Hello, all.
I have been grading the exams from period 1. While not all of them are bad, a significant number of them are. I have students telling me that cosines are vectors, that the derivative of 1/t^2 is -1/(2t^3), and writing down meaningless expressions that seem to have no end. It is important for you to understand that I am NOT going to lower my standards for this year. The exam you took today is EASIER than that I gave last year, yet the results are probably worse than I have received on ANY exam that I have given at ANY time in my career in ANY of the more than 10 subjects I have taught - at two different high schools and two different universities, despite the fact that I taught the course in exactly the same manner that I have always taught it... the only difference lies in the fact that there were more questions in class in the past than there have been this year... I wonder if there's something to that...
This is UNACCEPTABLE. The exam was very prominently along the lines of the review I gave out and told you pointedly to study before the exam. Many of the errors I am seeing are the same ones I warned you about IN CLASS BEFORE THE EXAM.
Seriously, I need you to look into your hearts and decide whether or not you want to continue with this class. You will NOT succeed without trying, and you MUST ask questions in class if you intend to do well. If you are dual enrolled in college, this may be the first F on your college transcript. I am NOT KIDDING. The purpose of this class is to teach you multivariable calculus, not to coddle you and give you a good grade for effort (which many of you wouldn't deserve anyway). It is a college class taught in high school, and I intend to treat it as such. In college, you will find that many of your professors are not really interested in whether or not you pass, whether or not you come to class, or, basically, whether or not you exist. The job of a college professor is not really focused on teaching students; it is more focused on doing research to make the college look good to the outside world. Teaching is, in many cases, of secondary importance.
I am willing to offer test corrections and other ways of bringing your grade up, as this is a sort of 'transition class' between high school and college. I will not just fail you without notifying you of the need to increase your performance, as I have in college, but I also will not lower the standards of the course. This would reflect badly on our school, and indicate that 'multivariable calculus' taught here is not really multivariable calculus and that the students who have taken this course cannot be expected to know multivariable calculus. This is DEFINITELY not the impression that colleges have of our students right now, and I have no intention of changing that.
I expect you to KNOW BC calculus topics, whether you took the course or not, COLD. The lack of use of the chain rule and the misattention to detail (like missing differential elements in the integral, etc) I have seen on this exam are APPALING, and I WILL NOT STAND FOR IT. Many students were at a loss for expressions for the torsion and curvature, even though I ALLOWED A NOTE CARD. If you cannot find the time to make a respectable notecard for an exam in my class, then you should not be taking my class.
Look. It's not 'all over'. You CAN still redeem yourselves if you try, but YOU HAVE TO TRY. I know that there's all this lore about how hard my exams are and how there's no possible way you can pass one, but that is all BALONEY. This test was EASIER than the one I gave last year, and many people passed it last year. I have not yet calculated the average for first period (I am, frankly, afraid to), but I am sure that it will be lower than last year's. I am not sure how the other periods did, but if it's anything like what I've seen, then you all need to TURN OVER A NEW LEAF.
I will allow test corrections on this exam, though I haven't yet decided what they will be worth. They will not bring the average up to a respectable value, according to what I've seen, but they will be something. Please come and see me if you have issues with your particular exam, but please also understand that I have seen so many egregious errors in the last two hours that I am not sure that many of you will have a point. If, on the other hand, you want to see why the things you wrote were wrong or how the problem SHOULD go, then please come see me, either in tutoring, during lunch, after school, or ask questions during class once everyone has taken the exam. I will try to remember to open up discussion on this in class next week, as I am sure it will be valuable. Your questions will serve to remind me.
I REALLY DO want you to succeed, but 'success' is not just getting a good grade. It is DESERVING a good grade. I will let you know the averages once I am done grading all of the exams. I don't expect them to be pretty, but it is what it is.
drop a math class when you wanna be an engineer. good plan.
