Final exams.

I can't believe my last semester teaching at CMU ended two weeks ago. Now I am buried up to my ears in final exams, trying to have them all graded by the deadline. I have exactly 150 students, so multiply that by about 7 - 10 minutes, and you get a whoooole lot of time spent grading. As a student, all you have to do is take the exam. The teachers have to grade them! At least the exams are made out of recycled paper.

Grading exams is always frustrating and a little demoralizing. Quite a few of my students will flunk the course. At least, they would flunk if the grades weren't curved. I don't get any input on the curve or the cutoff points, so it is hard for me not to feel like my grades are obsolete. Also, the senior professors have the authority to change the grades I give. Yes, that is right. They can arbitrarily decide that my grades are too high/ too low and tell me that I have to change them. Without my consent. This drives me CRAZY, and I think it is actually very unethical. That hasn't happened yet, but I get frustrated just thinking about it.

(Deep breath). Oh well. Now, if I was president of the world...

... I would make ALL final exams oral. We would save some trees AND have less exams to grade! Perfect.