Coddled Students

Thanks to webraw for connecting me to the Frumpy Professor. He has a post about a sad encounter with a student of his:

The young lady told me the scores on her first five of six exams were: 42%, 47%, 55%, 41% and 54%. With only one 100pt test left and one 200pt final examination, I helped her compute her current score...... roughly 48% which is an "F". In our university, a "C" is the minimum acceptable grade for a major class, and that is set to be 73%. She did not need to be a rocket scientist to figure that out.... it is all clearly labeled in the syllabus. Then I had her mathematically determine what would happen to her grade if she received 100% on the sixth exam and if she received all 200 points on the final examination. Her scores would then be: 42%, 47%, 55%, 41%, 54%, 100% and 200pts for the final (100%). When she mathematically determined her score with that very unlikely scenario would be 67%...... a "D". She was devastated.... she cried, big, dramatic tears.... and sobbed about how she never got "nothing but "A"'s before." In my mind I kept thinking ...... HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY NOT KNOW HOW POORLY YOU WERE DOING? AND HOW COME YOU START TO SEEK HELP THIS DAMN LATE IN THE SEMESTER?

How could any student think "extra credit" would make up for those kinds of scores? How could a student have those kinds of scores and even entertain any notion of passing?

The Professor laments some of the students he gets and both what they expect and what they aren't prepared for. You can only hope students like these don't end up being your doctors, nurses, etc.