Math as Character Building Exercise

[bisous]

So DS1 is ok with this but I'm still frustrated. DS1 is in 10th grade and the policy during this strange time is "do no harm" grading. This means that he could get no lower than the grade he received in 3rd quarter in any class. He had all As and one A minus, in math.

So he has been working HARD in all his classes ANYWAY. Like giving it his all. Going into his final exams yesterday he had no lower than 97.5% in any of his classes.

Enter the math final. The math teacher wanted to make it timed but couldn't figure out how to do it except to time each individual answer. It would show a countdown for each problem and if you didn't answer in time, it was marked incorrect. This really stressed out DS! He ended up with a 72% on the final. He had a 97.5% in the class going in. He mentioned that the format was stressful but she was kind of like "well, I didn't have any other options" and that's that! So we'll see what his grade turns out to be. There is a chance that all the kids choked and the grade could be curved a little bit. Otherwise it is entirely possible that he's back down to the A minus. The same grade he'd have got if he did absolutely nothing the whole quarter!

I know that's the breaks in school. It would be best if the final grade represented his mastery of the subject, rather than the intricacies of figuring out the test strategy but real life isn't always neat like that.

Now I know especially in math that that's never a good idea to coast and I'm super proud of him for working so hard despite the fact that his grades wouldn't have suffered. Obviously an A minus isn't the end of the world, it is a good grade! I just think a little flexibility in these strange circumstances would be really nice.

Oh well, I guess this circumstance will build character!

Rant over!

[SnuggleBuggles]

Finals are worth 5% of their grade at our school- basically meaningless. Hopefully similar for you!


Sent from my iPhone using Baby Bargains

[petesgirl]

That does seem like an awful way to time it. Was each question given the same time limit? Because not each question will take the same amount of time to solve.

[Globetrotter]

Talk about high pressure environment, but grades won’t count for much this semester - A- is still good! Hopefully he won’t be discouraged, and obviously he knows the material.

[bisous]

He did get more time for longer problems but it didn't matter. The ones that really needed a lot of time were not given enough time. He said he would panic and just select his best guess. Oh well. We'll see how this plays out. But yes, it is a very stressful format!