I administered a test a couple days ago on Newton's Laws to my two Pre-AP physics classes. 50 questions, mostly conceptual, some free body diagrams, etc. The class averages were 69 and 67. My two geniuses, whose tests I frequently use to double check my own answers, both got 88's. This was obviously a very challenging test.
Well, today, I had two students who were absent on test day, so I had them sit in the hall and finish their tests while my other students corrected theirs. My first mistake. When the two students finished, I graded their tests immediately so they could get caught up on their corrections. On the first test, I noticed many many eraser marks on the scan tron. To my surprise, the student only missed 4 answers which equated to a 92...4 points higher than my genius's. The other student got an 84...The first student had previous tests scores around 80s and the second student 70s...This was very alarming, but I didn't raise any accusations just yet. After class ended, I didn't want my geniuses feeling a sense of injustice, so I began my investigation. As a former student and quite good in the art of deception and manipulation, I knew that getting every answer right would raise many many flags, so there must be some decoy answers to throw off the scent. On the 92 test, I looked at the first wrong answer. Question number 14, the student selected D. That is all fine and dandy until I looked at what the question was asking...Unfortunately for this student...question 14 only had two answer choices...and D was not one of them. Interesting. At this point, I looked over at the other student's test in search of dummy questions. Lo and behold, questions 16 and 17, both questions with only A and B as choices, had been marked D. SRSLY?! Now surely, this could not be a simple mistake. I believe these students' actual folly was mistaking me for a decent human being. I am absolutely not. I am devious, I am petty, I am incredibly trifling. I am a physics teacher, and in addition to teaching physics, I teach humility, and I am not above taking these two suckaz down a notch. You can NOT play a player. Luckily, I have a meeting with an assistant principal tomorrow, and I will gleefully bring this matter to light. Nothing annoys me more than poor attempts at cheating. Do it right or don't do it at all.
How are people SO BAD at being deceptive?
ReplyDeleteAmen.
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