Seasonal Blue Book Flood Deluges Fatigued Graders

During the week after final examinations, the burden of work falls on course graders. Many have more than 100 blue books to read--and less than a week in which to read them.

One of them, Paul A. Lee, the only grader in both Philosophy 135 and Humanities 141, has had to evaluate at least 200 blue books. "After 50 exams," he says, "It's pretty easy to tell how a student has done by paging through the exam instead of reading it word for word."

Government Grader

One of the two graders in Government 188, Ernest Spaeth 3G, who has had to mark 150 exams, agrees that "one can pretty well tell if an essay means anything--you don't have to read it word by word." Like many graders, he doesn't have time to comment on the exams.

An undergraduate who grades an upper level math course feels that his experience as a grader lets him understand what his section men experience. "If they read my exams early, they'll be fresh, and read carefully; if they read it after a hundred others, they'll be bleary-eyed and careless."

"Cram Psychology"

Lee plans to give his exams back to students, and wishes that he had time to comment on them. "Not to give the exam back," he says, "would increase the cram psychology" and the student should be able to see some evaluation of his ideas.

Some courses refuse to give exams back, although interested students may re-examine them. For example, Howard Mumford Jones, Abbott Lawrence Lowell Professor of the Humanities, keeps his Humanities 133 exams in case disputes arise, and emphasizes that the graders don't have time to write comments.

"You have to pass judgment sometimes," he says, "and the student is judged when he gets his grade back."