Truth behind finals are not taken seriously

College Life
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<p>So I have taken 3 finals and they are all in, but they are not posted to students yet. Here is an example I took a final exam in English that the class had to write an essay. We have 28 students in the class and they all took the finals. This professor also teaches two other English course. So three English course in total. How can she already post up the grades the next day not sure which time. Non of the students know their grades yet upset for me because I went to ask for a transcript and saw the two class I took for the finals already posted. Yes I do like my grade and know I boosted my gpa, but I find it funny how it posted already.</p>

<p>Does this means finals are not taken seriously and the professor just skims it. This professor also had another final after our class to look at. I doubt she read all our work with in a couple of hours. I could of wrote some junk on my paper and still of got an A-, but I would never know unless I did write it. Just thinking that it was graded early and can someone do did not do great in class and great on the finals be screwed. Finals is 25% of the grade. </p>

<p>It not just this professor another professor who teaches 7 classes some of them are link at certain day and has atleast 300 students all who have the same day finals. There was an essay we had to write and the essay part was worth 35% of the finals. She wrote the minimum amount of paragraph to write is 5. I wrote 8 paragraphs and I am sure most of the class wrote atleast over 5 paragraphs. How is it that other grade are in within the next day. I am not sure when the grades show up to the students but if you go to the office and ask to buy you transcript it will show up. </p>

<p>So this is why I believe finals are not taken seriously they either just skimming through it or grading us on other performance in class. I am not saying all professors do this but maybe ones with many students and many essays to read do.</p>

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<p>Does your professor have TAs? My English exam last semester was put up within 2 days (17 identifiers, each a long paragraph of writing) but that’s because my professor had 3 TAs who were all PhD students and have taught before. Teachers get incredibly used to reading students’ work and grading quickly and know what to look for in essays. I’m sure you final was taken seriously.</p>

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<p>^Yeah, it took three days w/ TAs. This kid says his scores were posted within a couple hours. Seems a little fishy to me.</p>

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<p>If the way you wrote your post is any indication of your writing ability in the English class, then be happy the professor just skims the essays and hands out easy A’s.</p>

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<p>There’s a thread on The Chronicle of Higher Education’s forums about how some professors choose to grade final exams. This was one of them: determine the grade required on the final exam for the final letter grade to change, scan the first page of the paper. If it appears that the student’s grade will not change, then assign them the grade they currently have and move on. If it appears that it might, or if it is borderline, grade the full paper.</p>

<p>Not saying that all professors do this, but some do, and your professor might.</p>

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<p>I’m sure some finals aren’t seriously graded. I’m sure some are. I’m sure some professors don’t care and some do. And I think this even happens at some really good schools: some professors are great teachers/lecturers but don’t care so much about grades. </p>

<p>I don’t doubt that in big classes with many essays or papers, they are not read completely and totally fully. In some they are (and props to whoever grades them) but in some I am extremely sure they are not.</p>

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<p>Agreed with docchix - I’m a TA too. Some profs. just want to get the finals graded ASAP. We graded our finals in approx. 5 hrs after the final, so we had grades up the morning right after the final.</p>