In the Fall 2005 semester, I taught two regular sections and one honors section of the “introduction to information systems” class. I had about 200 students in each of the regular sections. Thus, I did not get to know each student individually.
In the class, I gave a multiple choice final exam and asked students to complete a bubble scantron sheet with their answers for the questions. After the exam, I took all the completed scantrons to the scanning center in campus for processing.
I reviewed the results, sent the final scores to the students, and posted the final letter grades for the course.
A couple of hours after I posted the final grades, I received a phone call from a student in the class. He asked me why he had a zero for the final exam. I told him I did not have an exam from him because he did not take the final. He responded that he knew he took the final and shared with me a couple of the questions from the exam. Neither of the questions were related to the topic of information systems.
I reviewed my stacks of scantrons to see if I had overlooked his exam. I could not find an exam from him. After I shared this information with him, he asked if there was anything he could do to fix his grade for the course. I told him he could come to my office and take the exam.
We scheduled a time and he came by my office an hour or so later to take the exam. While he was in my office, he insisted again that he took the exam. I asked him if he had seen me in the room when he took the exam. He said no, but he assumed I had sent a substitute. Somehow, he went to take the final in my class but ended up in the wring classroom and took a final for a different class!
I graded his exam with no penalty and sent him an email about his revised grade.
Several years later, I was sitting at a lunch for an event with multiple corporate sponsors and some other faculty colleagues. During the course of the conversation, the professionals were asking the faculty members about wild exam excuses and stories. I shared the story about the kid who missed my final exam.
After I shared the story, one of the ladies sitting at the table asked me for my name. When I told her, she exclaimed, “Dr. Jasperson, you are famous in my family. That student was my son.”
She then shared how her oldest son Daniel came to TAMU as a freshman and went to take a final exam but ended up in the wrong classroom and took another final exam. He called his mom in tears about his mistake. She convinced him to contact the professor and ask what he could do. He was convinced that he would fail the class and was not willing to contact me at first.
He was so relieved and excited when I allowed him to take the exam with no penalty.
His mother shared how the story about the professor who allowed a poor, scared freshman to retake a final exam was now part of their family lore and retold with reference at their family gatherings. She thanked me profusely for my kindness and my lenient approach to her son’s mistake.
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