<p>One of my friends informed me that the reason why he dropped Intro to Physics I course at University of Iowa was because the professor lost his first midterm back during February, gave him a 0/60, and refused to allow him to retake the exam.</p>
<p>The same professor also mistaken my exam with someone else's, and thus gave me a very low score until I had to look for my exam (she pointed at the stacks of exams in her office and told me to look for mine) to prove that she misgraded my exam. I later learned that the same mis-grading issue occurred with several other students as well.</p>
<p>Now I know it's already way too late for my friend to appeal to the head of department (especially after a course drop), but is it normal for professors to act like that? Failing students because of they lost the student's papers? And what options are available if a professor is not being fair?</p>
<p>Generally, losing an exam is very rare, I’ve never heard of that, though I have heard a couple cases where an exam or homework just got stuck to another somewhere and just didn’t get graded. Though then it’s still there and it gets graded after someone points it out. </p>
<p>I recommend just avoiding this professor in the future, they sound disorganized and unreasonable. Given that the professor should probably realize they’re disorganized, they ought to realize there’s a good chance that they did indeed lose the exam somehow. Could easily happen if this exam happened to be at the top or the bottom of the stack. </p>
<p>I don’t know how normal it is. The problem of course is that it’s difficult to know when a missing paper is lost and when it was never handed in in the first place. I teach English so I get up to 100 papers every week. When a student seems surprised that I haven’t returned it, I almost always give him/her the benefit of the doubt and take it late.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what I would do if it were an exam. Most of my colleagues give exams through the testing center, so there is always a record. The situation you describe would have to be handled in a different way.</p>
<p>That said, some professors are just jerks.</p>
<p>As to options. You can try approaching the department chair. Know in advance that most appeals processes won’t begin until after final grades are in. Micromanaging the way professors teach is usually considered bad form.</p>