. . . at the end of the semester than getting emails from students that say, “Please tell me what my current grade is so that I know what grade I need to get on the final exam.”
This is a slacker’s manifesto of scary proportions.
Don’t people realize that they are really antagonizing me with this? After getting 7 such emails in a row, I redid the final exam to make it much harder than I originally planned.
Clarissa's Blog 
Can you reply something like “Use a calculator”? I mean, if they have all the grades available, including what they are getting for participation.
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Of course, they have all the grades available. And it must be easier for them to calculate all of their own grades than for me to do this for 66 students.
As my mother says, laziness was born before them.
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If the instructor gives you your grades regularly throughout the semester (as I’m sure you did) then I don’t see why that type of e-mail would be necessary. And even if you’re not 100% sure what you’re getting for participation, you know how much you participated and you should be able to give a rough estimate.
Sorry you have to deal with this :(.
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Lol, that is why you get paid the big bucks. 😉
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There is no amount of money big enough to convince me to do more calculations than I already do. I suck at it.
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Clarissa, these slackers are total losers, but what about students that really put an effort and worked as hard as they only could? Do they deserve to deal with a much harder final?
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I’m thinking that smart people should appreciate the challenge. 🙂
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They have too much courage. I could not say this to my teachers. It’s absurd. They don’t have any respect what so ever.
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It is possible that some of them are looking for ways to calm themselves. It used to make me feel better to know that I only had to get, say, 50 on the final exam to pass. But knowing this did not stop me from trying hard and usually scoring much higher than the ‘necessary’ number. I hope this is what is happening, because the other implication is just depressing.
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Yes, I agree! Let’s try to remain optimistic.
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