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Steve_Kow
12-03-2005, 00:14
Last week after class a bunch of students were hanging out in the hallway discussing the papers we just had graded, which count for 1/4 of the semester grade. One person mentioned that he didn't do his, because he forgot about it until that morning and would've only had a few hours to write it and didn't want to write a garbage paper and make the Prof. think he was stupid. (edit: I suppose his rationale is that this is the first assignment the prof has given, and there are no second chances to make first impressions)

IMO, it would make more sense to do what you can and get a ****ty grade (an "F" is 50 points out of 100 correct?) rather than not do the paper at all. Now the highest grade he can possibly get in the class is a 75, whereas if he had gotten a 50 on the paper he could still score a B+.

In this situation would you write whatever you could, or just not hand in the assignment?
giantpinkbunnyhead
12-03-2005, 00:22
Now thats just retarded.

I'm all for pride, but not on an important assignment like that! Besides, what are the odds the professor is REALLY going to sit there and think "Gee, that guy sure is a dork. I can't believe how stupid he is." Odds are, the prof. is MORE likely to think that with him not even doing the assignment, then had he wrote a garbage paper.

I guess that guy didn't think about it... so to answer your question, he was thinking nothing. In which case, he got what he deserved.
group x
12-03-2005, 00:23
I would just write a crappy paper, but hey, i'm only 13.. :clap:
Moosashi
12-03-2005, 00:38
maybe he thought he could turn a better paper in late. That's what I usually end up doing when the going gets tough. If the paper's good enough, profs tend to be lenient about late penalties.
Johnny6
12-03-2005, 00:42
Did you recommend he get a Trapper Keeper?
Drosselmeier
12-03-2005, 01:25
So, you get 50 points out of a hundred for a pure, unadultered crap essay, and the highest you can score is 75 out of a hundred. What the hey kind of grading system is that?

And, yes... he's an idiot.
Ace_wanderer
12-03-2005, 01:52
I was having this discussion with a friend of mine. The system we have in New Zealand is very flawed. When you do an assessment you get given a grade out of 3 grades. Achievement,Merit or the highest Excellence when you apply for university they check your grade point average, and this is worked out by the number of credits the assessment is worth multiplied by (0 for Not Achieved,2 for A, 3 for M and 4 for E) added to all the other assessments then divided by the max marks possible.

My friend said that the university doesnt count NAs(Not achieveds) but Im not so sure about that. He said it would be better to get 4 Es and not do 1 paper which would count automatically as a NA and thus according to him he would have a better grade point average. I said Id rather get 4 Es and 1A and get extra credits.

Im not what its like in America but I would have done the assignment.

PS:Ive always hated NCEA(the system) because it doesnt test your knowledge rather it tests how well your english is and how well you can manipulate the answers.

I dont know what was wrong with the old system but it seemed fine to me, my age group was one of the Guinnea pigs to the system and its not doing too well, there are already problems with the assessments and the scholarship exams. 2 out of hundreds passed the Biology exam.
Lostprophet
12-03-2005, 03:06
His thoughts probably went something to this effect:

Limited time + some effort = bad grade.
No paper + no effort = worse grade.

Bad grade - worse grade < No effort - some effort.

Or something like that.

If, for example, you put the things on a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being a good thing, 1 being a bad thing, he prolly came up with something like:

BG (4ish) - WG (2ish) < No effort (9ish) - effort (5ish)

So we see that the disparity is significantly greater on the goodness scale when effort is required, as opposed to getting the bad grade.

P.S. The first impression thing is BS; not turning the paper in at all says a lot more about someone than turning in a crap paper.
DrunkCajun
12-03-2005, 03:13
You sure he doesn't intend to hand it in late? I used to do that all the time--go tell the prof "look, I screwed up, waited too long to start this, and want to give you my best work--I'll take your 10% off and hand it in a day late, just wanted to let you know". Then again, most of my profs only penalized one letter grade per day late.
ROMVS
12-03-2005, 03:44
You sure he doesn't intend to hand it in late? I used to do that all the time--go tell the prof "look, I screwed up, waited too long to start this, and want to give you my best work--I'll take your 10% off and hand it in a day late, just wanted to let you know". Then again, most of my profs only penalized one letter grade per day late.

Yup, I would have come off clean just like DrunkCajun. It would have been the wiser thing to do. We all know why we want good grades right? For me, it goes in this order, good grades then good diploma then good job then nice car and then nice house then the hottie babe to follow. If you build it... she will come. Works for me. :D
Steve_Kow
12-03-2005, 04:57
So, you get 50 points out of a hundred for a pure, unadultered crap essay, and the highest you can score is 75 out of a hundred. What the hey kind of grading system is that?

And, yes... he's an idiot.

You can get a 100/100 on the essay, but there are only 4 grades per semester: two essays, and two exams. Therefore, if one doesn't do an essay (gets a zero) the highest grade that is possible is a 75.
TurbulentTurtle
12-03-2005, 05:10
The idiot wasn't thinking. Worst case scenario: Even if he had a couple hours to do it, he should have pumped out the best his mind could come up with and handed it in. Get an OK mark.

Or he could have 'fessed up to the teacher and maybe the teacher would have cut him a bit of slack.
Amra
12-03-2005, 07:28
....(an "F" is 50 points out of 100 correct?).....


No.

An F can be a zero.

At least where I come from.
Drosselmeier
12-03-2005, 10:19
You can get a 100/100 on the essay, but there are only 4 grades per semester: two essays, and two exams. Therefore, if one doesn't do an essay (gets a zero) the highest grade that is possible is a 75.

Ahh... That sounds more reasonable.
Beowulf
12-03-2005, 10:43
I think he was stupid but maybe it's just me, I tend to do best under pressure. In my european anthropological theory class a few years ago we were given about 6 weeks for this ~20 page paper. These two girls I always sat with worked on it pretty much from the start. One ended up with something like 25 pages all nicely done and got a B- the other one around 20 pages and got a B. Here I come along with a 15 page paper that I wrote the night before and got an A. Damm they were pissed at me for getting better then them!! Best always to hand something in you never know what you might get.
Steve_Kow
12-03-2005, 13:32
No.

An F can be a zero.

At least where I come from.

Well, it can be--but chances are if you come up with something somewhat coherent you'll get at least some credit for it.
Necrolestes
12-03-2005, 19:34
It sounds to me like the guy is trying to rationalize his inactions ("I'd rather be thought of as a fool than prove it by writing a bad paper"). You're right, Steve, he should have at least tried to write a paper, poor though it probably would be.

I've done some last minute stuff rather than make up some excuse and with one exception, I've earned a serviceable grade (very low B's in most cases). Sometimes my best work comes when I'm under extreme pressure. Apparently, this axiom does not hold true for your classmate.