For the week of final exams...

As I wade through bluebooks and papers and go about the painstaking task of calculating final grades for all of my students, I'd like to take a moment to again share some old (?) classics offering what passes for 'seasonal cheer' during exam week. First, I invite you to take a look at Tom Wayman's great poem Did I Miss Anything?, which I first shared in this space a couple of years ago. Second, here is something that I first shared around this time last year, the five stages of grading. Third and finally, here is something that I have not shared before, but which often appears in academic mailboxes at this time of year: a classic study by Mike Adams entitled "The Dead Grandmother/Exam Syndrome and the Potential Downfall of American Society." Aided by various mathematical calculations and graphs, Adams puckishly argues that "a student's grandmother is far more likely to die suddenly just before the student takes an exam, than at any other time of the year." Best wishes to all - especially college students and their grandmothers! - during this time of final exams. AMDG.