Story By Benjamin Todd Eller on How to Become a Better Teacher

I was attending undergraduate school where I took biology. I actually did have a job when the final was given for this class. The professor did allow me to take another final unlike the one that his other students took. My final was far harder. My fellow students explained to me that that was a big mistake to miss the class. This professor had a reputation for giving extremely hard quizzes and finals if anybody actually missed a quiz or exam. Because his reputation became very well known, it was extremely rare that any student ever missed his quizzes or tests for this biology professor.

34% of Your Time: The Consequences of Prepared vs Unprerpared

Many professors including the ones that first get involved with Project Match often state that the techniques above are simply too much work. However, we took a survey of all the professors we have been teaching throughout the last eight years at the Los Angeles Community College District. They stated that the above techniques save them an average of 34% of their time. Yes, the techniques that have been discussed do take some time and effort. However, I want you to imagine how much time this would take:

• Students emailing long explanations as to why they were late

• Students requesting one on one time with you to make up for missed classes

• Students requesting your notes and requesting to make up tests

• Students going to the Dean or Head of the Department to complain you being unfair

Creating two sets of quizzes or two sets of tests to prepare for those students who are not going to show up on exam day can be time consuming. However, if you plan on being a professor for several years, the surveys strongly suggest that you need develop a reputation that if anybody misses your quiz or test, they will receive an a far more difficult evaluation. This will save you time in the future. Like the biology professor mentioned earlier, there are certain professors who simply have very few students who miss quizzes or tests. This is because students gossip about the kinds of professors that they have. This biology professor was known for truly making it very difficult for any student who misses exam days. Therefore, he hardly ever had to deal with the situation of students not showing up. The other thing that he did which was quite clever is that his first examination for students who show up on time was often multiple choice and fill in the blank tests. Those students who miss exam day were simply given one very tough essay question. The professor then of course could more subjectively grade this test in any way he saw fit. He of course would grade in a tough fashion. For any student that complained to the Dean or head of the department about his grading, the professor simply said: I gave the student a gift, I allowed him to make up an exam. We do recommend by no means that you give the exact same exam to students a week later. That is because students have been known to cheat. There was one professor who gave the same exam every year in a history class. The fraternities and sororities of the campus simply saved his tests and would circulate them around to lower classmates for sums of money. It is laborious to create new tests every single year, but it is our job to educate students and keep them from cheating.