Things I need for marking

[nmg]

Rubber stamps reading:

• Answer the question
• Answer the question I asked this year, not the one I asked last year
• Irrelevant
• Waffling
• Irrelevant and waffling
• Reproduced without understanding
• Did you attend my lectures?
• Did you read any textbooks?

Ah well. Only another 150 scripts to wade through.

Comments

[tlrmx.org (from livejournal.com)]

Doctors hate unnecessary sick notes. Nobody over the age of 12 needs a note to say they were sick. If you actually send a student to their GP for a note, they are likely to send the student straight back to you, with a request for a fat cheque (insurance companies will pay for a sick note, why shouldn't you?). If you don't believe the student was sick, accuse them of lying directly rather than waste the time of someone who has real work to do. If you do believe them you don't need a note.

[makyo.livejournal.com]

This is standard departmental policy in both the departments (Mathematics and Economics) that I teach in: requests for deadline extensions, or other special treatment must be accompanied by some form of documentary evidence, such as a medical note (the University medical centre has a procedure whereby students can self-certify for minor illness, thus avoiding bothering the doctors unnecessarily), evidence of hospital appointment, death certificate, etc.

In this case, I was damned sure that the student was just trying it on because he'd not bothered doing the work in time - it wasn't the first or the last time this had happened.

In the event that the student was charged for a sick note (which policy isn't applied by the University medical centre) then I imagine we'd expect the student to cover the cost themselves.

You seem bothered that doctors not have their time wasted - this is entirely valid, and I sympathise entirely. But similarly, it's not fair for an idle student (happily, they tend to be in the minority here) to waste my time either.

The reasoning behind the policy is that if they were ill enough to have missed an assessed homework deadline then it was with something that they should have been to see the doctor about, in which case they can easily get (or may already have been given) a standard note to confirm this; if it wasn't serious enough for them to see a doctor, then it wasn't serious enough to stop them handing their homework in on time, and I don't see why it's anything to do with me.