Teachers and Students React to Midterm Grades

Recently we interviewed several teachers and students about midterm grades. First, we spoke with some teachers to find out how they determine their students’ grades. One English teacher spoke with us as she wrote her midterms. “You know, I really can’t picture his face,” she explained. “But it looks like he got a B on his last essay and he has a nice sounding name, like he’s president or co-head of something. Not that only certain people can run those clubs. He just seems trustworthy, that white name. Sorry, that right name. I’ll give him an A-.” Nodding to herself, she carried on with her grading, entirely forgetting our presence.

“So far we’ve had a pop quiz on the names of historical figures as well as a major paper,” a history teacher explained. “I haven’t gotten around to grading their papers so their grade is based solely on the results of that quiz. My favorite student tragically got a 60% on the pop quiz because he forgot who William Jennings Bryan was. These things happen, of course. I decided to be as understanding as possible; I bumped him up to a C.”

One Art teacher commented, “I only give B+’s during midterms. I don’t think you need anything besides that. They know they’ll all get A’s in the end anyway.”

Finally, we interviewed a chemistry teacher. “This student has an 84.5% test average and has alright participation, which deserves a B. So I gave him a B.” We encourage readers to take this statement with a grain of NaCl, as this seems far too logical to be true.

Of course, not all students agree with these policies. “It’s kind of weird, when you look at my midterms across, they spell out B**** (some letters have been redacted). I didn’t even know I could get an I....” Another student noticed something similar. “It spells out DEADD, which is a little bit concerning.” Another student, upon reading his grades to us (“EEEEE!” he hollered before he showed us his 5 D’s) got taken away by the APPP (Academic Probation Protection Program) mid-interview.