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Partial Credit

I'm getting exam scores back, and I'm horribly disappointed with them. I'm also extremely surprised by the grades, because I basically lived in the library for days preparing for the exams.

Part of the reason I didn't do so well is I clearly didn't understand the material.

But at the same time, when you're in a Cost Accounting class or similar business classes, a straight multiple choice test where you run calculations is unfair to the students.

I spent way too long in and out of class preparing for these exams for the professors to then screw me on a final by giving no partial credit. If I did an equation and got most of it right, I don't think I ought to lose the full score of the question, especially when they're 6-10 points a piece.

This ends my rant.
 
To be fair, there is no partial credit in the real world.

Most of my exams for my engineering classes didn't give partial credit.
 
To be fair, there is no partial credit in the real world.

Most of my exams for my engineering classes didn't give partial credit.

You'll also have resources to look at when making a decision... You won't build a bridge without checking several times over.

At any rate, it's just laziness on the professors' parts. They gave partial credit on previous exams, they just don't do it on finals.
 
That's the reasoning I used too. I failed to convince them to see the logic of my argument.

The favorite response is that "grades aren't everything," which nearly throws me into a blind rage.

Grades mean next to nothing in reality, but when I'm looking for my first job, they're going to be pretty important, and since we're paying way too much for classes (around $3k per class), it would be nice if the professor actually tried to help/did any work at all. As it stands, most of my professors this semester came up with a lesson plan a long time ago, borrowed it from someone else, or flat out are not prepared for class.
 
Most of my exams for my engineering classes didn't give partial credit.

You mean in the post building or bridge collapse accident investigation you won't get partial credit for you calculations when you miss place a decimal point?

My first day in Aviation Mechanic school we were told that a Dr can only kill one person at a time but a mechanic or pilot can kill 2-400, when they screw up. My later industrial Engineering classes didn't offer partial credit either, cause lives can be on the line there as well
 
Welcome to academia. That pain you're feeling in your butt is the shaft. You'll experience many more times throughout your academic life.

I agree w/ you. The pressures of taking a test that many times is written so students can't finish in the allotted time are extreme. If I fat finger a number on my calculator and get a wrong answer and carry that through six steps and no partial credit because my answer is wrong. It's BS. It doesn't work that way in the real world.

In the real world you use a computer w/ excel and mathcad. You check your calcuations by hand. Other folks also check your work and sign off on it.

Those who can do, those who can't teach.
 
If the professors are that lazy, you can always hope for the killer curve.

I went to an engineering school, but studied Comp Sci. My engineering friends constantly took end of semester exams where B grades were in the 50-59/100 range.
 
If the professors are that lazy, you can always hope for the killer curve.

I went to an engineering school, but studied Comp Sci. My engineering friends constantly took end of semester exams where B grades were in the 50-59/100 range.

I doubt the curve will be very high, it's just annoying for the entirety of the semester to have partial credit and then say for the final: no more partial credit. Especially since the final is weighted for more.
 
Welcome to academia. That pain you're feeling in your butt is the shaft. You'll experience many more times throughout your academic life.

I agree w/ you. The pressures of taking a test that many times is written so students can't finish in the allotted time are extreme. If I fat finger a number on my calculator and get a wrong answer and carry that through six steps and no partial credit because my answer is wrong. It's BS. It doesn't work that way in the real world.

In the real world you use a computer w/ excel and mathcad. You check your calcuations by hand. Other folks also check your work and sign off on it.

Those who can do, those who can't teach.

That's my logic as well... But you're wrong about those who can't, I've definitely had amazing professors and teachers who just wanted to teach... There just aren't many of them. For instance, my principles of accounting professor basically wrote the CPA exams for years and has some of the top scores in the country for her CPA review course.
 
That's my logic as well... But you're wrong about those who can't, I've definitely had amazing professors and teachers who just wanted to teach... There just aren't many of them. For instance, my principles of accounting professor basically wrote the CPA exams for years and has some of the top scores in the country for her CPA review course.

I knew I would get some backlash for that comment, but I felt justified saying it based on my experiences. I've had tremendous professors that could teach great, but couldn't engineer their way out of a paper bag. I've had horrible professors that couldn't teach or engineer. I've had great professors that could teach and engineer that were in the minority. The one thing they all had in common was the amount of money they brought into the university. That is the name of the game. Teaching is purely a requirement of their job, but not the main requirement. For many, it's nothing more than a formality to meet part of becoming tenured. Many of the professors I had could not cut it in industry and they knew it. They were brilliant in their research and were best utilized there, which is absolutely fine. My problems comes from that fact that they are forced to or want to teach and absolutely are incapable of it. They forget the goal of the students is to actually get an education. While grades don't matter in the long run, they certainly matter in trying to attain interviews and land the first job.
 
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