Student "edition" found at {csi dot journalspace dot com}.

Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

On the first day of the eighth week of classes, in my Mathematical Methods One class, I let them compute their midterm standings based on the results of their six quizzes. It came down to three hundred and fifty points, because the first quiz (covering two weeks worth of topics) was a hundred points.

It was very informative, because apparently some students were seeing their test results for the first time, despite having been in their group envelopes just inside the college faculty room since the third week of classes.

This I know because some students were only double checking the addition of their points of the early booklets at that time, when they realized that they got a zero point zero in their midterm grade, because their percentage did not reach up to at least sixty percent (no rounding up).

Rounding, after all, does not do their performance in class justice, and in fact makes them lazy and expectant of getting through figuratively by the seat of their pants. That’s why I prefaced the grade equivalents with “90 and above” and “60 and above” instead of ranges.

There were a couple of students who approached me to say that I was incorrect in my addition, and that their score in some of the early quizzes should have been higher. I told them that I will recheck.

By their computation, their midterm grade is then passing and thus they were satisfied, when in fact it just means they are on the borderline and their fate can still go in either direction if they continue with their current performance.

It was just like what I told those who came up to me asking that I allow them to round up their fifty nine point something computation to get a one point zero, except negative.

I told the first group: you need just a little more effort on your part in the succeeding quizzes to get a passing grade.

For the second group it was: if you don’t put in a little more effort in the rest of the quizzes, there is still a big chance you may fail.

This is especially true because the rest of the topics are assuredly more difficult than - and require a firm understanding of some of – the earlier concepts.

I met my Differential Equations class afterwards, but didn’t lecture. Instead I allowed them to study for the Introduction to Electricity and Magnetism class afterwards, with attendance checking for those who stayed in the room. Of course this was because I knew I was going to be evaluated that session.

The gate descends on session 642 here. Class dismissed.