn’t have exams. I’ll just ask everyone to write down on a piece of paper how many hours they put into this class and base my grade on that answer. They seem to understand, then.
12. bobvis | 9 December 2008 at 9:57 am

resisting the hierarchy and social distance of “Professor G___”

I went by my first name in my undergrad class this semester, and yes, it seems that I may have made a mistake.

What about MBAs? Can I go by Bob with them? As someone who has worked before I know I found it bizarre to return to school and discover that I need to call all the professors in my doctoral program “Professor ____”.
13. david | 9 December 2008 at 11:24 am

It is kind of awkward, but think of it this way: I would call Paul Krugman “Professor” if I met him. I would Barack Obama “Mr President.” I would call Muhammad Ali “Champ.” And I would call Governor Blagojevich “Prisoner #18763978”
14. Peter | 9 December 2008 at 11:42 am

Check this out: http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php?topic=29894.0
15. Scott | 9 December 2008 at 1:54 pm

I suppose it’s personal preference and may vary across types of grad programs, but i definitely go by first name with our grad students. I have more sustained and “collegial” contact with them (so it feels more natural), some are not much younger than me (and having different rules by age would be odd), and for the 22yr olds it helps to punctuate their transition to a higher set of expectations. A few grads can come in with a fairly presumptuous attitude, but in our doctoral program there is plenty of time and sustained contact to provide the needed “professional socialization” without resting on titles.
16. cmh | 10 December 2008 at 12:44 am

my first semester as a prof, i gave a few students ‘c’ for their course grade, and i got a couple ‘threats’ that if i didn’t raise their grade to a ‘b’ then they’d lose their status as ‘residential college’ students and they’d be kicked out of their ultra-modern ultra-comfortable dorm (reserved for only such students). pretty unbelievable.

as for being called as ‘dr’ or ‘prof’: i’ve found that students gave me much more respect after i told them ‘i didn’t care’ whether they called me by my last name only, or by ‘dr’ or ‘prof.’ i think that show of security somehow impressed them (i’m 31 and look 23). your mileage may vary.
17. libertyfirst | 10 December 2008 at 7:03 am

That wasn’t a question but was embarassingly ridiculous:

Student: “Professor, that’s the fourth time I try this exam”

Me: “Well, this may be the good try!”

Student: “No, I’m used to it”.

He failed, obviously.
18. gpeters | 10 December 2008 at 3:55 pm

Quote:
“I went hiking and got lost in the woods. Can I take a make-up exam.”
19. Mrs. Miller | 10 December 2008 at 7:17 pm

So many…
“We have a test today?” (I ignore this one)
“We had homework?” (I ignore this one too)
“How many questions are on the test?” (You’ll find out in a minute, won’t you?)
“Can I have extra credit?” (no!)
“Can I make up that assignment?” (no!)
“Do I have to take the quiz/test?” (um yeah)