======= Date Modified 25 30 2010 11:30:14 =======
I need to have a rant.



I have just finished marking eighty three 3000 word essays. I was up until 3am last night and have been working on them for the past week (i'm slow). Today I had a meeting with my supervisor to moderate them and she said I was WAY too harsh. I literally had to add 5 marks to some of them. I don't know if it's because I went to a uni with stricter marking but some of the essays were appalling, I couldn't believe the marks there were getting. I'm talking third years that cannot write introductions or write in paragraphs and reference wikipedia. I am no genius but some of them were just awful and were passing!



Then I realised today (after just a few hours sleep) that I was supposed to submit a draft title and abstract for a conference. I have been invited to present at it and I can't believe I managed to forget to write it given that I got the email two weeks ago. So I wrote one and sent it through but it is seriously terrible. I'm mortified and now afraid to check my email!

All I want to do is go to sleep for about 3 days but I have a chapter deadline looming...

Hey Slowmo, you have my sympathies!! 83 3000 word essays is a helluva lot of work! And getting them done in a week is amazing - I could never mark more than 10 in a row before I needed a break. Can also relate to your supervisor's comments - sometimes I think PhD students can be too hard as markers. Don't forget, we're in the top 2% of academia, and so can't expect most, or even a lot, of students to write as we would. Academics have a more realistic experience of student abilities I think, and so expect a lower quality of work. I also think that academics let students get away with a lot tho and think they should be marked down for shoddy writing!!

Don't worry about the abstract. Write and present a brilliant paper and no-one will notice the abstract. Have a break, a good sleep, then tackle the chapter deadline...

I agree with Sue, doing 83 esssays in a week isn't slow! And a third year referencing wikipedia and unable to form paragraphs? You must have been doing your nut by the end. I guess it's all relative though, the uni has to pass so many people, and as Sue says, we're probably a little biased being phds.

Thanks for reading and taking the time to reply!

Even after putting all of the grades up by about 5 apparently I was still too harsh! The average mark was about 66 apparently. I feel quite mean but I didn't intend to be!

I got a response on the abstact and she just said that's excellent thanks so at least that went ok.

======= Date Modified 25 May 2010 23:47:27 =======

66 for an average is quite good, I would have thought. We had an MA class (ok, I know you were talking about undergrads, but still), where there were the 40 of us, 18 people failed and the rest of us didn't get great grades either, even though most of the people I talked to said that they thought their essays were good. Now that was harsh. 66 is good, IMO.

Congrats on the abstract!

I can't believe that someone would ever reference Wikipedia, particularly a 3rd year undergraduate student. It's all lies, lies, lies. I should know since, when I'm a bit fed up with my PhD, I spend my time making up outrageous lies about the lives of celebrities who've annoyed me on TV. Like 'Richard Bacon was born in India and has had several out of body experiences'.

Haha!

I know. That and the person who referenced 'yahoo answers' made me want to throw my computer out the window.

======= Date Modified 25 May 2010 23:59:33 =======

I thought so too. I think maybe the standards are just a bit lower here (although I [probably am a bit harsh too, I admit). Only one person on my degree course got a first class honours. Apparently it's very common to get a first here. I think I am starting to see why!