I started college about two years ago, roughly four years after I graduated high school.  Right from the get-go I dreaded math.  I was no good in math during high school and even before that; but then again I never did the homework or paid much attention in class.  Since I chose computer science as a major, it behooved me to get on track with my approach to mathematics.

I started at College of DuPage with math 0481 (Foundations of College Math I).  This was the class I tested into, a remedial math course consisting of basic algebra: linear equations and inequalities, systems of linear equations, factoring polynomials, etc.  It’s basically like first year high school algebra.  I did well in the class, but bombed the final and ended up getting a C (almost a B-, but not quite).  It didn’t matter what grade I got because 0xxx classes don’t factor into your GPA at COD. From there I took 0482, and then Precalculus I which is what I’m taking now for the second time…

Where the problem lies

I actually withdrew halfway through Precalculus I last semester because I fell behind and was too busy with work and other classes and commitments to catch up.  I felt that my grade was too low and that a “W” was better than an “R” (retake) on my transcript, so I made my move.

This allowed me to compare the same course taught by two different instructors.  The first instructor has taught at COD for years and has tenure; the other is a professor of math and computer science at Northern Illinois University and is part time at COD.  The latter professor I’m having a much better experience with because he grades based on knowledge of the concepts rather than a student’s ability to get through an entire page of computation without making an arithmetical error.

A good case in point was a quiz I took which was similar in both courses.  The quiz consisted of three questions involving matrices, the last one being a three part question.  The question was something along the lines of “State the coefficient matrix (A) the minor of element a11 (B) and use Cramer’s Rule to find the value of x (C).  The first professor I had marked the entire part C wrong because I made a simple addition error, but everything else was right.  I think she also marked part B wrong because my notation for the minor was somewhat off. I had demonstrated that I learned everything in that section correctly, but it was not recognized in terms of points on the quiz.

The professor I have now is almost the exact opposite. Sure, he marked me off a little for the errors I made, but also recognized that I had been studying and did the computations correctly with respect to the overall process.  This is in my opinion the way it should be, maybe with the exception of Ivy League and other renowned schools.

Why it matters

There are two reasons why this nitpicking matters a lot.  First and foremost, with the advent of computers and access to endless sources of information you are likely to catch your errors before they cause issues on whatever it is you may be doing – especially when it’s critical.  That being said, if you’re an engineer, a programmer, or any other professional who uses mathematics on a regular basis you will need to know how to execute the computations required for the task at hand.  You’ll also probably be using some type of mathematics program to help you out.  This program will point out errors just as a good Integrated Development Environment highlights syntax and does debugging for programmers. This is one reason why mathematics professors should be more lenient on grading with respect to trivial errors.

The second reason is because grades really do matter.  All too often it seems like professors treat student’s grades as if they were immaterial, but to the student who is trying hard to transfer, keep scholarships, not get beat by their parents, or whatever – they matter a lot.  Grading should be a metric on how well the student has picked up what was taught in the class they took.  It shouldn’t have to do with material learned in previous classes (where applicable), and it definitely should not have anything to do with the instructors overall impression of the student, or whether or not he agrees with the student’s opinion.

In summary I think the grading policies of many high school, college, and university mathematics instructors need an overhaul.  This nit-picky grading also applies to other disciplines, but its prevalence is in mathematics.  I feel like going into some other topics here, but they would be outside the scope of this post.