1. Consistency is thegoal of rubrics, not objectivity. Nobody claims rubrics are forobjectivity. They are there so students know what to include in their papers. Arubric is for the student to show his or her what the professor is looking foroutside of their initial argument. No one is claiming a rubric is notsubjective; of course its subjective fucking idiots. A human being is stillgrading the work, all he or she is doing is grading on a more specific scale sograding is consistent among everyone’s papers despite each students’ varyingarguments.
2.You should be gladyour test is written by your teacher, and not in a distantly objective andunrelated way. If you have been attending class, as is expected of you,then by exam time you should be familiar with the way the professor talks andthe way he prefers his answers. To that extent, you should be happy torecognize familiarity on exams and not standardized questions from elsewhere.You should be tested from the same source you learn the material from, youshould not be tested from some unrelated neutral authority.
3. Who the fuck cares?Who the fuck cares that our tests are out of 50 and not 51? Its easier to gradethat way and whatever intangible effects having 50 questions instead of 51 donot outweigh the benefits received from nice round numbers. The professor isthe one teaching the class so you should have confidence that whatever he putson the test is the material he has discussed. More likely than not this is thecase. If you disagree, before you raise ruckus consider whether or not you aretaking notes, doing the reading, and attending class
4. This point iscontradictory. The guy who wrote this is a fucking dumbass. The authorpoints out inconsistent grade scales which is probably a result of abell-curved scale. However, he validates the “scam” by noting someone had hisgrade scaled from 70% to 70%. The next sentence he contradicts this by saying, “Since everyone started at least20% below what they deserved, whatever he made up felt like compassion.”Now its my turn to call bullshit. It seems to me if everyone else in the classgot an additional 10-20% and this student got 0, he would speak up and the scamwould come crashing down. It seems to me the more likely situation, given theanecdotal nature of this “argument”, is the author simply witnessed a bellcurve scale in action and also happens to have a poor memory and aninsufficient knowledge of statistics.
5. Statistical measuresare more valid when drawn from a larger sample size. Because of this, youshould be glad the department is providing them based on decades of exams,which is the practice of most universities, rather than a specific samplingfrom your own professor. This entire time, the author has complained about a lackof objectivity. Now that objectivity is introduced, the author all of a suddenseems to desire specific subjectivity based on a classroom by classroom basis.
6. If your professor isproviding the standard, then you should be glad you know what he is lookingfor. All providing a standard does is give proof of what he expects.Consider the alternative. Would you prefer no standard? Would you prefer theprofessor to decide on an exam by exam basis what constitutes an A? Would youprefer the professor to subject his assessment of your grade to his mood?
7. This author seems tobe confused about the scientific method. Reliability and validity are twoterms used to describe the integrity of a particular experimental result. Thisis only true in a controlled experiment. Given the infinite number ofuncontrollable variables in a university course, it becomes futile to pursue ascientifically sound measure.
But for the fun of it, let’s find themistakes in this author’s assessment.
a. Consideringthe students learn the material from the professor, then the professor, alsoacting as the grader, is a component of the experiment, and not a member of theconducting party. You can’t devise an experiment where a students’ work isassessed by multiple professors; those professors did not teach the materialbeing assessed. That experiment in and of itself is invalid and unreliable. Nowa more appropriate experiment—give the same child’s essay to the same professorand see if the professor issues the same grade every time—must be applied. Ifprofessors satisfy the more appropriate experiment, then they are reliable.
b. The trigonometry test is not only assessingknowledge of trigonometry; it is assessing masteryof the knowledge. Thus by introducing time limits and varying presentations ofthe material, the test, with a high degree of validity, assesses the studentscomfort, confidence, and mastery of the material as well.
8. The professor teachesthe material, thus he is the only one who can grade his own assessments. I’mnot even going to substantiate this. I’ve already done it 7 times.
9. I can’t help youthere. If your professor is testing the wrong info he himself taught you, callthe department head. However if you feel you are being taught the “wrong”stuff about World War II as a whole, for example, then you are a grade A fuckup. Again the test only assesses what you have been assigned to read by theprofessor and what the professor himself has taught, not what the entire worldknows about World War II as a whole. If you have done your due diligence as astudent, learned from your professor, and your professor was qualified (whichnearly all of them are), then it is impossible for you to learn the “wronginformation.”
woops this is easier to read i hope.
