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Part 4: The Professor’s Viewpoint

Your instructor handed back the test you took last week and you were shocked by your poor score. If you are emotionally overwhelmed, you are having a completely normal reaction. But suddenly you realize – you were a decent student and now your instructor has seen you fail! You are mortified!

The truth is that you shouldn’t be. Instructors who have been teaching a while know that lots of grades come and go throughout the class session and one grade isn’t much to be worried about – almost any problem grade can “go away” in the law of averages (average test scores, average quiz scores, etc.). Almost every student in every session, no matter how good a student, has one big stinker of a test or quiz score. In my classes, this is why I allow students to drop their lowest quiz score (because one bad apple really shouldn’t spoil the barrel). Typically every teacher has something built-in to help cover students for a bombed quiz or test: dropping the lowest score, averaging tests/quizzes, or extra credit to fill in the points you may have lost.

Are instructors disappointed in you when you score poorly on a test or quiz? Not at all! If anything, we’re sympathetic to what you must be feeling. We were all students once and most of us keenly remember the stress of taking tests as well as getting feedback from those tests.

Instructors also use class-wide quiz and test scores to assess their own work. For example, if one-third of the class earned an “A” on the quiz, clearly the test wasn’t the problem. However, if there were no “A”s, one “B”, and the rest “C” or below, the problem is either the test or the method of teaching. In this case, the instructor will go back and revisit how that section of the course was taught and what could be done differently. The instructor will also likely continue to review that section of material with the class so you can all master it for the final exam.

Often students think that instructors enjoy seeing students fail tests and I am here to tell you that is absolutely not the case. Recall that your teacher is most likely a teacher because they love to teach and share what they know. Whole classes of students failing tests or quizzes only means that the teacher hasn’t done a good job of teaching the material and/or preparing students for what will be on the test. Remember that a test is simply a review of what you learned and your ability to apply that knowledge.

In the end, a poor grade only means what you make it mean. I encourage you to make it mean that you will gather data to find out why your score was low and then find a means to learn what you didn’t know previously (especially so you can do your best work on the cumulative final exam). If you choose to make one poor test grade mean that you are a failure as a student or that you have a terrible teacher, you are only punishing yourself and holding yourself back from success. So get out there, do your best work, be your best student, and get the most out of your college experience!

Kelley

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