Whole class of mostly graduating seniors probably bombed a final.
Basically, did final exam where it was worth almost 50% of our final grade. Only two people exited the exam room before the time was up, and the rest gathered outside the testing room afterwards and questioned if the outliers actually finished or if they gave up halfway through.
Based on the group discussion, we’re pretty sure the main problem was the formula sheet. A majority of its contents were derivations of the equations rather than the actual formulas we needed in the exam, and some of the actual formulas seemed to be missing. Furthermore, a large portion of the sheet was handwritten and very difficult to read (as we generally have trouble reading the professor’s handwriting normally). We probably should’ve brought the handwriting up to the professor beforehand though since the formula sheet was posted a week prior.
Furthermore, one multistep problem worth about 22% of the final used a variable/method not mentioned in class or the textbook in the first part, making calculation for the rest of the problem impossible. This probably could’ve been amended by including information on this variable in the formula sheet, but it was not present.
As for the class itself, it only consisted of derivations of the equations with no worked through examples with numbers. Therefore, a majority of homework assignments were mainly completed by filtering through textbook examples and communicating with fellow classmates. I’m not sure if this is standard for graduate courses, although the professor did mention that there wasn’t many examples done in class, so I guess no complaints should be made here.
Even one of the grad students and my undergrad friend who also has a 3.9 cumulative GPA affirmed the above points and questioned if they’d passed this test at all.
This is a grad level elective, but a majority of the people taking this course are seniors who are supposed to graduate in the upcoming weeks. I’m worried that this will end up tanking our GPAs so close to the “finish line” and we won’t be able to contest it.
This concern was proven previously as I tried contesting a different final exam scoring years ago. Despite emailing the department head the day of the final, I was told that it was a little late for any action by the time I got a meeting a week later. With that said, this previous final grading mishap was completely my own fault for mixing up the dates, but from the meeting it sounded like I could contest the professor denying a retest if I had brought it up sooner (even though I emailed the same day).
Now, the whole class is just praying for a curve. If we don’t get one, I’m pretty sure the everyone will be close to (if not actually) failing.