If you plan on missing, or have already missed a major, or final exam due to a university excused absence, contact me immediately, or as soon thereafter as you can, by email at lowery@tamu.edu. Otherwise I will assume that you do not plan on taking a make-up. To the university excused absence list you are permitted to add absences required for job interviews, university service such as Fish Camp, etc. For interviews you will have to show me a letter from the company stating the date that they would like to interview you, or at least come look me in the eye, and state the reason.
You must then email me with all of the following information no later than 48 hours after the original weekly major exam was administered:
The subject line MUST read as follows: Makeup exam CVENXXX, YYY, and your last name, where XXX = the course number (221, 446, …), and YYY = which quiz (A, B, …)
Inside the email:
Your name
What class you missed (CVEN 446, 444, 305, 322, whatever)
What Quiz you missed (A, B, C, D, … Z)
Your telephone number
Your email address
Why you will miss, or missed the exam.
It MUST be identical to that. Makeup exam with no space Makeup = one word. The reason for this is that I get hundreds of spam messages a day and I just won’t be able to find your email otherwise. When you aren’t included in voting on the makeup exam date and aren’t given a makeup exam, because I couldn’t find your request by sorting for Makeup exam, sorry.
I will then compile these emails into a single list and distribute it to everyone needing to take the make-up. You are responsible as a group for picking a time that we can all meet for the make-up. Failure to take the makeup will result in a zero for the exam. The makeup exam will be given as soon as possible after the original exam. Sorry, but getting an extra week to study for the exam is not fair to other students. Note that it is 100% your responsibility to inform me that you need a make-up exam. Many people miss the exam because they are dropping out of school or out of this class, and I simply cannot try and track you down at bad email addresses and inaccurate telephone numbers to find out why you missed the exam and whether or not you intend to take the make-up. It is your responsibility to contact me as listed above, and propose, as a group, when to take it.
There will be only one, single, unitary, binary, uno, mono, 1, 4/4, make-up given.
After you contact me I will list the names for everyone and how to contact them. After we all agree on a tentative date I will send the following email to everyone:
“As stated on the syllabus (this current page), the make-up exam has been decided by everyone who notified me that they intend to take it. If you neglected to properly let me know that you wanted to take the only make-up that will be given you are welcome to show up at this time. We will meet at my office (DLOB Room 705e) at the following date and time:”
Note a necessary change in the above – with the flu and other diseases really taking many of you down, there is just no way to tailor individual exams for everyone. Thus far I have over 10 of you who were on death’s door. Thus we will wait until after Spring Break and set a time and place for everyone to take a make-up. Be prepared for anything we have covered, since making one out just like the one you missed won’t be possible. If you missed more than one, we will just keep on giving you an exam, twenty minutes to work it, and move on the the next one until you get all or them made up.
Make-up Pop Quizzes (if we have any)
If you missed a pop quiz due to some reasonable excuse, go to the class notes for that day and print out the pop quiz you missed. That will tell me what material you should be examined over. You will note that there are often other pop quizzes scattered throughout the class that we used for practice, but unless you see one posted at the END of the class notes for that day, we didn’t have one. Bring me a copy of that exam. Write your name and the date the exam was given on it and I will make out another one for you to take. I will be the sole judge of reasonableness. Be sure to put your name, the fact that this is a make-up pop quiz, and the date it was given. Without this information it will not be graded nor recorded.
Questions Regarding Makeup Major Exams
I was just wondering what the protocol is for the make-up exam. How do you decide who gets to take it?
If you have a university excused absence, or even a reasonable excuse, I will usually let you take the makeup. See student rules for their definition of excused absences
Can I take it tomorrow?
No, it will only be given it once more, and everyone who missed it will have to take it at that same time.
Do you know when that will be?
I will contact everyone who missed the major as quickly as they respond, and they will set a time that we can all agree to. Note that it will be very soon after the regularly scheduled exam. Getting to study an extra week for the exam is not fair to other students. Please note that having another class at the proposed time won’t be a good reason for excluding that time. You already missed my class, so it won’t hurt you to miss someone else’s class to take an important exam.
Is it harder?
Yes, it is harder. At least everyone who takes a make-up says so. However, the people who took the regularly scheduled exam always say theirs was harder, so I really don’t know. I do know that there is safety in numbers – i.e. if everyone who took the regularly scheduled exam makes a 40, we know that the prof is the problem and the grades will probably be curved. However, if two students take a make-up and both make 40, there aren’t enough scores to statistically say who is to blame and the scores will probably not be curved.
Can I take it early?
No one is ever, under any circumstances, permitted to take it early. I tried that once with a straight A student, with who I would have trusted my life. After the regularly scheduled exam, I was surprised at how well everyone did. Even those who had been struggling did great. “What a great prof I am”, I thought, until a student complained that she was the only one in the class who hadn’t been let in on what was on the exam, and had made 40 points below the class average. I called in the student who took it early, he looked at me, I looked at him, and after about 60 seconds of silence he dropped his eyes and said “I only gave it to my roommate”, with who he would have trusted his life. A valuable life’s lesson learned for both of us.
Does this include the Final Exam?
Yes.
Since I am the only one planning to miss the exam, can I take it early?
See above.
What about pop quizzes missed due to an excused absence?
In that case, go to the class notes and print out the pop quiz page that you missed. Write the date it was given on it, and bring it to me after class with a blank piece of paper. I will make you out another pop quiz which may look like that or anything else we have covered. Picking up your friend from the drunk tank will not be considered an excused absence.