So DS is upset that he may have blown one of his finals. The proctor he had for his test did not tell them how much time was left on their exam until 10 minutes before it was done. There is no clock in the room and unfortunately, DS had no watch on. He thought he had more time so had to rush to start and finish the last essay question on the test. I thought it would be appropriate to email the teacher and ask in the future, that the proctors during finals at least should give them a warning halfway through the test. He had asked the teacher for this class to write a recommendation letter for college and is worried that his performance on this test will adversely affect the rec letter. Should I say anything or forget about it?
The proctor did nothing wrong. The student should have worn a watch.
I’d leave it to your son to register the complaint with the teacher.
As far as “doing nothing wrong”…it’s common practice, in my experience, to either have a countdown clock on the projector or to write “X minutes remaining” on the board at intervals. Not an unreasonable request at all.
I would not email the teacher. If your S feels a need to discuss his performance on the exam with the teacher, he can but he should let the teacher know that he made an error by coming to the exam without a watch and not blame a “bad proctor”. While he may have liked a heads up as to the time, other students who had watches may have found that such a warning breaks their train of thought.
I’d strongly suggest that your S bring watch for future exams. This way he is not dependent on anyone else to monitor his time allocation.
The majority of the classroom have clocks, but the room for his exam did not. I guess I’ll leave it up to him if he wants to contact her. He’s a very conscientious student. In fact, I’ve received emails from this teacher praising his work. I just wonder what she’ll think when she corrects his exam.
Your son may have learned something valuable. In college his seat in the exam hall may not have a view of the clock and you can’t have your phones out. And the college proctors may announce the time on the hour and a 10 minute warning but that’s it. Maybe get him a nice Omega for a graduation present that he’ll be proud to wear.
Did other kids have a major timing issue with the test? I bet they did if your good student did! The teacher will see that the last essay was given short shrift by the majority of the class and will have to heavily discount it. This teacher sounds like the perfect person to write the recommendation. I wouldn’t give it another thought. Even if turns out that it was a blip on your kids record and others had no problem with timing, your son can easily explain his poor performance by a reasonable expectation that there would be a clock in the room to help him pace himself. The teacher will see the thoughtful way he answered the other questions and know it was strictly a timing issue, not an issue of knowing the material. I do not think my kids have ever worn a watch to take tests in school, not even for finals.
We have a drawer with several drugstore type watches that are only pulled out the night before the ACT or SAT, etc., we didn’t pay more than about $12 bucks for any of them, but they do the trick! Any big tests, bring a watch.
I’m guessing the teacher will recognize that he ran out of time by the rushed answer to the last question.
The proctor didn’t do anything wrong. Wear a watch.
@snarlatron did you really just recommend buying a $2000 watch for a HSer? We must live in different neighborhoods.
@ErinsDad Guess I live closer to you. - LOL It so happens that today I got my D a $150 watch for her big college graduation gift. Spent about the same for my S when he graduated college. Both had cheap watches during their HS and college years. Each kid was happy and appreciative of the graduation gift. (And I don’t think either kid would want to walk around NYC with a $2,000+watch).