As I contemplate the arrival of exam-grading season, I’m considering a change in my approach. Exam grading is without a doubt unpleasant — it’s a relentless monotony, but the worst sort of relentless monotony in that it requires my full attention. As such, I’ve always deemed it prudent to rip the band-aid off all at once, resulting in one (relatively) quick sharp pain, followed by a correspondingly quick turn to scholarship. I always begin grading as soon as the exam is over, and I don’t stop until I’m done.
I can defend the “grade them all at once” approach by emphasizing the need to keep the other exam answers in mind as I grade, but I’m not sure how much that matters unless and until my short-term memory problems kick up a notch or two. In terms of my own sanity, though, I’m not sure if the “depart from civilization and enter the dark cave of exam grading” approach is very sensible. I’m beginning to suspect that grading exams for forty hours spread over three days is exponentially more unpleasant than grading exams for forty hours spread over two weeks. Have others experimented with both the “cave of darkness” and “remain in civilization and just dabble in the darkness” approaches to exam grading? If so, can you recommend one over the other, or does it all turn on a degree of psychoanalysis that calls for far more personal introspection than I’m interested in at this stage of the semester?
Posted by Rob Vischer on November 30, 2009 at 01:49 AM
Comments
I’ve always favored the cave-of-darkness approach, including for the reason you specify, but also for several others:
1. It allows completion and posting of grades much faster. My grades are usually posted two weeks after the exam, something that I think (or rather, hope) the students appreciate. 2. I suspect the grade-a-few-each-day approach takes more time cumulatively, because of the fixed cost of transitioning between activities. Even if you remember the other answers, there is the mental hassle of dragging yourself into the pile of exams and worked up in exam-grading mode, as well as practical preparation such as printing out the answer key. Even if these things take only 10 minutes, if you grade only two exams a day in a 40 person class, that is over three hours of additional time cumulatively.
Posted by: TJ | Dec 1, 2009 11:30:28 PM
Prof. V –
I did not intend to (nor do I think I did) deny that it is likely unpleasant for profs to grade. Any rational being would attempt to minimize the pain. But to analogize three days of intense work (or a few weeks of not-so-intense monotony) to a “spirit-crushing work experience” seems both hyperbolized and a little insensitive to those (not just lawyers) who in fact have such jobs. That’s it.
Posted by: John | Dec 1, 2009 10:16:06 AM
I try to rip the band-aid off. I’ll be grading 150 contracts and biz org exams, so 3 per day would get me in trouble. That said, I stop when I can no longer concentrate. I treat myself to Starbucks and junk food. I do remind myself that while monotonous, the whole job beats what I used to do for a living. Also, unlike almost everything else we do, it has a start and a clear finish. Last year I tore the band aid because a baby was due! I’m glad I did.
Another interesting dilemma, Rob, and one that I dread, is how to handle exam review with 75 first-years. I tell the folks above the median to relent unless they had a compelling reason.
Posted by: David Friedman | Dec 1, 2009 3:48:48 AM
It’s not working 13 hours a day. We do that for most of the year because – with a few qualifications – that’s pretty much what we want to do. But for our tender souls – so used to working so hard but mostly on what we want – maybe there is a problem brought on by the shock of having to do something that we actually would not do if we weren’t paid to do it. I’m still relatively new to this gig, but I think the better practice is to take the time within which the exams must be graded and even it out. But that assumes you can do it. Otherwise, I think Rob has it right.
Posted by: Rick Esenberg | Dec 1, 2009 12:21:50 AM
love the food analogy.
Posted by: anonymous | Nov 30, 2009 8:38:21 PM
In a completely different field (math and computer science) I’ve experimented with both approaches and am definitely a cave of darkness type. I suspect that if you examine your food habits you may discover your natural classification — if there are unpleasant items that must be eaten do you prefer to eat them all at once, or a little bit at a time?
One of the side benefits of the cave of darkness approach is the feeling of smug superiority that you can harbour when you’ve completed all your grading and your colleagues are still moaning about theirs.
Posted by: Michael Albert | Nov 30, 2009 2:35:06 PM
John — I feel, and have felt, the pain of being holed up (literally) in a dank basement reviewing countless boxes of mind-numbing docs. No law prof should expect sympathy from anyone. That said, exam-grading is the closest (followed perhaps by interminable faculty meetings) many law profs come to an actual spirit-crushing work experience, so best practices remains, in my view, a relevant topic. (And I don’t think 40 hours of work over three days is at all unusual for law profs who love what they do.)
Posted by: rob vischer | Nov 30, 2009 2:11:09 PM
This is an interesting comment, and I hate to sound . . . well, however it is that this is going to sound, but if one’s idea of “forty hours over three days” is truly the relative equivalent of “departing from civilization” into some dank cave, then law professors have it better than we thought. That’s 13 hour days – no picnic, but nothing terribly out of the ordinary for many practioners. An 8am to 10pm day, with a half hour for lunch and a few 10 minute brakes. Not unusual in the slightest.
And don’t get us started on “relentless monotony that requires full attention” during stretches like that.
Posted by: John | Nov 30, 2009 1:14:22 PM
I try to grade at least 3 a day, especially the first couple of days. I find that if I don’t, then I have to go back and re-grade the stragglers to make sure the scores are in line with the rest of the exams.
Posted by: Michael Risch | Nov 30, 2009 6:13:17 AM