I just have to vent a little about a problem I have had during my years at BYU: the TA grading discrepancy. In several classes I have noticed how the TAs who grade assignments and tests are not consistent with each other and that drives me crazy! I remember in my Art History class I got assigned a TA and he ended up being the toughest grader of any of my friends in that class. And while I'm sure they worked hard, I felt like I had to cater specifically to what my TA wanted and put in tons of extra hours of personal time with the TA just to get a good grade when it seemed so much easier for my friends. And in Statistics, I had a pretty easy TA who was quite lenient with answers and when Aaron took the same class the next semester, he would check his assignments with mine and his brothers (and we got good scores on the assignments) but he would get marked way down. Now it's happening again. I am taking a class that Aaron took last semester and he got perfect scores on his assignments and so when I do mine, I check my work against his and make sure I get answers that match his (even if it means doing the problem over and over again until I get it right) and turn it in thinking I have to get a perfect score on this one but NOOOO I get my grade and it's 2.5 out of 5! How is this possible??? Seriously, looking at Aaron's assignments where he always got a perfect 5 and a smiley face and looking at mine you would see the exact same answers, so how can I not get the same score as him? And just so you all know, I did show all my work, so I can't be about that. Erg. Now, granted I haven't gotten my assignments back so I haven't been able to look at them and figure out what the problem is (but I'm doing that today), but still...I am quite vexed.
*Note: I know many of you out there reading this are probably TAs or have been at one time so you probably have gripes of your own about students, but just let it be known that this is how me and Aaron both feel and I am not apologizing for it. So there. But if you want to leave a comment explaining why TAs do this, then by all means, be my guest.
4 comments:
I think TAs grade by the hotness factor. And you're just hotter than Aaron.
This is how Tracie and I both feel, and we're not apologizing for it.
;)
Some TAs have more time on their hands than others, or take their job more seriously... I am guilty of this - at the beginning of the stack I'd grade hard but then towards the end I wanted to get done so I'd be easy.
I have also been a TA (in Economics 110 and 257) and it is definitely tough to get consistency. Kearl has the best approach in 110 - you just get a checkmark to show you have done the assignment (unless it is obvious you didn't put any thought into it) and your multiple choice tests determine the bulk of your grade.
One real challenge I find is with professors (or TAs) who are easily influenced by students who complain about their grade on a subjective grading assignment (like an essay test or a paper). I once got a B on a test, but according to the distribution, I was one of the highest grades, so I didn't sweat it. That was until 75% of the class complained to the professor and got their scores raised and then I fell to below average. That's not right that being whiney pays off.
I was a TA and probably the easiest grader of the course. I gave everyone full credit on the assignments and they graded their own quizzes so whatev. For the tests I tried to give credit if at all possible, and hardly anyone complained. I think too many TA's take the small amount of power they have and try to assert it, thinking that your essay is crap-fer-crap and anything they write is a golden bag of golden gold.
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