COMPLETE MORATORIUM ON ESSAY COMMENTS & more

As of this moment, I am DONE commenting on your college essays.

Between now and the day they are all passed back to you--on average it's going to take two weeks, three at the outside--I will not discuss ANY college essay with ANYONE.

You can still see me about your AP Practice Essays (and some of you really SHOULD), or other aspects of the class, but I will not talk about a paper that is in the process of being graded. I hope you can understand why that would be unfair. If you can't, ask someone who does.

Also, after much discussion and thought, I've decided that the vocabulary test should basically be retaken. I looked through the responses and was disappointed at how few were able to finish, not to mention how many were STILL sloppy and didn't follow directions after my repeated instructions. I said I wouldn't grade those, and I'm not joking.

So...here's the deal: EVERYONE will have until class time next MONDAY 11/3/08 to complete the vocab test. BUT...and I do mean BUT...you're going to have to print out your answers and bring them to class. This will no longer be an online test submission.

Why?

Because I'm not grading these. My TAs will. And since the tests are now being graded by TAs, who are instructed to simply follow the key, if your answer diverges significantly from the one on the key, it's just wrong...period. I certainly won't be giving you the benefit of the doubt. And yeah, they will also be instructed to grade brutally on sloppiness.

And if any answers are verbatim, the people who turned in the identical answers will be sent down for admin review. If you don't have the good sense to at least rewrite an answer you copied, you deserve to be nailed to the wall.

I'm very, VERY disappointed that some people didn't approach the task with honesty and integrity. But like I said, I believe in karma. If you do things dishonorably, at some point it WILL come back and bite you in the ass. Believe it. I've seen it.

If you haven't gotten the test yet, you can download it below:

VOCABULARY TEST 51-100